Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab

Menu

MGET Download and Install

Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools is Free/Open Source software which depends on Microsoft Windows and Python.

If you use MGET in your project, please cite our papers in your publications. Your citations help us continue to provide MGET as free software. Thanks for your support!

MGET 0.8a79, released 8 September 2023

Platform Python Compatible With Download
Microsoft Windows, 32-bit or 64-bit 2.4 x86 ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 MGET-0.8a79.win32-py2.4.exe
  2.5 x86 ArcGIS Desktop 9.1, 9.3, 9.3.1 MGET-0.8a79.win32-py2.5.exe
  2.6 x86 ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 MGET-0.8a79.win32-py2.6.exe
  2.7 x86 ArcGIS Desktop 10.1-10.8 MGET-0.8a79.win32-py2.7.exe

R Compatibility

 

MGET 0.8a78 is compatible with R 2.5 – 4.1.13. MGET 0.8 is only available as a 32-bit program and therefore will not be compatible with R 4.2.0 or later, because starting with 4.2.0, R will only be released as a 64-bit program. If you need to use an MGET tool that accesses R, please install R 4.1.13.

What about ArcGIS 64-bit Background Geoprocessing, ArcGIS Pro, and Python 3.x?

Because MGET 0.8 is only available for 32-bit Python, it will only work with ArcGIS Desktop (i.e., the 32-bit ArcMap and ArcCatalog applications). It is not currently available for any 64-bit version of Python, any version of Python 3, or operating systems other than Windows. We anticipate that we will eventually release a version of MGET for 64-bit Python 3.x that will be compatible with ArcGIS Pro. However, the work required for this is nontrivial. In early 2023, we were approached by a funder who was willing to underwrite this effort. Discussions are ongoing and we hope to have an update on this initiative later in 2023.

Copyright and License

Except where otherwise noted, Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools is Copyright © 2008 by Jason J. Roberts. MGET is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. MGET is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License (available in the file LICENSE.txt) for more details.

Installation Requirements

Minimum requirements:

  • Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or a later version of Windows, including Server releases and 64-bit editions
  • 32-bit Python 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7
  • Python for Windows Extensions (the Python pywin32 package)

Optional requirements for full functionality:

Installation Instructions

These instructions assume you have installed ArcGIS Desktop and the ArcGIS setup program installed Python (it does so by default). If you are a Python expert and plan to use MGET without ArcGIS, you can ignore the steps relating to ArcGIS. For help with installation, please email mget-help@nicholas.duke.edu.

Step 1: Log on to your computer as an administrator

Although you must be logged on as an administrator to install MGET, you do not need to be an administrator to run the tools once they are installed.Installation Instructions

Step 2: Close all ArcGIS applications

Close all instances of ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcGlobe, etc.

Step 3: If you have ArcGIS 10.1 and earlier, install the latest ArcGIS service pack (optional)

You can skip this step if you do not have ArcGIS, or if you have
ArcGIS 10.2 or later. If you do have ArcGIS 10.1 or earlier, installing
the service pack will improve the reliability and performance of the
MGET tools that require ArcGIS.

  • Click Start, All Programs, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Administrator (if you have ArcGIS 10.0 and later) or Desktop Administrator (if you have ArcGIS 9.3.1 and earlier).
  • In the pane on the right side, note the service pack number that appears right after the words “ArcGIS Service Pack:”

  • Close the Administrator.
  • Open ESRI’s Patches and Service Packs web page.
  • Find the most recent Service Pack for your version of ArcGIS. If the most recent service pack is newer than the one you have installed (or you don’t have one installed), download and install it.

Step 4: Install the pywin32 Python package.

MGET requires that the pywin32 Python package be installed for your
version of Python. Pywin32 is also known as the Python Extensions for
Windows. You must install the version of pywin32 that matches the
version of Python that you will be using for MGET. Typically this is the
version of Python that ArcGIS installed for you.

If you have ArcGIS 10.1 or later, this is Python 2.7. To download pywin32 for Python 2.7:

If you have ArcGIS 10.0 or earlier, you have Python 2.6 or earlier. You must download this from a different location:

  • Go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/
  • Click on the most recent build:
  • Scroll down to the table of file names. Download and install the file that contains “win32″ and that matches your version of Python. For example, if you have ArcGIS 10.0 with Python 2.6 and are downloading Build 217, choose pywin32-217.win32-py2.6.exe. (Note: for Arc 10.1 and later, we recommend getting pywin32 from github, as described above.) 

Step 5: If you have MGET installed already, uninstall it

  • Bring up the list of installed programs:
    • Windows XP and Server 2003: Start Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs
    • Windows Vista and Server 2008: Start Control Panel, switch to Classic View, and click Programs and Features
    • Windows 7, Server 2008 R2: Start Control Panel, view by small icons, and click Programs and Features
    • Windows 10: Click Start, click Settings (gear icon), and click Apps
  • Uninstall the program named “Python X.Y GeoEco-Z” or “Python X.Y Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools Z”, where X.Y is your Python version number (e.g. 2.7) and Z is an MGET version number (e.g. 0.8a75).

Step 6: Install MGET

Install the MGET setup program you downloaded above. The installation program is very simple. Unless you have multiple copies of Python installed on your machine (which is rare) the setup program has no options. You can just click Next until it completes:

Step 7: Install optional software

Many MGET tools will be immediately functional after you install MGET. But some tools rely on other software applications and libraries. To ease the burden of getting started, MGET requires none of these to be on your machine when you install it. All MGET tools check their software dependencies when you invoke them, and report error messages and brief installation instructions if required software is not installed.

If you prefer to get started right away, you can rely on these error messages to prompt you for additional software installations when they are needed. If you prefer not to see these error messages, you can preemptively install all of the additional software now.

  • ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension – this is required by a number of MGET tools, but often only when you use certain parameters, such as the map algebra expression on the various conversion tools that produce ArcGIS rasters. If your ArcGIS license includes this extension but you did not install it, you can re-run the ArcGIS setup program to add it to your installation. Please see the ArcGIS documentation or consult an ArcGIS expert for more information.
  • R statistics program, version 2.5.0 or later – this is required by MGET tools that perform statistical calculations.
  • MATLAB, version 2007b, or the free MATLAB Component Runtime (MCR) version 7.7 – this is required by MGET tools that perform certain numerical calculations. Either one will work, but you must have the exact version specified here. Newer or older versions will not work. If you do not have MATLAB 2007b already installed, we recommend you download the MATLAB Component Runtime from the link above. The tools affected by this requirement include:
    • The Coral Reef Larval Connectivity tools
    • The Cleanup Options of the tools that execute the Cayula-Cornillon front-detection algorithm
    • The tools that execute the Okubo-Weiss eddy-detection algorithm
  • NOAA CoastWatch Utilities, version 3.2 or later – these are required if you want to use any of the MGET tools that process CoastWatch data. In the CoastWatch Utilities setup, be sure to you enable the Command line tools option.

Step 8: Add MGET to your default ArcToolbox window

The MGET setup program does this automatically for the user that
installed MGET. But other users must add the toolbox manually. This is
usually necessary on classroom computers and similar machines that are
accessed by multiple users.

To manually add the toolbox for your user account:

  • Close all ArcGIS applications (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcGlobe, etc.).
  • Start ArcCatalog.
  • If the ArcToolbox window is not visible, click the ArcToolbox button to bring it up:
  • If you don’t see Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools listed in the ArcToolbox window, right click on ArcToolbox and select Add Toolbox:
  • Navigate to C:\Program Files\GeoEco\ArcGISToolbox and add the toolbox you see there:
  • You should now see MGET in the ArcToolbox window:
  • Close ArcCatalog.

From now on, MGET will appear in the ArcToolbox window of ArcCatalog and all new ArcMap documents (.mxd files).

For existing ArcMap documents, you must add the toolbox manually within ArcMap for that document: Start ArcMap, open the
document, and follow steps 4-6 above.

This is necessary because each ArcMap document maintains a customized ArcToolbox list. The list is initialized to a copy of ArcCatalog’s list whenever a new map is created, but exists independently from that point forward.