Smokeview Spreadsheet Format

Proposed new spreadsheet format

Introduction

Smokeview displays spreadsheet data output by CFAST, a zone fire model. The file format is identical to that used by FDS to output its spreadsheet data, i.e. a row of comma separated units, followed by a row of comma separated labels followed by one or more rows of comma separated data values.

This Wiki documents an enhancement allowing one to document FDS/CFAST spreadsheet files. This documentation occurs in a header before the spreadsheet data. This allows Smokeview to more easily use spreadsheet data from other sources such as sensor data from an experiment.

Proposed new Spreadsheet format

The header is optional. If it is present, it contains text between //HEADER and //DATA lines used to document the spreadsheet data that follows. //HEADER must be the first non-blank line and //DATA must be the first non-blank line before the spreadsheet data.

The header may also contains DEVICE entries in order to associate spreadsheet data columns with physical (x,y,z) locations within the Smokeview scene. The (x,y,z) coordinates use the same coordinate system as the FDS case visualized with Smokeview. The format of DEVICE is:

DEVICE
 column_label % type
 x  y  z

where column_label is the column label in the spread sheet file, type is the type of data (e.g. VELOCITY or ANGLE) and x, y, z is the physical location of the device in FDS coordinates. Note that this DEVICE is identical to the DEVICE entry used in the .smv file.

Format

//HEADER

text describing data contained in this spreadsheet file e.g. when, where, how etc. it was collected

Also, one or more DEVICE entries may be used to specify physical locations of various spreadsheet columns.

DEVICE
 column_label_1 % type
 x  y  z

.
.
.

DEVICE
 column_label_n % type
 x  y  z



//DATA
unit_1,unit_2, ... ,unit_n
label_1,label_2, ... ,label_n
val_11,val_12,...,val_1n
val_21,val_22,...,val_2n
...
val_m1,val_m2,...,val_mn