Questions about Standard.exe

[Probeman]

This topic is for general questions about the Standard.exe compositional database app that comes with CalcZAF.

For example, are you interested in sorting your standards by average atomic number?  Just use the handy dandy Standard | List All Standard names and Average Z as seen here:

[Heather Lowers]

Certainly helpful but would also like the Z bar and average atomic weight values as a column in the Export As ASCII File from the Standard app.

I'm about to unleash the beast 

[Probeman]

Certainly helpful but would also like the Z bar and average atomic weight values as a column in the Export As ASCII File from the Standard app.

OK, the beast will bite: what is average atomic weight useful for?  It's a serious question... I've never found it useful for anything.

That said, the average atomic weight and average Z are calculated "on the fly" and not stored in the standard database. The export/import formats are intended only for the actual stored data (name, elemental composition, density, etc).

Maybe it would help if you explained what you are trying to accomplish with this exported data?

[John Donovan]

I recently attempted to get an old laptop up and running for calculating some binary k-ratios using Penfluor/Fanal. But when I tried to run the composition in the Penfluor/Fanal GUI, I received one of those classic "Windows had an error" messages for Material.exe.

I fixed the problem by re-compiling the material.f FORTRAN code using the GNU compiler on the old laptop. It's odd though, because the material.exe that I distribute from my Win7 64 bit system (compiled as a 32 bit app of course) runs fine on several other Windows XP systems.

Not sure what is different about this particular laptop, but if you see a similar problem trying to run the normally distributed Penepma FORTRAN programs please let me know and I'll set you up with the GNU FORTRAN compiler.

[John Donovan]

We need some advice.

In the Standard app there are two Import/Export menus for importing (or exporting) standard compositions from (or to) ASCII text files.



These ASCII text files only contain the most basic of information that is stored in the standard composition databases and both formats (single and multiple line) haven't been modified since they were originally created.

Recently however, one of us (Anette von der Handt), asked if these import/export formats could be modified to include additional information, such as the new "material type" and "mount names" fields. But we hesitate to modify these formats because that might break someone else's code that is generating these files externally. But to be honest we don't really know how these import/export files are being utilized.

Does anyone "out there" rely on these standard composition import/export formats staying the same?  Would anyone have any objections if the import/export formats were modified slightly?

[John Donovan]

OK, since no one seems to have had any objections, we went ahead and added the standard material, standard mount names and just for the heck of it, the formula basis parameters to the import/export ASCII (text) formats for the Standard application.

Hope this doesn't mess with anyone's external coding...