Installation

Vortex needs no installer. Nothing is written to the registry, nothing needs elevation, and no separate Java installation is required — the wizards carry their own runtime.

Releases are on the releases page. Pick the download for your platform:

Platform	Download
Windows	vortex-<version>-win-x64.zip
Linux	vortex-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
macOS	vortex-<version>-macOS-x64.dmg

The layout inside changed in v1.0.0, so where you find the programs depends on which release you have.

v1.0.0 and later

The wizards are built with jpackage, and each one is a launcher beside the files it needs.

Windows

1. Download vortex-<version>-win-x64.zip.
2. Unzip it somewhere you can write to, for example C:\Programs. Avoid unpacking into Program Files, which needs elevation.
3. Open the vortex-<version> folder.
4. Run the wizard you want by double-clicking its executable.

The executables sit at the top of the folder, one per utility:

vortex-<version>\
    vortex-ui.exe                  the launcher for all of the wizards
    importer.exe
    clipper.exe
    calculator.exe
    gap-filler.exe
    grid-to-point-converter.exe
    image-exporter.exe
    normalizer.exe
    sanitizer.exe
    time-shifter.exe
    time-step-resampler.exe
    app\                           jars and native libraries
    runtime\                       the bundled java runtime

Linux

1. Download vortex-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz.
2. Extract it: tar xzf vortex-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz.
3. The launchers are in vortex-<version>/bin.
4. Run one, for example ./vortex-<version>/bin/importer.

macOS

1. Download vortex-<version>-macOS-x64.dmg.
2. Double-click it to mount the disk image.
3. Drag Vortex UI into your Applications folder.
4. Eject the disk image.
5. Open Vortex UI from Applications, and pick the wizard you want.

Two things differ from the other platforms.

macOS gets a single application rather than one launcher per wizard. vortex-ui.app opens a picker for all of them. The individual launchers do exist inside the bundle, at vortex-ui.app/Contents/MacOS, if you would rather start one directly from a terminal.

The application installs as vortex-ui.app with no version in its name, so a second release replaces the first rather than sitting beside it. To keep more than one version, rename the existing bundle before dragging in the new one.

macOS may refuse to open the application the first time, because the build is not notarized. Right-click it and choose Open, then confirm, which records an exception for that copy. Opening it by double-click without doing that first can report the application as damaged, which is the same refusal worded unhelpfully.

Before v1.0.0

Releases up to and including v0.14.1 put the programs in a bin directory beside a lib directory of jars and a bundled jre.

Windows

1. Download vortex-<version>-win-x64.zip.
2. Unzip it somewhere you can write to.
3. Open vortex-<version>\bin.
4. Run the wizard you want by double-clicking its executable, for example importer.exe.

Linux and macOS

1. Download the archive for your platform and unpack it.
2. Open vortex-<version>/bin.
3. Run the shell script for the wizard you want, for example ./importer.sh.

If a script will not run, it may have lost its executable bit in transit. chmod +x *.sh in that directory fixes it.

Scripting

None of the above is needed to script against the Vortex API, but the environment differs by release and platform. See the Jython Scripting Guide.

From v1.0.0 the bundled runtime has no java launcher, so scripting requires a Java 17 or later installation of your own. Earlier releases shipped a full JRE that could be used instead.