For orientation measurements by EBSD we need to transfer *.ctf-files (Channel text file, HKL Technology/Oxford Instr.) into *.ang-files (TSL/EDAX). Both are ASCII formats and mainly contain the Euler angles for each position in an orientation map.
Dear Gert,
please see the middle part of the link.
There is something written about .ctf files and creation of .ang files.
Please have a look. The link may help you a little bit.
http://stabix.readthedocs.io/en/latest/experimental_data.html
Hi Gerhard, thanks for the info. Unfortunately, it does not help that much. David certainly knows the difference between ang and ctf...and so do I. I only wanted to safe time not to develop anything which is already available as toolbox. Although the way ctf -> ang is perhaps the more common since the TSL software is clearly more powerful and so from ctf-data you can get perhaps much more information if you comvert them into ang, but also the opposite way might have some advantages. Especially if results look "strange" and you can perhaps check ang-data by Channel5 software.
I still hope that somebody wrote a small comversion tool :-)...
Thanks again!
Hi Gert,
OIMTools is a free FORTRAN program that converts EBSD data from a square grid (*.ctf files/HKL) to a hexagonal grid (*.ang files/TSL). Please see Ref. 23 in this paper: http://mimp.materials.cmu.edu/rohrer/papers/2010_07.pdf
Hope this is what you are after.
Cheers,
Ahmed
Thanks Ahmed. This probably helps. As I understood it is not an execition file, i.e. one needs to have a compiler, right? Did you use it already?
Hi Gert, yes you need a compiler to create the *.exe file. I used it before and it worked fine for me.
Hi Gert! I'm interested in all related information in this discussion for obvious reasons. Love of the Reciprocal Space!
Ahmed! Please share the meaning of "from a square grid (*.ctf files/HKL) to a hexagonal grid (*.ang files/TSL).", for us laymen. Even web links to learn better would be deeply appreciated.
pp. 662 figure 1 & 2 - These are the kind of images we intend to create with NDE real time Bragg XRD Microscopy for mono-crystals, poly-crystals and more. Non-contact, in situ, no vacuum, manufacturing/AUTOMATION FRIENDLY!
I wonder how long such 3D images, as in figure 1 & 2, take in terms of data acquisition? Any thoughts?
I need to learn more about some of these other images in this paper better.
Thanks for sharing :-)
*.ctf files/HKL *.ang files/TSL . Background is that there are two main commercial systems currently in use for electron microscopy using the EBSD technique. I’ll not go into their history/genesis, but currently one is the channel5 or HKL suite, which is the Oxford instrument product, the other is the OIM or TSL suite, which is the EDAX product.
In crude terms the technique works by determining the crystal orientation at discrete points on a sample surface. Typically those data collection points are arranged on a regular grid, in HKL the grid is points from a square array, whereas those collection points in TSL are arranged on a hexagonal grid.
The *.ctf file is a format that HKL system can use to export EBSD data, I think ctf is a contraction of channel text file, which describes the file, i.e. a text file. The *.ang file is in crude terms the TSL system’s equivalent file, it’s created during a scan, but normally will be deleted during normal post processing of the data, going from *.osc to *oim format. The ang file is thus also a text file. Both files follow their own set format with headers that describe certain sample/data collection settings, followed by columns of actual scan data obtained.
Well that’s an extremely short, highly incomplete description of what is a very powerful technique in material examination/investigation.
Dear John Butler, did you read the question?
Is there any free available software which enables a conversion of *.ctf files into *.ang-files?
For orientation measurements by EBSD we need to transfer *.ctf-files (Channel text file, HKL Technology/Oxford Instr.) into *.ang-files (TSL/EDAX). Both are ASCII formats and mainly contain the Euler angles for each position in an orientation map.
Do you have any useful answer in this question?
BTW: Also TSL enables the measurement in a regular grid. For nearest neighbors the hexagonal grid might have some advantages, but already the representation complicates everything if you consider the regular display matrix. However, personally I do not believe in this big advantage. At least I do not remember any meaningful paper which indicates the advantage of hexagonal over regular grid.
TSL and Oxford might be the oldest companies on the market (and Oxord finally gave ip their own system and simply bought the Danish HKL Technology), but you should note that also Bruker and Thermo sell EBSD systems which during the last few years forced the old players to implement a few nice features like automatic projection center calibration, automatic camera calibration, patterns streaming and background processing (sold now as PRIAS by TSL) since these features are part from the beginning in CrystAlign. Bruker only did not introduce a further ACSII format in order to make everything even more complicated. It is a pain when data are incompatible. Even big companies have to define standards in order to survive in long terms. Unfortunately, the market is too small so that new ideas are hard to introduce. The EBSD development could be much faster if one would overthink from time to time old assumptions, e.g. the invalidity of Friedels law. It is a luck that at lest free software like MTEX offers to investigate or represent new results.
Also surprising that EBSD use color keys wich are based on the Laue groups and not (as correct) on the enantiomorphic (rotation) groups. Internally, however, all software packages only apply rotation to move orientations into the fundamental sector. But then they use Laue groups and introduce a mirror operation which equalize two non-equivalent orientations. There are still many improvements possible...
Yes Gert, Sorry I don't know of any conversion software, and the OIMTools project's freeware is not hosted online anymore.
Apologies to you, as in my answer I was giving brief brackground to Ravi Ananth, as he had requested, earlier in this thread.
As for the advantage of the Hexagonal array over the square array, off the top, I've only seen TSL's presentations on this aspect, which basically show that the vector from the centre of one cell to the surrounding ones is constant with the hexagonal grid, (see attached slide from one of their presentations).
Hi Gert,
if you have a Matlab license you might want to try this code I wrote some time ago:
https://github.com/frankNiessen/ctf2angMTEX
Even more straight forward, exporting *.ang files is now also a functionality within MTEX:
https://github.com/mtex-toolbox/mtex/blob/develop/EBSDAnalysis/%40EBSD/export_ang.m
