This is an archive of XMapTools 3.4.1 which has been discontinued is and no longer updated. We recommend you to try XMapTools 4 at https://xmaptools.ch
XMapTools 3 is a MATLAB-based software solution which requires MATLAB© to run. There is no compiled version available for this version. Consequently, you need to have MATLAB© installed on your machine if you want to use XMapTools. Note: a cheap MATLAB© student version can be purchased via the Mathwork website (Mathwork website).
XMapTools 3 is fully compatible with MATLAB© version 8.4 release R2014b or more recent releases which are based on the new graphic engine HG2. XMapTools is developed on a MacBook Pro using MATLAB© R2015a and it has been intensively tested on MATLAB© R2017b and on Windows 10 with MATLAB© R2015b.
XMapTools 3.3.1 seems to be fully compatible with MATLAB© R2020a on OSX. Older MATLAB versions (pre-R2014b) are no longer supported.
XMapTools does not require any additional MATLAB© toolbox such as Statistic, Image Processing toolboxes. However, we strongly recommend to have such toolboxes that may provide useful functions if you want to go further than what XMapTools does.
Warning MATLAB R2014b or a more recent version is now required. XMapTools will not longer receive updates if used within old MATLAB environments (pre-R2014b). Please consider upgrading your MATLAB to ensure full compatibility with the most advanced version of XMapTools!
Please use the following citations in your publications when you refer to XMapTools. The version of the program should be specified just after the name, e.g. Mapping data were processed using XMapTools 3.4.1 (Lanari et al. 2014; 2019).
Please use at least one of the official XMapTools logo in your talk / poster along with the references while images have been generated using XMapTools.
Main software references
- Lanari, P., Vho, A., Bovay, T., Airaghi, L., Centrella, S., (2019). Quantitative compositional mapping of mineral phases by electron probe micro-analyser. Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 478, 39-63
- Lanari, P., Vidal, O., De Andrade, V., Dubacq, B., Lewin, E., Grosch, E., Schwartz, S. (2014) XMapTools: a MATLAB©-based program for electron microprobe X-ray image processing and geothermobarometry. Computers and Geosciences. 62, 227-240
Software references for specific tools/applications EPMA & LA-ICPMS mapping techniques:
- Lanari, P., & Piccoli, F., (2020). New horizons in quantitative compositional mapping – Analytical conditions and data reduction using XMapTools. IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 891, 012016
- Trace element mapping: Raimondo, T., Payne, J., Wade, B., Lanari, P., Clark, C., Hand, M., (2017). Trace element mapping by LA-ICP-MS: assessing geochemical mobility in garnet. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 172, 17
- Local bulk composition and density correction: Lanari, P., & Engi, M. (2017). Local bulk composition effects on metamorphic mineral assemblages, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 83, 55-102
- Density maps: Centrella, S., Putnis, A., Lanari, P., Austrheim, H. (2018). Textural and chemical evolution of pyroxene during hydration and deformation: a consequence of retrograde metamorphism. Lithos, 296-199, 245-264
Pixel size and beam damage:
- Lanari, P., & Piccoli, F., (2020). New horizons in quantitative compositional mapping – Analytical conditions and data reduction using XMapTools. IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 891, 012016 References for the standardisation of X-ray maps:
- Lanari, P., Vho, A., Bovay, T., Airaghi, L., Centrella, S., (2018). Quantitative compositional mapping of mineral phases by electron probe micro-analyser. Geological Society of London Special Publication, DOI:10.1144/SP478.4
- De Andrade, V., Vidal, O., Lewin, E., O’Brien, P., Agard, P., (2006). Quantification of electron microprobe compositional maps of rock thin sections: an optimized method and examples. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 24, 655–668
Note to XMaptools’ users: XMapTools is a free software for scientists working in Universities and public Research Agencies worldwide. Software has become a critical part of modern research and yet there is little support across the Academic ecosystem for its acknowledgement and citation. We believe that scientific software developed by academics should be considered a legitimate and citable product of research. The developments of XMapTools are part of a research effort that includes costs not supported by the users. Users of XMapTools need to understand that citations are the only form of reward that directly support the software development. Please, cite XMapTools in your publications and mention his use using the official XMapTools logo in your presentations.
XMapTools is distributed in an Double Regime: Academic and Commercial.
In the Academic and Public Research World, XMapTools is distributed under the terms of the Scientific Software Open Source Academic For Free License. This License sets the program and the code GRATIS and Open Source, and grants Freedom to use, copy, study, modify and redistribute it. But these policies hold only within the Academic and Public Research world. Thus the Academic World can be reassured that the normal research academic policies in working with scientific software are granted by this license. And it goes even beyond GNU-GPL, since it explicitly sets GRATIS the software.
On the other hand, we would like to reassure also the Commercial World. Indeed, the Scientific Software Open Source Academic For Free License IS NOT like other, commonly spread Open Source Free licenses, GNU-GPL or other. In the sense that the present License well keeps into account all the needs and the way of functioning of the Commercial and Profit Institutions World.
Into this world, XMapTools program is going to be distributed under other Licenses, to be negotiated from case to case. In this case it is a paying code, and exclusiveness for a certain merceological sector, or even full exclusiveness can be agreed with commercial institutions. This protects commercial institutions investements on applied research lines using the XMapTools code against concurrential actions, a posteriori possible to concurrent commercial institutions for codes licensed under commonly spread Open Source Free licenses. We agree with the Commercial World that these licenses revealed not compatible with the ordinary way of functioning in the Commercial World.
This is the reason why we choosed a different licence policy for XMapTools: to make Commercial Insitutions profit of the Basic Research ByProducts. And at the same time, to make the Basic Research benefit of the funding coming from the Commercial World, to finance the Basic Research itself.
Please, if you are a commercial institution, take the time to read at least the Preamble of the Scientific Software Open Source Academic For Free License. And you will realize that this is exactly the policy and the philosophy that can work to conciliate your way of functioning and the normal behaviour of academic research. Such as everybody can profit of the exchange between the two worlds.