The makeCDF Tool

MakeCDF is written in standard ANSI-C. Previous versions were tested on VAX/VMS, Sun/Unix, and IBM PC/DOS platforms. The present version has been tested on VAX/VMS, Solaris and Digital UNIX. It is distributed freely by the NASA/GSFC/Space Physics Data Facility. It contains no proprietary software.

 MakeCDF is still under development. Planned enhancements include increased validation of user input, performance optimization, expanded on-line help, and additional Epoch calculation algorithms. Any additional functional enhancements requested by our user community will also be added, as time and resources permit.

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Look at On-line Help

Obtaining the software

MakeCDF Source Code and MakeFile
Running the makeCDF engine

MakeCDF On-line Help

I want to put my data into CDF! Where do I start?

• Click here to check if makeCDF can read your time format.
• Click here to see if makeCDF can read your data format.

• Click here for Instructions to create Skeleton CDFs.
• Click here for Instructions to create Translation Files.

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Supported time formats

makeCDF will then compute the ISTP/IACG standard CDF 'Epoch' time from the input format. (Presently, makeCDF can only convert one time tag per input file.) CDF 'Epoch' is listed as, e.g., 01-Jan-1997 10:20:00.000, but stored as a Real*8 scalar variable for ease of manipulation across day, month, and year boundary.

• A set of independent variables, e.g.,
• 1993 10 2 19 19 48 085 (year, month, day, hour, min, sec, ms)
• 1993 072 19 19 48 085 (year, day of year, hour, min, sec, ms)
• 94 101 3.25 (year, day of year, sec) ! notice decimal seconds
• Any of the following character strings :
• 01-Jan-1997 00:00:00.000 (dd-MON-yyyy hh:mm:ss.mmm)
• 1997-01-15 10:00:00.000 (yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.mmmZ)
• 1993/072 19:19:48 085 (yyyy-dd hh:mm:ss.mmmZ)
• A variable which is the offset of some base time, e.g.,
• base time: Year= 94 Day= 101
• offset: seconds
• If your data already has a CDF Epoch time tag, that is also readable.

Next Step: see if makeCDF can read your data format.

Supported data formats

• Simple flat ASCII text file: one or more horizontal lines which contain a free-formatted pattern of n numbers separated by one or more blanks; this defines a logical record which is repeated many times.
• Complex ASCII text file composed of
• header variables followed by simple flat ASCII text (base time can be found in header with offset in the following simple ASCII text).
• flat ASCII embedded text within a larger section of flat ASCII text. Each section has its own pattern (logical record structure) and the embedded piece can also have an implied time offset.

Notes:

• Because CDF naturally supports dimensional data a series of numbers in your input data file can be specified together as a single variable.
• 16 energy values are stored together in the variable "energy".
• 200 x 200 values are stored together in the variable "image" (row major or column major can be specified in the translation file).
• The first and last variable of the pattern (logical record structure) are specified in the translation file.
• The length of each number can vary from number to number and from line to line.
• The pattern (logical record structure) can be repeated many times.
• Horizontal lines which do not fit the pattern are skipped.
• The last number of each horizontal line should be followed by an end-of-line (and specified as such in the translation file).

Next Step: look at Example Input Data File formats with corresponding translation files.

On-line help for the makeCDF engine

makeCDF is a flat data file to CDF file TRANSLATOR

• translator, no programming required of user
• engine is ANSI standard C
• incorporates no commercial s/w

How is the makeCDF engine run?

makecdf    input_file    translation_file    input_CDF    output_CDF

makecdf

• All 4 parameters must be present and in proper order.
• Pathnames are permitted in the filenames.
• Wildcards are allowed in the input_file name, allowing you to translate multiple files with a single command. You must use automatic file naming when using this option.
• The input_CDF can be either a CDF file or a skeleton table, but the name must include the extension (.cdf or .skt), so that the makeCDF program can determine which it is. However, even on platforms that allow version numbers, there must not be a version number included.
• The output_CDF name must not include the extension (.cdf); the program will automatically add the extension to output_CDF.
  The output_CDF can be named automatically according to ISTP or ISIS file naming conventions. Simply set the output_CDF name to 'auto' in the command above, and set 'autonaming_style' to 0 in the translation file runtime parameters. Also in the runtime parameters, set ' autonaming_case' to 1 to generate a lower case name or 0 for upper case name of the output_CDF.
• The log file created by makeCDF (if any) will have the name that you provide for the output_CDF with a .LOG extension.

Potential Problems/Warning Messages

• Progress WARNING messages tell when certain milestones are reached in the program. Setting 'progress' to 'OFF' may be advisable for production runs, so that real error messages will be more readily noticed.
• Debug WARNING messages give many additional details useful in the debugging stage of development, including, among other things, each input data record, so 'debug' should be set to 'ON' only during the debug phase. User should make at least one run with this set ON, to enable the printing of various status and warning messages that might or might not present a real problem in the user's specific case.

• If a variable exists in the input data file (and thus is listed in the translation file) but does not exist in the skeleton table, it will not be output to the CDF. THIS MAY (OR MAY NOT) BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT AND MAY (OR MAY NOT) BE OK! makeCDF generates the following 'progress' WARNING message in this case: WARNING: the input variable 'WEW' does not exist in input CDF.
• If the input data file contains header records which don't match the pattern established for the data records in the translation file, a 'progress' WARNING message will be generated for each header record, indicating the mis-match on reading the record. THIS MAY (OR MAY NOT) BE EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT AND MAY (OR MAY NOT) BE OK! makeCDF treats each record in the input data file the same, including any header records which should be ignored.

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