HMC Igor Procedure File

The HMC procedure file adds the HMC menu to the Igor menubar, which makes a number of commonly needed operation much simpler to carry out. When all goes well, it is straightforward to install and to update. The basic steps are as follows (with details to follow below):

  1. Remove any older versions of the procedure file AutoUpdate.ipf.
  2. Download the current version of AutoUpdate.ipf and save it in the Igor Procedures folder inside your Igor Pro NUser Files
  3. (Quit and re)launch Igor Pro
  4. Enter Install("HMC") on the command line and press Enter.

Installation Instructions

The HMC menu uses another procedure file, AutoUpdate.ipf to monitor for new versions of Igor procedures and to update them automatically for you. The basic installation procedure for the HMC menu now is first to install AutoUpdate.ipf and then use a one-line command to install the HMC.ipf file.

  1. Open Igor Pro. If you have a version older than 7 installed, you can upgrade it following the instructions on the WaveMetrics website.
  2. From the Help menu select Show Igor Pro User Files (not Show Igor Pro Files). You should see a folder with several subfolders. The target folder is the one called Igor Procedures. You will be saving a file there in the next step, so make sure you know where it is.
  3. Quit Igor Pro.
  4. Right-click (ctrl-click) on this link and save the file AutoUpdate.ipf in the target folder that was opened in step 2. Make sure that your browser does not change the file extension from .ipf to .txt.
  5. Launch Igor Pro.
  6. In the command line, type the command Install("HMC"). Note that the string is case-sensitive; it won't work if you change the capitalization.

You should now have the HMC menu near the right of the Igor menu bar.

Troubleshooting

You may encounter an error when installing or upgrading the HMC menu that says something akin to name already exists as a function. If this happens to you, there is a simple remedy.

  1. Click the Quit Compile button.
  2. From the Igor Help menu select Show Igor Pro User Files.
  3. Delete any files whose names start with either AutoUpdate or HMC in either the Igor Procedures or the User Procedures subfolders.
  4. From the Igor Help menu select Show Igor Pro Folder.
  5. Delete any files whose names start with either AutoUpdate or HMC in either the Igor Procedures or the User Procedures subfolders.
  6. Quit Igor Pro.
  7. Launch Igor Pro.
You can now follow the installation instructions given above and all should be well.

Unavoidable Gibberish

Once you have installed AutoUpdate.ipf and HMC.ipf, each time you launch Igor (which loads both file), Igor will check with this server to see if an updated version of either is available. If it is, it will ask if you'd like to update. Unfortunately, if you don't have a network connection, Igor will issue an error. I have tried to trap for this, but cannot intercept the error before the warning is posted. Just ignore it.

Detailed information about the HMC menu