File Formats Used by External Executable Approximation Plug-ins

Technique Options File

The technique options file is created by Isight before calling the external executable program to initialize the approximation. This file uses a value name format. Each line contains one technique option value followed by the name of the option. The name is separated from the value by a tab character. All Boolean type options (true or false) are converted into integer values (true = 1, false = 0) to simplify reading of the values by the external executable program. The order of the options in the file is not guaranteed to match the display order on the Approximation Component Editor. The executable program must rely on the option names to determine which option value is on the next line. The following is an example of a technique options file:

Input Matrix File

The input matrix file is created by Isight before calling the external executable program to initialize or to evaluate the approximation. This file uses a tab separated table format except for the first two lines, where the number of rows and the number of columns are written. Each row of the table contains input values for one sampling point. The values are separated from each other by a tab character. The following is an example of an input matrix file:

Output Matrix File

The output matrix file uses a tab separated table format except for the first two lines, where the number of rows and the number of columns are written. Each row of the table contains output values for one sampling point. The values are separated from each other by a tab character. The following is an example output matrix file:

Input Values File

The input values file uses a tab separated table format except for the first two lines, where the number of rows and the number of columns are written. Each row of the table contains input values for one evaluation design point. The values are separated from each other by a tab character. The following is an example input values file:

Output Values File

The output values file must be created by the external executable program after performing evaluations of all design points found in the input values file. This file must use a tab separated table format except for the first two lines, where the number of rows and the number of columns are written. Each row of the table contains output values for one evaluated design point. The values are separated from each other by a tab character. The following is an example output values file:

Internal Data File

The internal data file is created by the external executable program after initializing the approximation. The contents of this file are entirely up to the plug-in developer, and it does not have to be in a readable format. Isight stores the file’s contents in memory and provides the contents again in a local file when the approximation must be evaluated or exported. The external executable program must be able to restore the initialized state of the approximation by reading this file at a later time before evaluating the approximation or exporting the internal data in a readable format.

If your approximation algorithm requires all sampling points for performing an evaluation (sometimes also called a “prediction” because the approximation is predicting the output values for a set of given input values), you are advised to not include the sampling matrices in your internal data to avoid duplication of data. Both input and output matrices are always provided by Isight when your executable program is called for evaluation, together with the internal data file.