GX_Simulator may be installed on Windows, Unix, or MAC platforms. The predefined radiation transfer packages used by GX_Simulator to compute the emission in different wavelength ranges may be located in platform dependent subfolders ( named windows or unix ) under the ~gx_simulator/userslib distribution folder.

Windows

The radiation transfer IDL routines may call precompiled external dynamic link libraries (DLL) compiled for x32 or x64 architecture. If this is the case, such IDL routines are either located in predefined ~/windows/32bit or ~/windows/64bit subfolders, and/or have a _32 or _64 suffix attached to their file names. The user is responible for selecting the radiation ransfer package compatible with the OS achitecture.

Mac or Unix

For the MAC or UNIX  users, beside the IDL wrapper , the "unix" subfolders contain the source codes needed to compile the platform specific shared objects called by the corresponding wrapper.

The first time after installation when an IDL wrapper located in a "unix"  subolder is selected by the user, GX_Simulator attempt in the background to issue a make command in order to produce the required shared object. For this operation to be successful, the users must have the administrative rights needed to create new files in the gx_simulator distribution folder. Alternatively, the user may issue "sudo make" external commands in all "~/gx_simulator/../unix" subfolders prior the first use of the GX_Simulator package.