Moss GENIO file

(This functionality is available with the Input / Output module)

Below is a sample of a MOSS GENIO file. Refer also to the Import topic, and the Export/Moss topic.

  1757.60204 1011.45495 -999.00000
  1746.30716 1034.55814 -999.00000
  1729.70000 1047.80000 -999.00000

     0.00000    0.00000 -999.00000

  1743.81800 1002.40900 284.14856
  1748.81263 1002.64062 284.35806
  1753.80726 1002.87223 284.56359
  1758.80190 1003.10385 284.75891
  1818.36980 1013.37275 286.38143
  1823.37814 1013.32324 286.54233
  1828.38649 1013.27374 286.68378
  1833.39484 1013.22424 286.83067

     0.00000    0.00000 286.83067

Explanations:

(1) Header Line:

This is the first line in a Moss "major option" and commences with GENIO

(2) Comments

Comment lines start with at least 3 spaces or 3 stars (***). They cannot occur between a string header record and the last co-ordinate in the string.

(3) Format Statement:

The format statement defines the actual format of each element in the co-ordinate record.

For example the format above, 001FORMAT(2F14.5,F12.5) defines that the co-ordinate record will contain two co-ordinates of floating point numbers of total width 14 with 5 decimal accuracy followed by a third floating point number of width 12 and 5 decimal accuracy. This sequence may be repeated on the same line dependent on the Order statement.

Other common Format statements are:

001FORMAT(6F12.5) < Floating Point Format

001FORMAT(3D23.17)< Exponential Format

(4) Order Statement:

The order statement defines the number and order of the data in the co-ordinate list. For example the order statement above,

003ORDR 1 1 2 3
          ^ ^ ^
          x y z

specifies that there is one point per line (first number) and that point consists of

an x-co-ordinate (1), followed by a y-co-ordinate (2), then a z-co-ordinate (3).

A more common form of the order statement is 003,ORDR,4=1,1,2,3

An order statement of 003,ORDR,4=2,1,2,3,1,2,3 would indicate that there are two points per line, each line containing x, y, z in that order.

(5) String Header :

The string header contains the Moss code of the string. This code may be up to 4 characters in size and it determines if the following co-ordinates are to be strung or simply remain as individual points.

The string header 080,GX03,MX03,5= 0.0, 0.0, 3

contains the four character Moss code GX03. All or part of this Moss code may be used by the system in its code table or lookup table. Most users utilise only the first one or two characters of the Moss code to define the code of the string. For example, GX could be used as the code and 03 ignored by the system as it is simply the string identifier in Moss. Using this approach greatly reduces the number of codes required in the code or lookup table. When importing to the system, the user can select the number of characters in the Moss code to be used. For this example he would choose two and have GX defined in the code or lookup table.

(6) Co-ordinate Record:

Contains the co-ordinates in the format and order defined by the preceding format and order statements.

(7) Last Co-ordinate Record:

The last co-ordinate record must have x and y co-ordinates set to zero.

(8) Finish Major Option: 999

This line defines the end of a Moss Major Option.

A MOSS file may contain several groups of records with different formats and orders.

Statement types (1) to (8) can be repeated, called in Moss terminology, 'A Major Option'. This is not the general case.

(9) End of File : FINISH

The word FINISH is used as an End-of-File marker.

Importing Moss files

The Format Line and the Order Statement must both be in the file and be in pairs.

The system checks the validity of each Format line with its Order statement to ensure that they are compatible. In most cases the Moss file will contain only one of each of these statements.

Examples of compatible Format Lines and Order Statements are:

001FORMAT(6F12.5)

003,ORDR,4=2,1,2,3,1,2,3

and

001FORMAT(3D23.17)

003,ORDR,4=1,1,2,3

Note: The system supports the exponential format Dxx.xx but the data must be in true exponential form 0.12345678E+05 NOT 0.12345678D+05 the FORTRAN double format.

Exporting Moss Files

The system creates a Moss GENIO file with Format and Order statements as shown below.

001FORMAT(2F14.5,F12.5)

003,ORDR,4=1,1,2,3

The first four characters of the system string and point codes are output to the Moss string header as string and point codes. If processing a file to be exported to Moss, only use up to 4 character codes. Strings without codes are given the code 'S' and points without codes are given the code 'P' .String features are output first followed by point features.

Text objects are output with angular units as per the Utilities/Configure/Units "Angular" selection. Note that all possible Sexigesimal options in LISCAD map to DMS in MX.

An option is available to "Add Descriptive Comments" which exports the information contained in Utilities/Edit/Details.

Options are also available to control the size of the text exported by separately applying scale factors depending on whether the text is in plan or ground units.