How to Install or Update Plaque Simulator

The installer disk image

To install or update Plaque Simulator, obtain an install CD from a licensed distributor or download the most recent version of the Plaque Simulator installer from the http://www.eyephysics.com/PS/Index.html web site and expand the .zip file into a disk image (.dmg) file. Open the .dmg file (e.g. by double clicking it). A disk image containing the installer will appear on the desktop. Launch the program named PS Install.app from the disk image.

PS6InstallFolder

The installer app

When you run the Plaque Simulator installer, it will place files in various places on your computer. A folder named Plaque Simulator Folder
PS6Folder150x150 that contains the application and its support files will be created (or updated) in the OSX root level Appplications folder.
ApplicationsFolder150x150

A folder named Plaque Simulator Patients
PS6PatientsFolder150x170 will be created (or updated) in the Documents folder
DocumentsFolder150x150 of the currently logged-in user's home folder.
OSXUserFolder150x170

PS6Installer


What goes where

The recommended organization of Plaque Simulator on your computer is illustrated below. The application resides in the Plaque Simulator Folder which is located in the root level Applications folder which is in turn located in Macintosh HD which is the root level (yellow arrow) of your bootup hard drive. In the illustration below the full path to the application would be Melvin Astrahan's MacPro:Macintosh HD:Applications:Plaque Simulator Folder:Plaque Simulator.app. This path is also revealed by the popup menu in the Plaque Simulator Folder window. Plaque Simulator stores some user specific preference settings as files in Macintosh HD:Users:username:Library:PSPreferences illustrated by the blue arrows.

Patient related files should be stored in the Plaque Simulator Patients folder which is in the logged-in user's home Documents folder (green arrows). The installer will create the Documents folder if one does not already exist. This organization allows any user to run the application, but only the logged-in user has access to patient folders. It also allows different preference settings for each user.

When starting a new patient plan, create a folder for the patient somewhere in Plaque Simulator Patients and name it for the patient. Organize all files associated with that patient in that patient specific folder. Folders whose names are enclosed in () are ignored by Plaque Simulator when it parses through folders looking for patients and plaques and physics files.

WhatGoesWhereMavericks

MacOSX also includes a program launching convenience called the "Dock", which provides quick access to the commonly used programs or folders of the logged-in user. In the example above an alias to the Plaque Simulator application is seen towards the left side of the dock. You simply drag an application to the dock when you want to create a shortcut to the application.


About the Plaque Simulator Data folder

The Plaque Simulator Data folder MUST be located in the same folder as the application. The data folder organizes the support files required by Plaque Simulator. When Plaque Simulator launches it looks for these support files in the the data folder. The contents of folders whose names are enclosed in (), such as (User Guide), are skipped during this process. For example, when Plaque Simulator launches we want it to find Physics and SQL database files, but we don't want to waste time parsing through hundreds of megabytes of (User Guide) files.

PS6DataFolder150x150
PS6DataFolder

About the Plaque Simulator Patients folder

The recommended location for the Plaque Simulator Patients folder is in the Documents folder of the logged-in user. When Plaque Simulator launches it looks for patient files in the patients folder. The contents of folders whose names are enclosed in (), such as (Old Patients), are skipped during this process. For example, when Plaque Simulator launches we want it to find Current Patients and maybe Recent Patients files, but we don't want to waste time parsing through megabytes of (Old Patients) and (Tutorials). All patients are available for manual loading via the Open File... and the database searching Find Patient... file menu items.

PS6PatientsFolder150x170
PS6PatientsFolder

MacOS 13 (Ventura) If you receive an alert that PS is broken upon the first launch of PS6 following installation or update, please cancel and in Ventura's Privacy and Security settings click the Open Anyway button. PS6 should launch normally thereafter. You may also be able to control-click the app icon, then choose Open from the shortcut menu. Click Open. The app is saved as an exception to your security settings, and you can open it in the future by double-clicking it just as you can any registered app. VenturaOpenAnyway