Use of Binary File Format

Hey guys!

So this is primarily a question to the developers, but if anyone has any input I would love to hear. I just wondered why .bi4 was chosen as the binary file format and not something like hdf5? Could anyone explain this to me ? Does bi4 have some advantages which hdf5 does not have?

Kind regards

Comments

  • Thanks! I see that BINX4 has some very valid strong points, but the reason we use binary is to limit storage space primarily I assume, so my question is:

    1) In a normal work flow we utilize binary data to make vtk and csv files anyways, so we lose a lot of storage space in this way. Wouldn't it then be better to use HDF5, where a lot of different readers can read the compressed binaries directly, ie. no need for csv files (unless you want to use Excel)?

    2) I assume the DualSPHysics team does not utilize BINX4 directly, when they want to deal with a lot of simulation data - would it make sense to construct a tool which could real BINX4 directly, instead of switching to HDF5?

    3) I have some questions about your binary vtk files output, do you know who coded this part so I can direct my questions to him directly?

    I hope you can clear up my confusion.

    Kind regards
  • The release includes not only the source files of DualSPHysics v4.4 but also the source files of a code named “ToVtk”. This code is provided to show how to load and interpret particle data, how to read .bi4 files and how to create .vtk or .csv files.
  • Thanks! I will look further into it hopefully.

    Kind regards
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