Getting Started with HGSYSTEM


Installing HGSYSTEM on your system

HGSYSTEM requires an IBM compatible 486 (DX2/66 or faster recommended), DOS 3.3 or later, 4 MBytes of memory and 2.5 MB of free disk space. HGSYSTEM uses file based input and output and has no graphical user interface. The user has to supply a text editor in order to prepare the input files and graphing tools in order to display the results if so required.
Currently version 3.0 of HGSYSTEM can be downloaded from the previous page as either a self extracting archive or a zipped file. In either case the software should be expanded into a directory called C:\HGSYSTEM.
Once the software is extracted you will need to edit your PATH environment variable to include ;C:\HGSYSTEM (note make sure you include the semi-colon).

On MS-Windows 3.1 and DOS machines the PATH environment variable is found in the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Once this file has been edited the machine will need to be re-booted for the change to take effect.

On MS- Windows 95/NT machines the PATH variable can be found under settings | control panel | system | enviroment. A new command window will need to be spawned for the changes to take effect.
The User Guide is a fairly concise guide to running HGSYSTEM modules, however, this page gives details of getting the software running and answers some frequently asked queries.

The HGSYSTEM package consists of several independent simulation models for specific atmospheric dispersion situations. Some of the modules calculate release (or source) terms, others simulate different dispersion scenarios like evaporating liquid pools, jet dispersion and heavy gas dispersion. Although all o fthe HGSYSTEM models can be run individually, it is often quite useful when simulating a complete dispersion scenario (source term calculation, near-field dispersion simulation and far-field dispersion simulation) to run models consecutively. HGSYSTEM offers several combinations of consecutive model runs. Each model is run separately, but information generated by one model can be communicated to a following model using so-called link files. See Chapter 4 of the user guide on running HGSYSTEM scenarios.

In order to get going on HGSYTEM create a work directory for running your models. This could be C:\HGSYSTEM\WORK. Try running one of the models, by copying one of the standard run files. For example to run the AEROPLUME model copy the aeroplume input file C:\HGSYSTEM\WORK. Once this file has been edited the machine will need to be re-booted for the change to take effect.