IDL Overview

This page provides an overview of IDL and its usage for NSTX and NSTX-U. This material is intended to be a starting point for users who are new to IDL or need a refresher on its capabilities and resources. The sections below cover setup, introductions, advanced plotting, MDSplus access, tutorial downloads, reference sites, examples, and support pages.

A lot of the information provided here is older and may need updating.

Setup and Environment
How to launch IDL on the PPPL cluster, set up paths, and handle X11 or terminal-based workflows.
Introduction
A compact introduction to the IDL workflow, command line usage, examples, and archived tutorial notes.
Advanced Plotting
Plotting, widgets, and surface-plot examples, with the original class materials moved under examples.
MDSplus Access
Minimal IDL patterns for connecting to MDSplus, opening trees, reading signals, and creating test trees.
Tutorial Downloads
Links to the preserved PDF tutorials, save sets, and macro files that were previously mixed into the root directory.
Examples
Example source files, sample data, and class materials that used to live in the top-level IDL directory.
Downloads
PDFs and IDL save sets collected into one place for direct download.
Support Pages