XTide downloads

Warning for Windows users

XTide was designed for Unix and X11, not Microsoft Windows.  If you want to try to use it under Windows anyway, there's a precompiled binary for the command-line client, and there are also some ports.  However, these are all supported by their respective maintainers.  Please route support questions accordingly.

Contents

Except for the contrib files that are external links, all of the following can be downloaded by anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.flaterco.com/xtide/.

• Harmonics files
• libtcd
• XTide
• World Vector Shoreline data
• Contrib packages and patches
• Extras
• For experts
• Miscellaneous government publications

Harmonics files

If you are looking for data for countries other than the U.S., read this FAQ.

libtcd source code distribution

• libtcd-2.2.5-r2.tar.bz2, prerequisite for XTide, tideEditor, tcd-utils, et al.
• New libtcd documentation
• Old libtcd documentation:  Jan Depner, "Format for the Oceanographic and Atmospheric Master Library (OAML) Tide Constituent Database," rev. 2003-06-06
  • PDF format
  • OpenOffice format
  • Notes by DWF

XTide source code distribution

• xtide-2.13.tar.bz2, the current stable release of XTide.  Requires libtcd.  You also need a harmonics file; see above.

It has become popular among app developers to derive works from the ancient final release of XTide version 1 because the C code of XTide 1 is simpler.  Cosmetic issues aside, XTide 2 implements a better algorithm for estimating water levels at subordinate stations and correctly handles more of the unusual cases.

World Vector Shoreline data

World Vector Shoreline data for optional use with XTide 2.5 or newer.  37 MB.

These files were published on the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) 5-Minute Gridded Global Relief Data CD-ROM (ETOPO5), 1993, and are public domain.  They are available from NOAA at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/relief/ETOPO5/BOUNDARY/WVS.  Related information is available at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/fliers/93mgg01.html.  If the files are obtained from NOAA, the filenames must be changed to all lowercase letters to work with XTide.

Contrib packages and patches

• Binary packages:

  OS/Flavor	Info
  Linux/Fedora	XTide RPMs are available in Fedora's "everything" package collection (formerly Fedora Extras) courtesy of Mamoru Tasaka et al.
  Linux/Debian	Debian packages courtesy of Peter S. Galbraith.
  FreeBSD	FreeBSD package
  Solaris	(Outdated) Prebuilt packages for both SPARC and Intel platforms running Solaris 8 or later are available from OpenCSW.org or Blastwave.org courtesy of C. Jeffery Small.  (No longer maintained.)
  Windows	Windows binary for the command-line client (2.12.1) built with Visual C++ 2010 Express.

• Alternative XTide icons contributed by Kelly Bellis.
• Alternative XTide icons contributed by Morten Kjeldgaard.
• Telephone interface:  From NerdVittles, a text-to-speech XTide bot for the Asterisk PBX (via PBX in a Flash) is available here or here.
• WordPress tide prediction plugin by Mir Rodríguez.
• Drupal tide prediction plugin by Jacob Lear.  (Hosted on same site as the WordPress plugin.)
• HTML PHP front end to generate an enhanced tide calendar with Hawaiian L10n using a customized pcal 4.11.0 and XTide 2.9.5, by Eric Nichols.
• Joomla component (jtide) to import tide data from XTide, also by Eric Nichols, now maintained by David Limb.
• GSHHS patch—test code to make XTide read Global Self-consistent Hierarchical High-resolution Shorelines instead of WVS files (DWF).

Extras

• tideEditor-1.4.3.tar.bz2, a GUI editor for Tide Constituent Database (TCD) files.  Requires libtcd and Qt 4.x.
• tcd-utils-20120115.tar.bz2, command-line tools for converting Tide Constituent Database (TCD) files to and from other formats.  Requires libtcd.

For experts

Software:

• congen-1.6.2.tar.bz2.  The Congen package includes libcongen, a C++ library for generating the speeds, equilibrium arguments, and node factors of tidal constituents, and congen, a command-line program for generating the speeds, equilibrium arguments, and node factors of tidal constituents using text files for input and output.  This package requires a case-sensitive file system to build correctly.
  • README
  • libcongen header file
• harmgen-3.1.tar.bz2, program to derive harmonic constants from water level observations.  Requires Congen 1.6 and Octave.
  • Help on installing Octave is available here.  As tested on 2012-01-16, Harmgen 3.1 worked with Octave 3.4.3 with no sign of code rot.
  • README
  • harmgen-extras-20080523.tar.bz2, data converters and stuff that are in a perpetual state of disrepair.
• harmbase2-20121224.tar.bz2, harmonic constant management system.  Requires Postgres 9.2.2, Congen 1.6, libtcd and libdstr.

Other materials:

• seasonal_corrections.xls, a spreadsheet for approximating Sa and Ssa from Admiralty-style seasonal corrections.  Contributed by Art Najjar of NAVO.
• NAVO.xls, spreadsheet of constituent definitions contributed by Art Najjar of NAVO.
• congen_input.txt, input file for congen.  Last update 2004-08-16.

See also the IHO list of constituents in the next section.

Miscellaneous government publications

IHO list of constituents, downloaded from http://www.iho.shom.fr/COMMITTEES/TC/Constituents.pdf on 2004-08-13 and 2006-08-25.

• 2006 version
• 2003 version

Tide and Current Glossary.  National Ocean Service, January 2000.  Downloaded from NOS, 2003-12-19.

Tidal Datums and their Applications.  NOAA Special Publication NOS CO-OPS 1, June 2000.  Downloaded from NOS, 2004-08-27.

Computational Techniques for Tidal Datums Handbook.  NOAA Special Publication NOS CO-OPS 2, September 2003.  Downloaded from NOS, 2007-03-01.

Nathaniel Bowditch, LL.D.  The American Practical Navigator:  An Epitome of Navigation.  NIMA Pub. No. 9, Bicentennial Edition, 2002.  Downloaded from NGA, 2004-09-28.  42 MB.  Chapter 9 is a tutorial on tides and currents.