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xtcexplorer (GUI interface to pyana)

The latest tag is V00-01-30. This documentation is slightly outdated, to be updated soon.31.

This is a description and documentation of a GUI tool to explore the xtc data. It XTC data (see Analysis Workbook. Data Formats). The executable is named xtcexplorer, and the software package is named XtcExplorer. The GUI is written in python, relying on PyQt4 for graphical user interface. The data processing is done via the pyana framework and visualization provided by matplotlib. It can be run on any xtc file, including the file being written during data aquisition (DAQ). Python/PyQt, while the data is extracted using the LCLS framework pyana (we're currently in process of switching to using psana for this). Visualization of data is obtaned with the plotting package matplotlib, while much of the data algorithms in python relies on NumPy / SciPy libraries.

XTC Xtc files contain the raw data (datagrams) streamed from the DAQ online system. The datagrams occur in the order they were flushed from the DAQ system, and thus do not necessarily appear in chronological order. The datagrams are not indexed, so the file must be read sequentially. The pyana and psana frameworks are designed to process these datagrams and present them to you shot by shot (or event by event, in pyana/psana terminology).The XtcExplorer allows a simple-to-run interface to the xtc files. The package name is XtcExplorer, the executables (xtcexplorer and xtcscanner) are found in the app subdirectory of this package, and all other source code is in the src subdirectory.

For a similar tool to explore the HDF5 data format, look at HDF5 Explorer.

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The following documentation describes version 0.1.15 (or "tag" V00-01-15"). For XtcExplorer V00-01-31. For earlier versions, see earlier versions of this confluence page (go to "Tools" -> "Page history").

LCLS

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XTC Explorer

Typing xtcexplorer will launch the main GUI. The main GUI do two things: 1) select xtcfiles, 2) check the contents of the file(s):

• File section: Different ways to get the files:

, which looks something like this: Image Added
You need to connect an XTC file in order to get any further. You have 4 options:

1. You can give file names as arguments on the command line, and the file will automatically be opened/connected< as arguments when you launch the explorer, e.g. xtcexplorer /reg/d/psdm/CXI/cxi22010/xtc/e60-r0465-s0*
2. select instrument, experiment and runnumber If you know the Instrument / Experiment number / run number you'd like to investigate, simply select from the pull-down menus.
3. open a file browser to look There's also a 'File Browser' that allows you to browse for the files .
   A "Clear File List" button removes all filenames from the list.
   

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The main window before any file selection. You can select files either by editing the filename by hand or by opening the "File Browser...". If you select instrument and experiment the browser will take you directly to the right directory, or if you type in the run number it will load all files for this run number.

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A standard file browser pops up. Navigate the file browser till you find the xtc files for your experiment. (Remember, if this seems cumbersome, you can also give the file name(s) as argument to xtcexplorer when you first launch the GUI)

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Mark the files you want to look at (Hold down the Ctrl-key to select more than one file). Note, you should only look at one run number at a time, since different runs might have different configurations.

1. you want. Be aware that many runs are split into several files, in chunks and streams, and to get a complete dataset you do need to use all of the files for a given run. It will probably 'work' for single files too, but we cannot guarantee completely synchronized date, in particular, EPICS data is stored at a different rate than 'event' (shot) data, so if you make use of EPICS PV data, use the complete dataset.
2. Finally, you have the option of adding file names by hand.

Once a file or more has been connected, another GUI will pop up  (possibly after a short delay while the file(s) content is being investigated). This GUI displays information about the file content and help with further processing of the data in pyana. Image Added

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Pyana Control Center

After scanning, a new GUI will pop up showing you a list of detectors/devices found in the file. A little more information is written to the terminal window too.

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