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sconvert

NAME

sconvert - convert spice formats

SYNOPSIS

sconvert fromtype fromfile totype tofile
sconvert fromtype totype
sconvert

DESCRIPTION

Sconvert translates spice output files among three formats: the old binary format, a new binary format, and a new ascii format. The formats are specified by the fromtype and totype arguments: `o' for the old format, `b' for the new binary format, and `a' for the new ascii format. Fromtype specifies the format to be read, and totype specifies the format to be written. If fromfile and tofile are given, then they are used as the input and output, otherwise standard input and output are used. (Note that this second option is only available on UNIX systems - on VMS and other systems you must supply the filenames.) If no arguments are given, the parameters are prompted for.

Binary format is the preferred format for general use, as it is the most economical in terms of space and speed of access, and ascii is provided to make it easy to modify data files and transfer them between machines with different floating-point formats. The old format is provided only for backward compatibility. The three formats are as follows:

 
 Old:
 
             What                   Size in Bytes
 
         title                           80
         date                            8
         time                            8
         numoutputs                      2
         the integer 4                   2
         variable names --
                 char[numoutputs][8]     numoutputs * 8
         types of output                 numoutputs * 2
         node index                      numoutputs * 2
         plot title                      numoutputs * 24
         the actual data                 numpoints * numoutputs * 8
 
 Ascii:
 
         Title: Title Card String
         Date: Date
         [ Plotname: Plot Name
           Flags: complex or real
           No. Variables: numoutputs 
           No. Points: numpoints
           Command: nutmeg command
           Variables:    0 varname1 typename1
                         1 varname2 typename2
                         etc...
           Values:
             0   n       n       n       n       ...
             1   n       n       n       n       ...
             And so forth...
         ] repeated one or more times
 
 
 If one of the flags is complex, the points look like r,i where r and i
 are floating point (in %e format). Otherwise they are in %e format. 
 Only one of real and complex should appear.
 
 The lines are guaranteed to be less than 80 columns wide (unless the 
 plot title or variable names are very long), so this format is safe
 to mail between systems like CMS.
 
 Any number of Command: lines may appear between the No. Points:
 and the Variables: lines, and whenever the plot is loaded into
 nutmeg they will be executed.
 
 Binary:
 
         Title Card                (a NULL terminated string)
         Date, Time                (a NULL terminated string)
         [ 
           Plot title              (a NULL terminated string)
           Number of variables   (an int)
           Number of data points (an int)
           flags           (a short)
           variable header struct (repeated numoutputs times)
                 variable name     (a NULL terminated string)
                 variable type     (an int)
           set of outputs          (repeated numpoints times) 
         ] repeated one or more times.
 
 
 A set of outputs is a vector of doubles of length numoutputs, or
 a vector of real-imaginary pairs of doubles if the data is complex.
 

 

SEE ALSO

nutmeg(1), spice(1), writedata(3)

AUTHOR

Wayne Christopher (faustus@cad.berkeley.edu)

BUGS

If variable names and the title and plotname strings have trailing blanks in them they will be stripped off when the file is read, if it is in ascii format.

If a plot title begins with "Title:" nutmeg will be fooled into thinking that this is an ascii format file. Sconvert always requires the type to be specified, however.