PSICAT (Paleontological Stratigraphic Interval Construction and Analysis Tool) is a desktop application for capturing Initial Core Description (ICD) data.
Captured description data can be exported in a variety of forms:
- tabular data (Excel)
- diagrams in common vector (PDF, SVG) and raster formats (BMP, JPG, PNG)
- stratigraphic column diagram comprising a user-defined set of core sections
PSICAT is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
Pre-built Windows (.exe) and Mac (.app) applications are provided. See the releases page for downloads.
On Linux systems, PSICAT can be built and run from source code using the "For Developers" instructions below. If you'd rather not build from scratch, the Windows build runs on Linux under WINE.
These video tutorials describe basic and more advanced features of PSICAT. Please note: As of version 1.2.0, PSICAT has changed sigificantly. Most notably, several new column types and corresponding schemes have been added. Much of the video tutorial content remains relevant, but portions may be out of date. New video tutorials will be produced when PSICAT 1.2.* features are refined and become more settled. You can always contact the CSD Facility if you need support using PSICAT.
If you're having trouble running PSICAT on a Mac, check this troubleshooting page.
If you're still having trouble, think you've found a bug, or have other questions/comments, please use the feedback form and we'll respond as soon as possible.
PSICAT was originally developed by Josh Reed, in partnership with CHRONOS and ANDRILL.
Since 2014, the CSD Facility has continued maintenance and development of PSICAT.
Getting PSICAT up and running from source code is challenging, but it can be done! Please contact the CSD Facility if you need assistance.
The following instructions are for a macOS or Linux environment. Binaries for both Mac and Windows can be built on a Mac or Linux machine.
PSICAT is based on version 0.2 of the Griffon Framework, which is really, really old. Because it's impossible to find in the wild as of October 2021, a complete Griffon 0.2 package has been included in the bootstrap
dir.
Java 6 is required to compile source files, and for the Griffon command-line interface to function. Linux users can download JDK 6 here.
The packaged Mac (.app) and Windows (.exe) binaries run against a bundled Java 8 runtime. A Mac/Windows Java 8 runtime must be provided by the user. We use the Temurin binaries (formerly AdoptOpenJDK) in official releases.
A Gradle 6.5.1 wrapper is included.
Open a Terminal window for Griffon use.
Add the Griffon 0.2 bin
directory to your path.
Set the JAVA_HOME
environment variable to your JDK 6 Contents/Home
directory, adjusting for your JDK 6 path if needed:
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
Open another Terminal window for Gradle use. A separate shell is necessary because Gradle 6 requires a JAVA_HOME
of Java 8 or greater.
Set the JAVA_HOME
environment variable to your JDK 8+ Contents/Home
directory.
Point Gradle to your JDK 6 path:
In coretools/build.gradle
, update the javaHome
and javaExecutablesPath
vars to reflect your JDK 6 install.
Required to build standalone applications. Copy your Java 8 Runtime into coretools/package/java_runtime/mac
and/or coretools/package/java_runtime/win
as appropriate for your target platform(s).
In the root coretools
directory, ./gradlew build
to build supporting coretools
Java and Groovy libraries.
In both the Gradle and Griffon shells, move to the PSICAT directory: cd tools/PSICAT
In the Gradle shell, copy coretools libaries into lib
dir: ../../gradlew copyDependencies
In the Griffon shell, build and launch the PSICAT application: griffon run-app
The resulting JARs are placed in the staging
directory. The packageMac
and packageWin
Gradle tasks depend on those JARs.
Follow the same steps for SchemeEditor:
Both shells: cd ../SchemeEditor
, then
Gradle shell: ../../gradlew copyDependencies
, then
Griffon shell: griffon run-app
In coretools/build.gradle
, set the project.ext.javaRuntimeFile
var to the name of your
Java 8 runtime file/dir, e.g.
project.ext.javaRuntimeFile = 'jre8'
For those building both Mac and Windows applications, we recommend using the same runtime file name for both platforms. Otherwise, the name will need to be updated when building for a different platform.
In the Gradle/Java 8 shell, move to the tools/PSICAT
directory.
Generate a PSICAT Mac .app bundle: ../../gradlew packageMac
The PSICAT.app bundle is created in tools/PSICAT/dist/mac
.
Move to the tools/SchemeEditor
directory and generate that .app bundle: ../../gradlew packageMac
The SchemeEditor.app bundle is created in tools/SchemeEditor/dist/mac
Finally, create a distribution-ready package including stock lithology and symbol schemes.
In the root coretools
directory: ./gradlew packagePSICATMac
The resulting package is created in dist/mac
.
Follow the steps in Mac, replacing Mac
with Win
in Gradle tasks e.g. packageWin
and packagePSICATWin
. The generated PSICAT.exe and SchemeEditor.exe will be found in their respective /dist/win
directories.