2018.10 - Version 0.6.0

Version 0.6.0 - Release for the October 15 meeting

• Importing shape files should be complete. Import your data and test.
• Added automated build testing on many different platforms. Added pre-built binary packages.
• Added unit testing support. The make test command runs the tests.
• Separated the DDSCAT, PSU and ADDA code into different optional plugins. Each plugin can advertise different types of files that it can read and write.
• Draft 1 of the Extended Scattering Variables (EXV) storage format. Please test, review and make suggestions.
• DDSCAT import code is feature-complete! Can read in all fml, sca, avg, ddscat.par, diel.tab, and shape files.
• Improved the build system. Support for building with Conda.
• Reworked the HDF5 C++ interface.
• Added automated build testing and packaging.
• Snowflake visualization using the SILO image format.

2018.9 - Version 0.5.99

This is a preview release for version 0.6.

• Added read support for Extended Scattering Variables. PSU code works.
• Continued to finalize shape files.
• Improved the build system. Support for building with Conda.
• Removed the HDF5 C++ interface.
• Added automated build testing and packaging.
• Snowflake visualization using the SILO image format.
• Separated the I/O code into plugins. PSU, DDSCAT, ADDA codes are now separate.

2018.5

Version 0.5.3

This is a reference release that incorporates the past month's changes in importing DDSCAT and ADDA shapes into the icedb format. Shape files discussed in the 5/17/2018 meeting should be constructed using this version.

Penn State snowflakes

Implementation not yet merged with the master branch at time of release. (Last minute changes...)

The 3d_structures_singlethreaded program

This is the reference program for importing shapes.

To import a file or folder (shape.dat, shape.nc) into a database (shape.hdf5):

3d_structures_singlethreaded --from shape.dat --to shape.hdf5

Program options

Group	Option	Input type	Description
I/O	from	strings	Path where shapes are read from. This may be a list of folders and files. If a directory is encountered, then it is recursively searched for shapes. The recursive search behavior is controlled by the from-matching-extensions option.
I/O	from-format	string	The format of the input files. The format of the input files. This needs to be specified when the inputs are NetCDF or HDF5 files, as there are multiple conventions for these files that cannot be easily autodetected. Options: text, psu.
I/O	from-nosearch	boolean	Set this option if you want to read in a set of files whose paths are exactly specified on the command line. This option allows for the finest control of input file selection.
I/O	from-matching-extensions	strings	Use this to override the extensions of files to match (e.g. .adda .shp) when searching for valid shapes in directories specified in --from.
I/O	to	string	Path where shapes are written to.
I/O	db-path	string	The group within the HDF5 database where the new data is written to.
I/O	create	None	Create the output database if it does not exist. If it does, then exit without writing.
I/O	truncate	None	Overwrite the output file. If not specified, then an already-existing output file is appended to.
Metadata	resolution	float	The lattice spacing (in um).
Metadata	author	string	Name(s) of the person/group who generated the shape.
Metadata	contact-information	string	Affiliation, Contact information including email of the person/group who generated the scattering data.
Metadata	scattering-method	string	Method applied to the shape to calculate the scattering properties.

2018.4

Version 0.5.1

This release features many backend improvements, and several new applications. Documentation site will be updated soon to show how to invoke these programs.

New programs

• 3d_structures_singlethreaded - Simplifies shape file reading and writing. Can now read shapes from Eugene's database.

• icedb-refract will allow for a bunch of refractive index calculations
  for different substances according to different publications. This also
  relates to database import, as it allows the library to "guess" at the
  temperature used in simulations.

• icedb-units does unit conversions. It provides an example of how to use the library's unit conversion functions.

2018.3

This release can read shape files from DDSCAT and ADDA, and can convert them into the common format. Many improvements have been made to the build system, and the code now builds on a wide variety of platforms.

A project website has been launched at https://rhoneyager.github.io/libicedb/, and this site contains build instructions, READMEs and API documentation.

2017.11

Pausing for the meeting

2017.10

Set doxygen main page

Initial conference call preview

2017.8

License change to private repo.