Using SAT
Before you start
The SAT has to be used together with a small, portable surface microroughness meter[28] , which users must obtain separately.
It is designed for use on PCs running the Microsoft Windows operating system (98 SE and above) and requires a minimum of 10MB free hard drive space.
Read the release notes[29] and the list of known software issues[30] with the current version 1.1.0 and previous SAT releases
Download the SAT
The SAT consists of a number of files that are packaged as a single 'ZIP' file. This can be downloaded by clicking the 'Download the SAT' link above. A copy of WinZip is required in order to extract these files and this can be obtained from http://www.winzip.com[31] . Please read the instructions[32] if you are not familiar with downloading and extracting ZIP files. Once extracted, the SAT can be run by double clicking the 'sat.exe' file, which should be located in the folder that the SAT was extracted to.
Note: This is a large file (approximately 3MB) and may take a significant amount of time to download, particularly if you are using a 'dial-up' modem connection. Please contact sat@hsl.gov.uk if you experience problems downloading the SAT as we can arrange an alternative method of supplying the program.
Notes to existing users
- Please backup your current site assessments before updating the SAT. The saved assessments are stored in a single file named 'satdata.xml' that can be found in the 'data' folder located in the folder that the SAT is installed in. To back up the data, simply copy the file to a secure location using your preferred method.
- It is recommended that you install the new version in the same folder as the existing SAT, after first backing up your existing data (see above). However, if you want to install a new version of SAT in a different folder and wish to load your old assessments, you must copy the existing data file BEFORE saving any assessments in the new version. To do this, copy the 'satdata.xml' file from the original 'data' folder to the new data folder (you may have to create the 'data' folder in the new system). Warning: this will overwrite any assessments already saved in the new version.
Instructions on Downloading and installing the SAT[34]