WMS:File I/O

Previously defined datasets can be input to WMS by selecting the Open menu command when right-clicking in the Project Explorer on the TIN/scatter set. This will bring up the file browser or a dialog with a list of file type options. The file types that can be imported to WMS as datasets are as follows:

• WMS ASCII Dataset Files

• WMS Binary Dataset Files

• ARC/INFO® ASCII Grid Files

• GRASS Grid Files

Additional formats will be added as new computational models are supported.

Once one of the file type options has been chosen, a file browser dialog appears and the user must select a file corresponding to the type selected.

Data sets can be exported from WMS to files by selecting the Export button in the Data Browser. Datasets can be saved as either binary or ASCII dataset files. Scatter point files can also be saved from the 2D scatter point module.

When a dataset is imported to WMS, a copy of the dataset is written to a temporary file on disk in binary form. If the imported data set is already in the form of a WMS binary dataset file, a copy of the file is not made. When part of the dataset is needed it is loaded from the hard disk into internal memory. Only one time step of one scalar dataset is read into internal memory at any given time. This method of file manipulation reduces the amount of RAM required, but it requires extra hard disk space. It also requires that write permission is active in the WMS working directory.

When a new dataset is created through interpolation or using the data calculator, a temporary binary file is created for the dataset.

Related Topics

• Open
• ASCII Dataset Files
• Binary Dataset Files