Installing PC ARC/INFO 3.5.1 in Windows 95


System Requirements and Other Considerations

PC ARC/INFO requires a 486 computer or higher with 4 MB of RAM and Windows 3.1 or above (including 3.11, Windows NT, and Windows 95). Although a mouse is not required, it is strongly recommended.

In Windows 95, neither CONFIG.SYS nor AUTOEXEC.BAT need to be present when installing PC ARC/INFO. If the "SET TEMP=" statement is present in AUTOEXEC.BAT, you may remove it: Windows 95 will automatically set the TEMP environment variable to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP.

After installation, the software occupies about 36-38 megabytes of hard disk space; if fully unpacked (discussed later in this article), it occupies about 62-64 megabytes. About 12 MB of disk space will be freed if, after unpacking the modules, you delete the ZIP files in the %ARC%\PROGRAMS directory. If you do not plan to project your data, about 7 MB of disk space may be freed by deleting %ARC%\PROGRAMS\PROJECT.EXE and the %ARC%\DATUM directory.

If installed, the optional sample data will occupy an additional 170 KB - 5.2 MB.

Prior to installing 3.5.1, you may wish to rename the old %ARC% directory, or else back up any custom files (SML programs, symbolsets, color definition files, etc.) that you wish to keep before deleting the old %ARC% directory. If you are upgrading from 3.5, you will want to note your serial number so that you can re-enter it. If you keep a 3.4.2 SCRMAN program item in your STARTUP program group, you may remove it; you should also remove ARC-related environment variables prior to installing 3.5.1:

SET ARC=...
SET CGIPATH=...
SET NOLOG=...
SET SCRMAN=...
SET SHARE=...
SET WKSP=...
SET WKSPDIR=...
PC ARC/INFO's online help contains a number of installation troubleshooting tips. If, after installation, the application will not execute properly, search the help file's index for "Install".


Installing 3.5.1

Click the START button, then RUN..., and enter D:\SETUP.EXE (where D represents the drive letter for the installation diskette or CD-ROM), and click the OK button. The installation program will ask you for the following information:

  1. Your name, company, and serial number -- this information will appear each time PC ARC/INFO is executed.
  2. The components you wish to install:

    PC ARC/INFO 3.5.1 Setup

  3. The directories in which the software and/or sample data are to be installed.
  4. Whether you wish to configure your own environment variables or use the default (see "Checking the Configuration" below). If you choose the custom option, you will be able to set your command logging, scratch workspace, and default startup workspace.
  5. Whether you wish to add shortcuts to the Start Menu (to add the program group at a later time, run WINSETUP.EXE, which resides in the %ARC%\INSTALL directory).
Finally, after checking and/or modifying CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, the program will ask if you wish to restart the computer.

[NOTE: You may find the positions of shortcuts and folders on the desktop to be reset after rebooting.]


Checking the Configuration

PC ARC/INFO will modify CONFIG.SYS to increase the environment space available to COMMAND.COM:

shell=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /p /e:4096
In Windows 95, you may remove this statement, as the application may be set to allocate environment space as necessary.

In addition to adding the PC ARC/INFO command path (e.g., C:\ARCEXE\CMD) to the PATH statement, the following environment variable definitions will be added by default to AUTOEXEC.BAT (see Environment Variables below for further discussion.):

SET PATH=C:\ARCEXE\CMD;%PATH%
SET ARC=C:\ARCEXE
SET WKSPDIR=C:\TEMP\
SET WKSP=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SET NOLOG=YES
SET CGIPATH=C:\ARCEXE\CGI
If your TEMP directory is set to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, you may wish to edit WKSPDIR to match it. Upon installation, the program group should look something like this:

The PC ARC_INFO 3.5 Program Group

If you have previously installed a license of PC ARC/INFO 3.4.2 which uses the older set of icons, the icons for 3.5 may not be updated, even if 3.4.2 has been removed: this happens when the icon cache has not been flushed. If that is the case, you can update the icons by copying the icon files (*.ICO) in the %ARC%\CMD directory to ones with different names (for example, ARCW.ICO to ARCW2.ICO) and relinking them to the program group entries:

Linking to a Renamed Icon

[TIP: You may have noticed that the shortcut arrows are disabled in the Program Group illustration. If you have not learned this trick already, the procedure is as follows:

  1. Click the START button, then RUN..., and enter REGEDIT.
  2. In REGEDIT, click + at the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder.
  3. Scroll to LNKFILE and click on the folder.
  4. Click the ISSHORTCUT entry and then click the EDIT | MODIFY menu entry. If Service Pack 1 is installed, click on the entry with the right mouse button and choose "Rename".
  5. Replace IsShortcut with _IsShortcut and click the OK button.
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 to modify the PIFFILE folder
  7. Exit, restart the computer, and the arrows are gone!
Note that you will need to be more careful when deleting a shortcut to be certain it really is one and not a file. You can double-check its description in Explorer or open its Properties to find out for sure.]

After installation, the PC ARC/INFO text window will display a generic "MS-DOS" icon. You can change it to the ARCW icon by bringing up the text window's Properties (click the right mouse button on the title bar) and changing the icon to %ARC%\CMD\ARCW.ICO as in the example above.

Other text window properties you should verify include the following:

  1. The CLOSE ON EXIT checkbox should be checked.
  2. ADVANCED: all three checkboxes at the top should be unchecked.
  3. MEMORY: all conventional and XMS settings should be set to AUTO.
  4. BACKGROUND: ALWAYS SUSPEND should be unchecked.
Also, you may or may not want to show the window's toolbar or restore window settings on startup, and you can play around with font settings to achieve the optimal appearance for your monitor.

[TIP: Should you get into the habit of invoking all PC ARC/INFO modules from the ARCW prompt, you may want to put a copy of the ARCW shortcut on the desktop.]


Environment Variables

By default, the installation program automatically sets several environment variables:
SET ARC=C:\ARCEXE
SET WKSPDIR=C:\TEMP\
SET WKSP=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SET NOLOG=YES
SET CGIPATH=C:\ARCEXE\CGI
The ARC variable specifies the root directory of PC ARC/INFO software and components. The WKSPDIR variable specifies the location of a workspace directory for temporary files; note that the variable is optional, the default location being "C:\", and that the pathname must end with backslash (\). The WKSP definition reserves some environment space for PC ARC/INFO; each individual session will redefine a unique value to locate system files.

[NOTE: The %WKSP% location for each PC ARC/INFO session will be a subdirectory named T$ARC0 through T$ARC9. If a session is aborted without executing the QUIT command (for example, if the system reboots), its subdirectory will not be removed. Should such occur, you will want to delete that directory and all its files; not only does it take up unnecessary disk space, but it reduces the number of simultaneous PC ARC/INFO sessions that can take place.]

The NOLOG variable is used to turn off command logging. If this variable is not present or is set to a blank, PC ARC/INFO will maintain a log file in each workspace and coverage to record command activity. This is most convenient to document the history of a coverage should no other metadata be maintained. Nonetheless, log files do eventually eat up quite a bit of disk space.

The CGIPATH variable is required if CGI drivers are to be used (see the section "CGI Drivers and Non-Windows Plotters" in Printers and Plotters). Typically, if you only use the PC ARC/INFO Windows extensions, you will not need CGI drivers. If, however, you wish to use a DOS module with a graphic display or metafile driver, you will need to have the variable set.

[TIP: The ARCSETUP.EXE program, which resides in the %ARC%\INSTALL directory, generates two sample files (ARCEXE.SYS and ARCEXE.BAT) which illustrate changes to be made to CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.]


Setting a Default Workspace

Initially, the PC ARC/INFO program items are set to execute in directory C:\. If you wish to change the default workspace, click on an icon, bring up its properties, and change the startup directory. You may also make additional copies of the program items to start in different directories.

 Changing the default workspace (Win
95)


UNPACKing the Modules

To save disk space, all PC ARC/INFO modules are kept in compressed archives and extracted as needed. Unfortunately, this also slows down execution time. If you have adequate hard disk space, you should use the UNPACK command to extract the modules:

Usage: UNPACK [COMMAND] [arc_command]
       UNPACK [MODULE]  [ARCEDIT / ARCPLOT / DATACON / NETWORK /
                         OVERLAY / STARTER]
       UNPACK [COVER]   [cover]
This command is executed from the ARCW prompt. For example:

   UNPACK MODULE STARTER
When completely unpacked, PC ARC/INFO takes up about 62-64 MB of hard disk space. About 12 MB of disk space will be freed if you subsequently delete the ZIP files in the %ARC%\PROGRAMS directory.

You may unpack all modules at once by running UNPACKM.SML at the ARCW prompt:

   &r unpackm

Return to ArcTips page