Generic ASCII Vector

Long name	Generic ASCII Vector
Short name	GAV
File extension(s)	.gav, .txt

GAV is a generic ASCII vector format that allows you to define and use an ASCII vector database. GAV is supported by the GDB library for import and export.

The GAV database name has the following format:

 GAV:"Name of ASCII data file" "Name of ASCII schema file defining data file".

For example:

A GAV database having a data file named "test" and a schema file named "test.gav" will have the name "GAV:test test.gav".

A simple example of a GAV data file is, having <x,y,z> data in a file, one set per line. Specifically, if the data file "test" has two points <1,2,3> and <4,5,6>, it will look like the following:

       1       2       3
       4       5       6

The schema file "test.gav" for the above format will look like the following:

  GAV
  CATEGORY: VARIABLE
  NAME: SIMPLE LineXYZ - Tabular Variable
  OFFSET(ROWS): 0
  SEPARATOR_CHARS: " \t"
  COMMENT_CHARS: "#"
  DATA: TYPE(X) POSITION(1)
  DATA: TYPE(Y) POSITION(2)
  DATA: TYPE(Z) POSITION(3)

Another way to specify a GAV database name is to use the following format:

  GAV:"Name of ASCII data file"

In this case, the schema file is taken to be ".gav" in the current directory.

Export of Generic ASCII Vector files is supported. These files are generated with a type of "GAV". There are no options on export. The data file is semicolon separated variable length records.

Generic ASCII Vector files can only hold one segment.