User interface: OrcaWave model files

OrcaWave models are saved to either binary data files (.owd) or text data files (.yml).

Results from OrcaWave calculations are saved to binary results files (.owr), which can also be used to import the results of the diffraction analysis into OrcaFlex.

Binary and text data files

Binary data files have strong version compatibility features. For example, when OrcaWave attempts to open a binary data file written by a later version of the program, it is able to report informative compatibility warnings. It is not able to be as helpful and informative when working with text data files across program versions. Whilst we strive to achieve as much compatibility as possible for text data files across program versions, we cannot achieve the same level of compatibility as that for binary data files.

Text data files, as written by OrcaWave, contain only data that are active in the model. On the other hand, binary data files contain all data, active or not. The fact that the binary data file contains inactive data can be very useful and we would usually recommend that model building and development is performed using the binary data file.

Text data files can be created without the use of OrcaWave, simply by entering text into a text editor. In general, we would not advocate this approach to model building. It may be a practical approach for very simple models, but more complex models are usually easier to build and inspect using the full capabilities and visualisation strengths of OrcaWave. On the other hand, text data files can be very effective when making minor changes to existing models. Using text data files for such minor variations of existing models makes it much easier to monitor just what has been changed, for example by using standard text differencing programs.

Text data files are highly readable and self-documenting which makes them ideal for QA and archival purposes. Another application well suited to the use of text data files is automation via scripts that modify and/or generate data files.

Text data file program version compatibility

As mentioned above, text data files written by one version of OrcaWave may not be compatible with other OrcaWave versions. This is the main reason we recommend using the binary data file for your model data and to use text data files principally for automation tasks.

In case you do need to open text data files prepared with a different version of OrcaWave, you should convert them by making use of the version compatibility afforded by the binary data file. A text data file written with OrcaWave version A can be converted to a text data file compatible with version B as follows:

• Make a backup of the original text data file.
• Using OrcaWave version A, open the text data file and save the resulting model to a temporary file in binary data file format.
• Using OrcaWave version B, open the temporary file and save the model in text data file format, replacing the original version.

This can be a cumbersome process, especially if you have a large number of files to convert. The process can be automated by the OrcaFlex text data file conversion utility.