In addition to all the standard system and application parameters, you can define new ones for your own personal applications (for example, work parameters for procedures or new parameters for tasks). However, unless these definitions are included in the system definitions by the system manager, they will be local to your account only and will be lost if your parameter file is deleted. (You can save your new definitions in a procedure file to run whenever you create a new parameter file).
Parameter names are from one to eight characters long. The first character must be a letter (A-Z). The following zero to seven characters can be any combination of:
By convention, hatches and colons are rarely used, and even then only as the last character in a name.
There are three types of parameters:
Message parameters are used to hold messages of up to 64 characters. Once defined they should not be changed. The syntax for defining a message parameter is:
DEF parm = M, "message" [,"descriptor"]
where
[parm] ....... is the 1 to 8 character name of the message [M] .......... indicates a message parameter ["message"]... is a message of up to 64 characters ["descriptor"] is a descriptor of up to 32 characters
String parameters are used to hold character information (e.g., file names, text strings). The syntax for defining a string parameter is:
DEF parm = C, "default" [,"prompt"]
where
[parm] ... is the parameter name (up to 8 characters) [C] ...... indicates string parameter type ["default"] is a default value (0 to 12 characters) ["prompt"] is a prompt message (up to 32 characters)
Numeric parameters are used to hold up to 16 real data values. The syntax for defining a numeric parameter is:
DEF parm = N, min, max, default [,"prompt"]
where
[parm] ...is the parameter name (up to 8 characters)
[N] ......indicates the numeric parameter type
[min] ....is a real minimum value for data values
[max] ....is a real maximum value for data values
[default] is a real default for specified data values
(if this is outside the min-max range, it forces
unspecified data values to be "missing")
["prompt"]is a prompt message (up to 32 characters)
Example:
DEF MESG = M, "please enter your ID code" DEF USRTEXT = C, "NONE", "User text parameter" DEF NTAPES = N,1,16,0,"Enter number of tapes"
For an example of EASI system parameter definitions, see DEFSYS.EAS in the pro folder of your CATALYST Professional installation folder (for example, C:\PCI Geomatics\CATALYST Professional\pro).
© PCI Geomatics Enterprises, Inc.®, 2026. All rights reserved.