.. _3-a:


=================================================================
Tball: A tool for viewing and manipulating Nodal data files
=================================================================

.. sectionauthor:: J. W. Bae, M. A. Jessee, W. A. Wieselquist

Tball is a new command-line utility for viewing and manipulating
TRITON and Polaris nodal data output files, including:

     * **x16**: binary nodal data format
     * **t16**: plaintext nodal data format
     * **nodal.h5**: hierarchical nodal data format


Tball can be called directly from the command line, from ``${SCALE}/bin/tball``;
in addition, it can be called within a SCALE input within a `=shell` block, i.e.:

.. code-block:: scale
    :caption: A Tball command within a shell block
    :name: fig-tball-shell

    = shell
    ${PGM}/tball [command] [file(s)]
    end

Tball supports the following modes:

     * **convert**   convert between nodal data file formats


Each of these methods are discussed in the following sections.

tball convert
=============
.. program :: tball convert

Converts between different file formats for nodal data files.

**Usage**: ``tball convert [input_file_path] [output_file_path]``

The input and output format is automatically detected from the extension
(.t16, .x16, .h5) or unique name (e.g. txtfile16, xfile016).

.. option:: input_file_path

    Path to existing nodal data file. 

    They should have the following formats:

    * **.t16 or txtfile16**
    * **.x16 or xfile016**
    * **.h5**

.. option:: output_file_path

    Path for output file. 

    They should have the following formats:

    * **.t16 or txtfile16**
    * **.x16 or xfile016**
    * **.h5**


.. code-block:: scale
    :caption: Tball command to convert x16 to t16 file format
    :name: fig-tball-convert

    tball convert polaris.x16 polaris.t16