The ASCII Inventor IV file contains the XYZ vertex coordinates in decimal notation, and color and transparency information in hexadecimal notation. If the ScatterPlot uses the GrayScale Colormap, then there is a linear relationship between the color and data values. To view the minimum and maximum gridded values, click on the "ellipsis" button (...) to the right of the Colormap in the Property Manager, or attach an Info module to the Gridder output.
The hex values range from 000000 (0 decimal) for black and FFFFFF (16777215 decimal) for white, with each value followed by a transparency value, which is FF for 100% opaque. Thus a typical value displayed as 0x9a9a9aff represents a hex value of 9a9a9a or 10132122 in decimal notation. To get the equivalent data value,
data value = data min + ( (color/16777215) * (data max - data min) )
Alternatively, a script can be used to convert the IV file to ASCII XYZC format.
Plot-3D Format
Another option for exporting a Gridder lattice to ASCII is the Plot-3D format. This format consists of a P3D file with all the X, then all the Y, then all the Z values and a separate Q file for the data values. Use a text editor or a script to convert the file to XYZC format.
See Also