Scripting with BigPlanet

Using BigPlanet as a module is where majority of the magic happens. To start, import BigPlanet as a module:

import BigPlanet as bp

This allows you to use the various functions that are outlined in detail below, such as print all the names of the variables (the “keys”) in the bpl file (PrintGroups and PrintDatasets), extract a particular variable from its key (ExtractColumn), extract the units of a particular key value (ExtractUnits), extract unique values in a particular key (ExtractUniqueValues), create a matrix based on two keys (CreateMatrix), and write out a list of keys to a file (WriteOutput).

Note

Keys using the following format for naming: body:variable:aggregation

ExtractColumn

ExtractColumn is a function that returns all of values of a particular column in the bpl file. It takes the following arguments:

ExtractColumn(bpl_File,Key)

where:

bpl_File is the name of the bpl file

Key is the name of the particular variable you are extracting the units from.

See the Understanding Keys Section for an indepth look at the types of key options available.

ExtractUnits

ExtractUnits is a function that returns the units of a particular column in the bpl file. It takes the following arguments:

ExtractUnits(bpl_File,Key)

where:

bpl_File is the name of the bpl file

Key is the name of the particular variable you are extracting the units from.

See the Understanding Keys Section for an indepth look at the types of key options available.

ExtractUniqueValues

ExtractUniqueValues is a function that returns a list of unique values in a key provided. It takes the following arguments:

ExtractUniqueValues(bpl_File,Key)

where:

bpl_File is the name of the bpl file

Key is the name of the particular variable you are extracting the units from.

CreatebplFile

CreatebplFile is a function that creates an bpl file from the input file that is passed to the function. This is mainly used if you forgot to run BigPlanet or want to run all the code for BigPlanet in module format

CreatebplFile(inputfile)

where:

inputfile is the same file used to run VSPACE and multi-planet

CreateMatrix

CreateMatrix is a function that returns the zaxis for a 3D matrix. This is useful for plotting Contour Plots of the data extracted. CreateMatrix takes the following arguments:

CreateMatrix(xaxis,yaxis,zarray,orientation=1)

where:

xaxis is the ExtractUniqueValues() of the column you want the xaxis to be

yaxis is the ExtractUniqueValues() of the column you want the xaxis to be

zarray is the ExtractColumn() of what you want the zaxis to be

orientation is the orientation of the data based on a 4 quadrant grid that goes counter clockwise in 90 degree interments. The default is 1, or bottom left corner.

BPtoCSV

BPtoCSV is a function that writes the list of columns to an output file. Headers are optional. WriteOutput takes the following arguments:

BPtoCSV(inputfile, columns, file="BigPlanet.out", delim=" ", header=False, ulysses=False)

where:

inputfile is the name of the bpl file

columns is the list of keys you are extracting (Use the same format as ExtractColumn, ExtractUnits and ExtractUniqueValues)

File is the name of the output file

delim is the delimiter for the output file (the default is spaces)

header adds the names and units for each column (default is False)

ulysses makes the file compatable with VR Ulysses (default is False)