Frequently Asked Questions for Match! 3

The "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) provides an overview over the most common questions along with the corresponding answers:

Silent (unattended) installation

You can install Match! silently (i.e. without user interaction or notice) on Windows PCs, provided that the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2020 redistributable (which can be downloaded from Microsoft) is already installed on your PC.

In order to do so, please open the Windows PowerShell (Administrator) on Windows 10 or "Terminal (Administrator)" on Windows 11 on your PC, move over to the directory in which the Match! installer has been stored, then enter:

.\Match-3-windows-x64-installer.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES

If required, you can use the /DIR parameter to install Match! into a specific directory, like:

.\Match-3-windows-x64-installer.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /DIR="D:\Program Files\Match3"

If you would like to create a desktop icon during the silent installation process, please use

.\Match-3-windows-x64-installer.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /TASKS="desktopicon"

For silent uninstallation, please use the command

.\unins000.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES

Match! crashes after splash screen

We have received a few reports of Match! crashing right after displaying the splash screen (no program window is shown). There are two potential origins for this problem:

Invalid reference database or options setting: In rare circumstances, Match! can crash when trying to read the header information of a selected reference database that has become invalid (e.g. because it has been modified otherwise or removed). A similar effect can be observed if other options settings contain illegal values for some reason.

In order to fix this problem, please reset all current options and settings to their factory values as follows:

Windows: Right-click on the Windows "Start" button, then select "Windows PowerShell (Administrator)" from the menu that opens. Confirm or enter the Administrator password. In the "PowerShell" terminal window, please run the command

start-process -verb runAs "C:\Program Files\Match3\Match!.exe" -argumentlist "reset_all_settings"
                                            

macOS: Open a "Terminal" window, then enter the following command:

sudo /Applications/Match3/Match\!.app/Contents/MacOS/Match\! reset_all_settings

Linux: Open a terminal window, then enter the following command:

sudo /opt/Match3/Match reset_all_settings

Note that you can also reset all settings for the current user only, by using the command

"C:\Program Files\Match3\Match!.exe reset_all_settings"

If this does not fix the problem, you can try to remove (or shift) the reference database directories (called "RefDBXY") from the directory "C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Crystal Impact\Match! 3\" to some other place, then try to run Match! again.

Wrong OpenSSL installation or configuration: Another (rare) potential reason for Match! crashing right at startup could be an invalid OpenSSL installation. This problem can be solved by (re-)installing OpenSSL as follows:

1. Download OpenSSL from http://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html. Normally, you should download the version Win32OpenSSL_Light-1_1_0d.exe.
2. Run the installer, and install the main files to �C:\Program Files (x86)\Openssl� (or similar). Make sure to install the library files to the Windows system directory when you are asked to do so.
3. When the installation has finished, please try to run Match! again.

When running Rietveld (FullProf) calculations I always get error messages like "Unable to read Rietveld output file fpcalc.out" or "Your refinement did not converge".

If these messages are displayed every time you try to run a Rietveld refinement calculation, please verify that you are using a FullProf version that is not much older (or more recent) than your current version of Match!.

Former versions of FullProf can be downloaded from here (section/table "Old versions").

The background is that every now and then the FullProf team slightly modifies the output format of the program. As a result, Match! cannot read this output anymore and needs to be updated.

Opposite directions of zero point and specimen displacement correction in Match! and FullProf

If you perform Rietveld refinement calculations using FullProf, please note that the zero point and specimen displacement corrections are implemented in opposite directions in Match! and FullProf. In other words, the absolute values of the correction using Match! and FullProf will be similar, but the sign will be different (opposite).

The background is that Match! tries to remove potential errors (like the zero point) from the experimental data before performing the real analysis, just like stripping of the alpha2 radiation part, background subtraction and raw data smoothing.
In FullProf (or Rietveld refinement in general), the concept is rather to leave the experimental diffraction data in their original state and try to include corrections for potential errors (like the zero point or specimen displacement) in the model formula.

The "Rietveld (FullProf)" command is not active/available, even though I have defined the path to FullProf.

Please note that Rietveld refinement requires both diffraction data as well as crystal structure data. For the latter, the entries in the Match list are used. Hence, you first have to import diffraction data, run a search-match and select at least one entry/phase as "matching" before the "Rietveld (FullProf)" command becomes available.
We will modify this behaviour in version 2.1.1: Here the command will remain active, but you will get a corresponding 'error' message when you run the command without having performed a phase-identification as described above.

How can I transfer the Match! diffraction pattern graphics to Microsoft Word as scalable vector images?

In contrast to version 1, the current version of Match! does not support the export of Windows enhanced metafile files (*.emf). In order to transfer your diffraction patterns as scalable vector plots to Microsoft Word, you can use the Scalable Vector Graphics format (*.svg) in combination with one of the following options:

• Use the open source program Inkscape in order to convert svg-files into emf-files, and import these emf-files into Word
• Import svg-files into Microsoft Word through Microsoft Visio
• Load the svg-file into Adobe SVGViewer, and copy it to Microsoft Word by "Drag and Drop"

I would like to add own diffraction data to the user database. Does this affect my PDF installation ?

No. The user database is stored independent from the PDF database in a separate directory. Match! accesses the PDF in "read-only" mode; i.e. your PDF is not affected in any way. The combination of PDF and own (user database) entries is achieved by creating combined index files, which themselves are stored in a separate directory.

Each time I try to create a reference database from an existing ICDD PDF database (release 2005 or later, relational database system), I get an error message. What can I do ?

• Open the Windows Control Panel (select "Start/Settings"), double-click "Administrative tools", then "Data sources (ODBC)". This will run the ODBC Data Sources Administrator.
  • Tabsheet "Drivers": Is "Adaptive Server Anywhere" (e.g. version 10.0 or 12.0) present? If not:
    • Re-install the PDF database
      • Make sure to carry out the second step of the installation in which the ODBC connection is created. Note that write access is required for the main directory of drive C:\ in order to install the ODBC database driver!
      • Wait until the message "The installation is complete and will now terminate." is displayed.
      • Restart your PC if required.
      • If the driver is still not present, please contact ICDD for installation support (report "ODBC driver 'Adaptive Server Anywhere' is not installed properly")!
  • If the driver is present, check the tabsheet "System DSN": The DSN "DSN_PDF2012" (or similar, depending on your PDF version) must be present, and must be connected with the driver "Adaptive Server Anywhere x.0". If this is not the case, either...
    • Re-install the PDF database
      • Make sure to carry out the second step of the installation in which the ODBC connection is created. Note that write access is required for the main directory of drive C:\ in order to install the ODBC database driver!
      • Wait until the message "The installation is complete and will now terminate." is displayed.
      • Restart your PC if required.
      • If the driver is still not present, please contact ICDD for installation support (report "ODBC driver 'Adaptive Server Anywhere' is not installed properly")!
      or
    • Add the required DSN manually:
      • In the ODBC Data Sources Administrator, open the tabsheet "System DSN"
      • Press the "Add..." button
      • Select driver "Adaptive Server Anywhere x.0" (depending on your PDF database version)
      • In the dialog "ODBC Configuration" modify the following fields accordingly:
        • ODBC/Data source name: "DSN_PDF2012" (or similar)
        • Database/Server name: "PDF2012" (or similar)
        • Database/Start line: "C:\ASA\win32\dbeng9.exe" (dbeng10.exe or dbeng12.exe, depending on your PDF database version)
        • Database/Database file: "C:\Program Files\ICDD PDF-2 Release 2012\Data\PDF2012.db" (or similar)
        • Database/Start database automatically (checked)
        • Database/Stop database after last disconnect (checked)