How to create a BMP file using SKILL and Virtuoso ?

Bruce,

There is no direct support for writing binary files in Virtuoso. There's a side effect which appears to write a zero-byte into a file, but I have advised others against using this because it is definitely a side effect and wouldn't be guaranteed to keep working - intToChar is the closest though.

My suggestion would be to write out a sequence of numbers (as hex) and then invoke an external program to convert to binary. For example this SKILL:

hexfile=outfile("./hexfile")
for(i 0 255
  fprintf(hexfile "%02x" i)
)
close(hexfile)

and then this python program (I believe another AE has given you a Tcl way to do something similar):

#!/usr/bin/env python
# hexToBinary.py
# convert a hex string to binary

import sys
import binascii

# no error checking 'cos I'm lazy. Reads the
# first file in ASCII hex, and writes out the second file
# in binary
hexfile = open(sys.argv[1],'r')
binfile = open(sys.argv[2],'wb')
hexdata=hexfile.read()
bindata=binascii.a2b_hex(hexdata)
binfile.write(bindata)
binfile.close()
hexfile.close()

Then if I run:

hexToBinary.py hexfile binfile
hexdump -C binfile

00000000  00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07  08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f  |................|
00000010  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17  18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f  |................|
00000020  20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27  28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f  | !"#$%&'()*+,-./|
00000030  30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37  38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f  |0123456789:;<=>?|
00000040  40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47  48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f  |@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO|
00000050  50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57  58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f  |PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_|
00000060  60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67  68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f  |`abcdefghijklmno|
00000070  70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77  78 79 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f  |pqrstuvwxyz{|}~.|
00000080  80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87  88 89 8a 8b 8c 8d 8e 8f  |................|
00000090  90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97  98 99 9a 9b 9c 9d 9e 9f  |................|
000000a0  a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7  a8 a9 aa ab ac ad ae af  |................|
000000b0  b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7  b8 b9 ba bb bc bd be bf  |................|
000000c0  c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7  c8 c9 ca cb cc cd ce cf  |................|
000000d0  d0 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7  d8 d9 da db dc dd de df  |................|
000000e0  e0 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7  e8 e9 ea eb ec ed ee ef  |................|
000000f0  f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7  f8 f9 fa fb fc fd fe ff  |................|

So you could write out each byte simply using %2x from SKILL, and then go through a simple converter to convert to binary. Pretty straightforward.

Andrew.

Bruce,

There is no direct support for writing binary files in Virtuoso. There's a side effect which appears to write a zero-byte into a file, but I have advised others against using this because it is definitely a side effect and wouldn't be guaranteed to keep working - intToChar is the closest though.

My suggestion would be to write out a sequence of numbers (as hex) and then invoke an external program to convert to binary. For example this SKILL:

hexfile=outfile("./hexfile")
for(i 0 255
  fprintf(hexfile "%02x" i)
)
close(hexfile)

and then this python program (I believe another AE has given you a Tcl way to do something similar):

#!/usr/bin/env python
# hexToBinary.py
# convert a hex string to binary

import sys
import binascii

# no error checking 'cos I'm lazy. Reads the
# first file in ASCII hex, and writes out the second file
# in binary
hexfile = open(sys.argv[1],'r')
binfile = open(sys.argv[2],'wb')
hexdata=hexfile.read()
bindata=binascii.a2b_hex(hexdata)
binfile.write(bindata)
binfile.close()
hexfile.close()

Then if I run:

hexToBinary.py hexfile binfile
hexdump -C binfile

00000000  00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07  08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f  |................|
00000010  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17  18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f  |................|
00000020  20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27  28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f  | !"#$%&'()*+,-./|
00000030  30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37  38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f  |0123456789:;<=>?|
00000040  40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47  48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f  |@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO|
00000050  50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57  58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f  |PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_|
00000060  60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67  68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f  |`abcdefghijklmno|
00000070  70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77  78 79 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f  |pqrstuvwxyz{|}~.|
00000080  80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87  88 89 8a 8b 8c 8d 8e 8f  |................|
00000090  90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97  98 99 9a 9b 9c 9d 9e 9f  |................|
000000a0  a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7  a8 a9 aa ab ac ad ae af  |................|
000000b0  b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7  b8 b9 ba bb bc bd be bf  |................|
000000c0  c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7  c8 c9 ca cb cc cd ce cf  |................|
000000d0  d0 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7  d8 d9 da db dc dd de df  |................|
000000e0  e0 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7  e8 e9 ea eb ec ed ee ef  |................|
000000f0  f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7  f8 f9 fa fb fc fd fe ff  |................|

So you could write out each byte simply using %2x from SKILL, and then go through a simple converter to convert to binary. Pretty straightforward.

Andrew.