[file header] "FileHeader" bytes long 

[data block] "BlockSize" bytes long 

[data block] 

etc... repeated any number of times 

Each [data block] has the following structure:

[block header] "BlockHeader" bytes long 

[data record] "RecordSize" bytes long 

[data record] 

etc... repeated "RecordsPerBlock" times 

Each [data record] has the following structure:

[main record data] holds once-per-record data 

[sub-record data] starts at "SubRecord start" offset in the 

[data record]. 

[sub-record data] each sub-record holds "Subrecord length" bytes. 

etc... repeated "SubRecord number" times 

Data is extracted from the [main record data] and [sub-record data]

and placed in the database.

Comment lines may precede the template definition, which begins with

the line [IMPORT BINARY]. Lines that follow this contain keywords

and parameter settings as follows:

File structure:

Keyword Parameters Description

------- ---------- ----------- 

FileHeader bytes (optional) the number of bytes of header

 information to skip at the start for the 

 file. If not specified, the first data  

 block is assumed to start at the begining 

 of the file. 

BlockSize bytes (required) the number of bytes per block. 

BlockHeader bytes (optional) the number of bytes of header 

 information to skip at the start for each 

 block. If not specified, the first data  

 record is assumed to start at the 

 begining of the block. 

RecordSize bytes (required) the number of bytes in each  

 data record. 

RecordsPerBlock number (required) the number of data records in 

 each block. Data records need not fill a 

 data block. Information past the end of  

 the last record in a block and befor the 

 end of the block is ignored. 

Optional line data parameters:

LineNumber start,length,read_format,scale,base

(optional) location, size and format of  

the line number in a [data record]. 

See "Data Parameters" below. If a line 

already exists in the database, the version 

number will be incremented until a unique 

line is created. 

Flight start,length,read_format,scale,base,dummy 

(optional) location, size and format of  

the flight number in a [data record]. 

See "Data Parameters" below. 

Date start,length,read_format,scale,base,dummy 

(optional) location, size and format of  

the flight date in a [data record]. 

See "Data Parameters" below. 

Followed by main channel definitions. This pair of lines is repeated 

for each channel in the [main record data]. 

Data start,length,read_format,scale,base,dummy 

(optional) location, size and format of 

a data channel to be imported. 

See "Data Parameters" below. 

Chan name,type,channel_format,width,decimals 

(required after each "Data" line) 

the channel name and channel chracteristics 

for the preceding "Data". 

See "Channel Parameters" below. 

Repeated sub-records. If the record contains more highly sampled 

sub-records, this line identifies the start, length and number of 

sub-records in the data record: 

SubRecord start,length,number 

start the offset of the start of the first sub- 

record from the start of a record. 

length the number of bytes in each sub-record. 

number the number of sub-records. 

Followed by sub-record channel definitions. This pair of lines is repeated

for each channel in the [sub-record data]. The format is identical to the 

[main record data] definitions except that the start location of each data 

item is with respect to the start of each sub-record. 

Data start,length,read_format,scale,base,dummy 

Chan name,type,channel_format,width,decimals 

Data Parametrers required by each "Linenumber", "Flight", "Date" or

"Data" line: 

start the byte offset of the data item relative to the start of 

the [main data record] or each [sub-record data]. 

length the size of the item in bytes. 

read_format the input data format: 

NORMAL normally formatted number ("213", "-1.62") or 

a literal ASCII string. 

EXP exponentially formatted number (-1.62e+00) 

TIME time "HH:MM:SS.ss" 

TIME_1 time "HH.MMSSss" 

TIME_2 time "HHMMSS" 

DATE date "YYYY/MM/DD" 

DATE_1 date "DD/MM/YY" 

DATE_2 date "MM/DD/YY" 

DATE_3 date "YYMM DD" 

GEO geographic "DEG.MM.SS.ssss" 

HEX hex 

SHORT binary signed 16-bit integer (LSB first) 

SHORTI same as SHORT, but bits inverted. 

LONG binary signed 32-bit integer (LSB first) 

LONGI same as LONG, but bits inverted 

FLOAT binary 32-bit IEEE floating point (LSB first) 

DOUBLE binary 64-bit IEEE floating point (LSB first) 

scale a multiplying factor that is applied to the in-coming 

numeric data before it is placed in a database channel. 

The default is 1. 

base a base value that is added to the data after applying 

the scale. The default is 0. 

dummy the value in the data that is used to indicate missing 

or dummy values. 

Channel Parameters required by each "Chan" line:

name The name of a database channel in which to place the data. 

If the channel does not already exist, it will be created 

using the parameters that follow. Names may not begin 

with any of the "0123456789+-*/%|" characters. 

type the channel data type: 

BYTE signed one-byte data. 

SHORT signed 16-bit integer. 

USHORT unsigned 16-bit integer. 

LONG signed 32-bit integer. 

FLOAT 32-bit floating point number. 

DOUBLE 64-bit floating point number. 

ASCII ASCII text of size "width". 

channel_format format used to display channel elements:

NORMAL normally formatted number ("213", "-1.62"). 

EXP exponentially formatted number (-1.62e+00) 

TIME time "HH:MM:SS.ss" 

DATE date "YYYY/MM/DD" 

GEO geographic "DEG.MM.SS.ssss" 

width Width of the channel display field. 

decimals Number of decimals to display. 

========================================================================

The following example will read an RMS backup formatted binary file. The

data is structured as follows:

Name offset length format Description

--- ------ ------ ------ -----------

block prefix 0 3 ASCII "RmS" string starts each

RMS backup format file. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

main data record 3 189 There are 20 records per

block. Each record  

represents 1 second of data. 

block number 0 8 ASCII RMS block number, which is

repeated in each data  

record. 

ile name 8 8 ASCII Formated "ABCmmddx", where

"mmdd" is the month and day, 

and "x" is the flight number 

day. We will use "mmddx" 

as the flight number. 

clock 16 19 ASCII "YYMM DD HH:MM:SS.ss"

ine number 35 5 ASCII

nav preamble 40 1 ASCII the letter "N".

GPS time 41 8 ASCII seconds

UTM X 49 10 ASCII

UTM Y 59 10 ASCII

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sub-record 69 12 There will be 10 sub-records

containing mag and altimeter 

data, which is sampled 10 

times a second. 

mag preamble 0 1 ASCII the letter "M"

mag data 1 8 ASCII

analogue preamble 9 1 ASCII the letter "A"

adar altimeter 10 2 SHORTI inverted bit 16-bit integer

scaled between -10.0 and 

+9.999695. (scale factor 

9.999695/32767 = 0.00030518) 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

end of record 189 1 ASCII the character "*" is at

the end of each main record. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total record length: 190 bytes

Block size: 3803 bytes ( 3 + 20*190 ) 

Following is a template that will read the Time, X, Y, Mag and Altimeter

data from this file:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORT BINARY]

FILEHEADER 0 / no file header

BLOCKSIZE 3803 / 3 + 190*20

BLOCKHEADER 3 / "RmS" block preample

RECORDSIZE 190

RECORDSPERBLOCK 20

LINENUMBER 35,5,normal

FLIGHT 11,5,normal / the "mmddx" part of the flight name

DATE 16,7,date_3 / the "YYMM DD" part of the clock

DATA 24,11,TIME / the "HH:MM:SS.ss" part of the time

CHAN TIME,float,time,12,1

DATA 49,10,normal

CHAN X,double,normal,14,2

DATA 59,10,normal

CHAN Y,double,normal,14,2

SUBRECORD 69,12,10

DATA 1,8,normal

CHAN MAG,float,NORMAL,10,1

DATA 10,2,SHORTI,0.000305166

CHAN ALT,FLOAT