TUTORIAL FOR MAT5EFormatConverter
By L.G. Hassebrook
5-16-2010
The E format is about half the size of a F format Mat5 file. It has the same information as the F
format with no loss. There are two parts to the converter. The first part, “CONVERT F to E
MAT5”, performs conversion from F to E format. The second part, “CONVERT E to F MAT5”,
performs conversion from and E to F format. See Fig. 1.
PART 1: CONVERT F to E MAT5
The “Input F” is the input F mat5 file. This version will not take C,I,X,Y,Z mat5 format. You can
use the GL3Dview to convert CIXYZ to F. In order to convert to E, the G data must be known
else it has to be estimated.
Figure 1: Converter demo dialog.
1 Consider the case where the G.byt file is available. Then check the “Use Existing CalgridG.byt”
and browse to the *G.byt file. If the UofKScanner software “Settings-World Data Controls” was
set to “Invert Z” then there is a problem. The problem is that the UofKScanner inverts the Z world
coordinates but does not change the G file which contains the Z world data. If this is the case, the
“Invert Zw based on Input F Z range” will invert the G file Z values but the F file must not be
original. If the F file is cropped in Z or has been exported to change the size of the image or has
been downsampled, this method will not work. If it does work, then in Part 2, the user can save
the inverted G file and this file will work as a normal G file for all the other files scanned on the
scanner.
If there is no way to get a workable G file, then one can be estimated. Select “Auto-generate G
values” and select a Thresh that seems to cut out noisy values. The “Metal” selection can be used to
show up all the points. The number of calgrid points is set by “Nmax”. Once those are set, check
the “PROCESS” box. Leave the process going when selecting the “CONVERT F to E MAT5 Type
1”. The“SAVE” check box will store a text version of the G file but has not affect on the process.
Browse to where the output should go, type in the E file name and select “CONVERT F to E
MAT5 Type 1” to create the E file.
PART 2: CONVERT E to F MAT5
The conversion from E to F is straight forward. Browse to the E file, browse to where the F file
will go and type in the file name. Then check the “CONVERT E to F MAT5” box. While not
necessary, if a copy of the G file contained in the E format is desired than the “G out” box is
selected. If the F file data is distorted then the problem occurred in PART 1 and is related to the
G file content.
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