Catherine Hood Consulting

Download Instructions for X-13

Downloading what you need to download can be a bit overwhelming with all the available information on the US Census Bureau web site. This page will guide you step-by-step through the process.

The instructions on this page were written for students taking our seasonal adjustment classes, and the classes are taught with the Windows interface provided by the US Census Bureau.



To Download X-13ARIMA-SEATS and its Windows Interface

  1. Download the file "winx13.zip" from the US Census Bureau website. For your convenience, we have given a link below. You will need to save the file on your computer. Right-click on the link below, and choose "Save File As . . ." or "Save Link as . . .", depending on your browser. I suggest saving the file directly to your c: drive. If this is not allowed in your current computer set-up, copy the file to a folder you will be sure to remember, perhaps "My Documents."
  2. Open Windows Explorer so that you can see the files and folders on your computer. Open the disk (c: drive) or folder where you saved the winx13.zip file.
  3. Right-click on the file and select "Extract all." There is a chance to change the directory, if you wish. Change the directory/folder to match the name of the directory/folder where the winx13.zip file was saved. Hit the "Extract" button.
  4. You will now have a "winx13" folder. Inside you will see several subfolders, one of which is named "x13as." The actual X-13ARIMA-SEATS program is in this folder. This folder, and the others that you see, will be used by the interface program.
  5. Back in the "winx13" folder, double-click on the WinX13.exe file. If your window doesn't show file extensions, look for the file with the snowflake as its symbol. This will take you through the installation guide for the program.
    • The first blank in the installation program is for the X-13ARIMA-SEATS executable file. This file is called x13as.exe, and it will be in the x13as subfolder. Hit the browse button to look for that file, and then click "Open."
    • By default, X-13 output is in text files. If you need the files in HTML for some reason, you can ask X-12 to convert the output to HTML. I don't use this option, and we don't use this option in the courses. (If you choose "Yes," then you will need to choose the converter program for either html or xhtml and the directory for the html output.)
    • For "Type of graph" choose "Win X-12 JAVA graphs." If you do not have JAVA installed on your computer, the program will remind you that graph cannot be produced until you install JAVA. (The "X-12-Graph program directory" is used only for the SAS program.)
    • If you would like to use Notepad or some other program to open the files, you may choose one in this window, but for the course, we will use the "default viewer."
    • Click "Save" to save your options and close the window. Installation is complete.




Extra Documentation on X-13

Below are some additional resources that might be useful when learning X-13.




Trademarks and Copyrights

  • TRAMO/SEATS is written by Victor Gomez and Agustin Maravall and is available free of charge from the Bank of Spain web site.
  • X-12-ARIMA and X-13ARIMA-SEATS are products of the U.S. Census Bureau and are available free of charge.
  • Windows Operating System, Microsoft® Windows, Copyright Microsoft Corporation

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Last modified: 3 Dec 2020

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