The forward code uses SolarSoft IDL: "Solar soft tree installation instructions"
If you are installing SolarSoft for the first time, choose the following packages: forward, chianti, xrt, eit, trace, secchi, aia, pfss, swap, lasco.
(NOTE: especially if you are running Windows, you may need to first "Install Perl")
You may want to set up SSW in e.g. your .cshrc as follows:
setenv SSW /Directory/Where/You/Have/ssw
(and at the end of the .cshrc)
source $SSW/gen/setup/setup.ssw /quiet
Add FORWARD (if you already have SolarSoft)
(note you can also use the Solar soft web interface to add these packages).
List all of the IDL packages in SSW_INSTR (via setenv SSW_INSTR, for example in a .cshrc (Unix/Linux) or .bat (Windows) file.