Once installation is complete, FELIX is ready to use. You can start FELIX by either double clicking the FELIX alias icon on your desktop, or by selecting Start/Programs/Accelrys FELIX 2004/FELIX 2004.
On startup, FELIX looks for the felixrc.ini file in the installation directory. This file defines paths for FELIX to search to find macros, menus, data, and other files. You can always edit the felixrc.ini file to modify the individual directory paths.
The line numbers shown below do not appear in the felixrc.ini file, but are used here for reference. A line starting with # is ignored by FELIX.
The FELIX command env maps the environment variable ACCELRYS_FELIX to the user symbol biosym. This symbol is used to set the paths for the system files which are macros, menus, msgs, and schema.
The default paths for searching for the files you create (e.g., text files and data files) are set here. You can change this to whatever paths you would like FELIX to search for particular files. The example shown above let FELIX search all the files you create in the current working directory, which is usually the directory where you create the database file when you start up FELIX.
The paths for your local macros, menus, and other files are set here. By default, these paths are set to the system (or installation paths). If you want to modify a macro for your use, you need to place this macro in a directory (e.g., mymacros) and set the macpfx symbol to point to this directory. By default, the following strategy is used by FELIX to search for files (e.g., macros and menus):
1. Look in the user's current working directory.
2. Look in the directories pointed to by the macpf*, mnupf*, and similar prefixes.
When the specified file is found, the search ends and that file is used. This gives you more flexibility in editing and changing macros for your own use, while not affecting other users of FELIX.
You may define up to 10 directories to be searched for each file type. Keep in mind, though, that execution speed may be slowed by long search paths.
The init.mac file is the FELIX macro file that is executed when FELIX starts. It determines every detail of how FELIX starts. FELIX uses a two step search to find the init.mac file. FELIX first looks in the Start In folder for the init.mac file. If it is not found there, FELIX next searches the paths defined by the macpf1, macpf2, ... symbols in your felixrc.ini file (see previous section).
The init.mac file has the following commands that you may want to customize:
> def verify 0
This suppresses the macro debug mode. You can change the value to 1 or 2 to show macro file names and macro contents for debugging.
> def blkwht 0
This sets the background color of the spectral frames to be black. If you set it to 1, the background color will be white.
> cfg 32768 6
This sets six buffers for 1D data swapping, and each buffer as 32768 complex points.
> def maxdim 4
Initializes the maximum number of dimensions that FELIX will be able to handle.