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Coordinate Files
The standard format for storage of a systems coordinates is a modified
xyz-file syntax, the exact details of which can be seen in
Scheme 2.5. As all bonding and molecular information
is stored in the meta-data files, the coordinate files contain only
the coordinates of the objects which move independently during the
simulation. It is important to note that not all atoms are
capable of independent motion. Atoms which are part of rigid bodies
are not ``integrable objects'' in the equations of motion; the rigid
bodies themselves are the integrable objects. Therefore, the
coordinate file contains coordinates of all the integrableObjects in the system. For systems without rigid bodies,
this is simply the coordinates of all the atoms.
It is important to note that although the simulation propagates the
complete rotation matrix, directional entities are written out using
quaternions to save space in the output files. All objects (atoms,
orientational atoms, and rigid bodies) are given quaternions and
angular momenta in coordinate files which are output by OOPSE, but it
is not necessary for the user to specify the quaternions or angular
momenta for atoms without orientational degrees of freedom.
The name field for atoms is simply the atom type as specified in
the meta-data file. The name field for a rigid body is
specified as MOLTYPE_RB_N, to specify that this is rigidBody N in a molecule of type MOLTYPE. In simulations with rigid
body models of water, a sample coordinate line might be:
TIP3P_RB_0 x y z vx vy vz qw qx qy qz jx jy jz
which tells the program that the rigid body representing a TIP3P
molecule (rigid body # 0) is listed on that line.
There are three files used by OOPSE which are written in the
coordinate format. They are: the initial coordinate file
(.in), the simulation trajectory file (.dump), and
the final coordinates or ``end-of-run'' for the simulation
(.eor). The initial coordinate file is necessary for OOPSE to start the simulation with the proper coordinates, and this
file must be generated by the user before the simulation run. The
trajectory (or ``dump'') file is updated during simulation and is used
to store snapshots of the coordinates at regular intervals. The first
frame is a duplication of the
.in file, and each subsequent frame is appended to the file
at an interval specified in the meta-data file with the
sampleTime flag. The final coordinate file is the
``end-of-run'' file. The .eor file stores the final
configuration of the system for a given simulation. The file is
updated at the same time as the .dump file, but it only
contains the most recent frame. In this way, an .eor file may
be used to initialize a second simulation should it be necessary to
recover from a crash or power outage.
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Up: Concepts & Files
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