Hi. This is a simple tutorial on how to compile GrADS 2 from source using Mac OS X and a few tools you can download from the internet.

GrADS Grid Analysis and Display System is a powerful program for visualizing weather data. GrADS is a great program for plotting meteorological data using GRIB2 files.

The homepage for GrADS is:
http://iges.org/grads/

Step 1.

To compile grads-2 for MAC OS X you will need Mac Ports. Mac Ports is a system that allows you to explore the world of open source software from the comfort of your Mac.

Download Mac Ports from:
http://www.macports.org/install.php

Step 2.

Open the Mac Ports disk image and launch the Mac Ports installer.

Step 3.
You will need to download PortAuthority.

PortAuthority is a graphical user interface for MacPorts. It makes finding and compiling, and installing UNIX applications on the Mac easy.

Download PortAuthority from:
http://www.codebykevin.com/portauthority.html

Step 4.

Open the Port Authority disk image and drag PortAuthority to your Applications folder.

Step 5.

Locating Grads 2.0 .

Launch Port Authority. Type Grads into the search bar and press return.

Select grads2 from the list.

Step 6.

Compiling Grads from Source.

To compile and install grads2 from source select from the Installations menu -> Install a Port .

Step 7.
Authorize PortAuthority with your password and click okay.

Step 8.

Sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

It takes a while to install Grads for the first time as Mac Ports has to download and compile a whole bunch of supporting libraries and UNIX tools.

All you have to do is be patient. It takes about 70 minutes to download and compile everything on my Mac Pro System.

Step 9.

Launch grads2 from the terminal.

Open the Terminal application found in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

In the terminal window type in grads-2 and press return.

The GrADS Grid Analysis and Display System program will launch and an X11 window will open in the background.

Press return to continue.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Process Complete.