HOWTO: Create a Windows shortcut for MapTool

Articles on how to do things in MapTool (answers only here -- questions should stay in the main MT forum)

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aliasmask
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HOWTO: Create a Windows shortcut for MapTool

Post by aliasmask »

There are several ways to start MapTool. One way is to use the MapToolLauncher.exe which may require some configuration. You can run one of the existing batch files after changing some of the memory settings, but that leaves the cmd window open. You can close it manually or wait for it to close when MT closes. Or you can create a shortcut directly to the javaw.exe file.

Three things you'll need to know.
  • Where the javaw.exe file exists. Mine is located at "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin\javaw.exe"
  • Parameters to use in shortcut. "-Xmx1024M -Xss3M -jar maptool-1.3.b89.jar"
    • Xmx is max memory and is set at 1024M (meg, ie 1 gig)
    • Xss is stack size and I like 3M (megs) default is 512K which is way too small
    • jar which is the name of file. This shouldn't change for b89
  • Location of downloaded and extracted MapTool files. I suggest the manual download and then extract the files to somewhere familiar like a folder in my documents. For example, mine is located at "D:\Docs\Downloads\maptool-1.3.b89"
Steps to take:
  • Goto javaw.exe folder, right click and select Create Shortcut. You may get a warning telling you that you can not create in that folder and to put on desktop, just select Yes.
  • Move your shortcut to the MapTool folder with the extract files.
  • Right click and select Properties. Under Target you'll see the path to the javaw file in quotes. Below that will be the Start In folder which should be the javaw path.
  • Put the path of the directory with the extracted MapTool files under Start In. I just open file explorer, go to folder and copy the header at top. This may need to be in quotes if you have really long folder names.
  • Copy the parameters from this post and paste AFTER the quotes on the target line. Feel free to adjust the settings for Xmx or Xss but I found those to work best for most of my needs.
  • (Optional) Change the Icon by clicking Change Icon. You can select the MapToolLauncher.exe for the MT icon or pick another from another source. You can browse to location or copy header again from open explorer window with the MapTool files and select the launcher.
  • Click Okay.
This is a bit more involved than some of the other methods, but you get the benefit of knowing it will absolutely work and no lingering cmd screen when starting MapTool. You can also "Pin" it to your taskbar and rename it. The firewall may ask you to trust java, just say yes.

Here is one optional parameter you can add to shortcut. Useful if trying to use MapTool on a flash drive.
Full Bleed wrote:You should include the flag -DMAPTOOL_DATADIR in your HOWTO.

Reasons why:
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22772
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20566

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