Re: Coordinate Output in both binary and ASCII. Or converting binary to ASCII in the command line

From: Peter Freddolino (petefred_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 02 2009 - 10:33:22 CST

Hi Hugh,
you shouldn't need to generate a new SMD.pdb file if you use an
appropriate starting timestep for your subsequent simulations, which is
a cleaner way to do things. You can read the last timestep from the
restart xsc file:

proc get_first_ts { xscfile } {
  set fd [open $xscfile r]
  gets $fd
  gets $fd
  gets $fd line
  set ts [lindex $line 0]
  close $fd
  return $ts
}

set currenttimestep [get_first_ts $inputname.xsc]
firsttimestep $currenttimestep

Alternatively, you can convert binary <-> ascii using catdcd:

catdcd -o file.coor -otype namdbin file.pdb
catdcd -o file.pdb -s file.psf -stype psf file.coor

Finally, you need to use binaryrestart, not binaryoutput, to toggle
ascii vs. binary restart files. binaryoutput only applied to the output
files written if a run finishes completely.

Best,
Peter

Hugh Martin wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm attempting to automatically string together subsequent NAMD SMD
> simulations via a script which detects when the previous simulation has
> finished, converts and renames files to act as input files for the next
> simulation, and then submits the job automatically. In order to do this
> I need to convert the pdb output file from an initial simulation into an
> SMD.pdb input file for a subsequent simulation (this would be done by a
> trivial substitution of a field in the pdb output file). I only wish to
> use an ASCII pdb file to refer namd to the SMD atom position; for the
> coordinates, velocities and periodic boundaries I need to use binary
> input files coor, vel, and xsc. Basically, I need both binary and ASCII
> forms of output in order to link two SMD simulations automatically.
>
> This presents a problem, as by using binary input files, NAMD insists on
> producing binary output files for restart files and final
> coordinate/velocity files (circumventing fields such as "binaryoutput
> off" in the .conf file). This makes direct conversion of the output
> coordinate file to an ASCII SMD.pdb file non-trivial.
>
> Therefore, if my script, which links the first simulation to the
> subsequent simulation, is going to succeed, I need NAMD to either output
> in both binary and ASCII fomats (is this possible?), or I need to
> convert the binary output into ASCII (.coor to .pdb) using the command
> line (I know .coor files can be converted to .pdb files using vmd,
> however scripted use of VMD windows on distant machines is not possible
> to my knowledge).
>
> Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Hugh

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