ifilot / den2bin

Tool that converts VASP density file (CHGCAR/LOCPOT) to a binary file

den2bin

Tool that converts VASP density file (CHGCAR/LOCPOT) to a binary file

Purpose

den2bin can compress CHGCAR/LOCPOT files either lossless or lossy. In the latter procedure, a 3D discrete cosine transformation is used wherein the higher frequency cosine coefficients are dropped (similar in the JPEG format).

Obtaining den2bin from the repository

Install the GPG key

wget -O - http://www.zuidcoach.nl/repos/apt/conf/ivofilotsoftware.gpg.key|sudo apt-key add -

Add repository

echo "deb http://zuidcoach.nl/repos/apt/debian/ ivofilot-software main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ivofilot-software.list

Update apt sources and install den2bin

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install den2bin

Compilation

den2bin requires the following packages (tested on Debian)

• libboost
• libbz2-dev
• libglm-dev
• libtclap-dev

Compilation is done using CMake

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../src
make -j5

Usage

Lossy compression

# to pack (note the "-l")
./den2bin -i <DENSITY_FILENAME> -o <BINARY_FILENAME> -m <MESSAGE_HEADER> -l -b <BLOCKSIZE> -q <QUALITY>

# to unpack (same as for the lossless version)
./den2bin -x -i <BINARY_FILENAME> -o <DENSITY_FILENAME>

Example:

# to pack (note the "-l")
./den2bin -i CHGCAR -o chgcar.dct -m "My special CHGCAR file" -l -b 4 -q 2

# to unpack (same as for the lossless version)
./den2bin -i chgcar.dct -o CHGCAR -x

Lossless compression

# to pack
./den2bin -i <DENSITY_FILENAME> -o <BINARY_FILENAME> -m <MESSAGE_HEADER>

# to unpack
./den2bin -x -i <BINARY_FILENAME> -o <DENSITY_FILENAME>

Example:

# to pack
./den2bin -i CHGCAR -o chgcar.bin -m "My special CHGCAR file"

# to unpack
./den2bin -i chgcar.bin -o CHGCAR -x

Performance

For the lossless compression, the final binary file has a compression ratio of 10-12. For example, a 300 MB file will be reduced to less than 30 MB. The compression is done in less than 5 seconds.

For lossy compression, the compression ratio can be as large as 250. For example, a 500 MB file will be reduced to about 2 MB. Compression times are typically between 1-10 seconds (tested on a i7-4790K using 8 threads).

Showcase

All images have been generated using EDP.

CHGCAR files

Recommended setting for CHGCAR is Blocksize 4, Quality 4

LOCPOT files

Recommended setting for LOCPOT is Blocksize 4, Quality 6