binary vtk file

[Robert Kern]

On 10/11/10 5:16 AM, Paul Biegel wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a question related to read a binary vtk file. This file has been created
> using Matlab by
> the command "fread". However, this file must be processed further within Python.
> It is not
> known to me which codec is used to encode this file. It starts with the
> following characters:
> /1XùB4zBÑX•Cò¼ôA4zBÑX•C~BùB4zBÑ{–Cn
ùB4zBJž—C •øB4zB·¿˜CÃ/
> //
> Has anyone an idea how to decode this in normal Python strings even if it is not
> known
> which character set must be used? Thanks in advance.

If it is a binary file and not text, it's nearly certain that you do not use 
character sets or codecs at all. Those bytes do not represent text characters in 
any encoding. You will have to look at your existing Matlab code to determine 
how it is interpreting those bytes. Probably, they are just floating point 
numbers, either single precision or double precision. You will probably want to 
use numpy to read the file once you have discovered its format.

http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/user/

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco