In order to install the 3DNA software package on a Mac you must first register for the 3DNA forum, this will give you access to the Downloads section found on the main forum page. If you are not registered or are visiting as a guest and not logged in you will not have access to the Downloads section.
Once you have registered for the forum and downloaded the appropriate software package you will need to unpack the tar.gz file, which is accomplished by double-clicking on the compressed file. This will create a folder named x3dna-v2.1 which contains all of the needed software files. This folder can be moved to any location on your system, in the Jove paper we move it to the 'Applications' directory.
After unpacking the software and moving it to an appropriate location you will need to open a terminal window to complete the install. Once in a terminal window change to the directory which contains the 3DNA software, Applications in our case, with the following command:
cd /Applications/x3dna-v2.1
and run the setup script by typing
./bin/x3dna_setup
The setup script will print information about the software to the monitor. You will need to follow the instructions printed and paste the lines into your resource file, .bashrc if you are running a bash environment or .tcshrc if you run a tcsh environment. Note that the type of environment will also be printed when you run the setup script.
You can use TextEdit or another text editing application to add the environmental variables to your resource file. Make sure that you are saving as pure text. In TextEdit this is done by selecting 'Make Plain Text' from the format menu.
Once you have edited and saved your resource file you need to apply the changes. This only has to be done when you change the file, not every time you want to use the 3DNA software. You can type source ~/.bashrc or source ~/.tcshrc depending on your system or you can close and open the terminal.
3DNA should now be installed and ready to use.