Data From Your Instrument

MTEX reads the files of every major EBSD vendor, of 3D diffraction and of microstructure simulation into one data model, and writes EBSD maps back out in the vendors' own formats. This page lists, vendor by vendor, which files that covers, how the Euler angles are aligned with the map, and the line that imports them.

The alignment matters most. A vendor may describe the Euler angles and the map positions in two different specimen frames, and not every file states how the two are related. Where the file is silent, MTEX assumes the alignment the vendor uses by default and prints a note saying so. Reference Frame Alignment shows how to check that assumption against a feature of the specimen.

Overview

An HDF5 file is written by updating a copy of the imported file, so it keeps the vendor's header and acquisition settings; see Exporting EBSD Data. A text file of columns from any other source is read by the generic loader.

Oxford Instruments

AZtec writes .h5oina and, like Channel 5, the text format .ctf and the binary pair .cpr and .crc.

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.h5oina');
ebsd = EBSD.load('map.ctf');
ebsd = EBSD.load('map.cpr');

Oxford states its Euler angles in the sample surface frame \(X_1\), \(Y_1\), \(Z_1\), with \(Z_1\) pointing out of the surface. An .h5oina file states its scan rotation, and MTEX applies it. For .ctf and .cpr MTEX assumes the Oxford default of a scan turned by 180°, which puts \(X_1\) to the west and \(Y_1\) to the south of a map drawn with \(x\) east and \(y\) south, i.e. Euler angles turned by 180° about the y axis against the map. A file exported with another alignment is imported with that rotation stated explicitly:

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.ctf','EulerCorrection',rotation.id);

An .h5oina file may hold the raw and the processed version of a map; Importing EBSD Data shows how to choose between them.

EDAX

OIM and APEX write the text format .ang, the binary .osc and HDF5.

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.ang');
ebsd = EBSD.load('map.osc');
ebsd = EBSD.load('map.oh5');
ebsd = EBSD.load('map.edaxh5');

EDAX chooses the alignment of Euler angles and map at export time, as one of four settings. An .oh5 file states the setting. An .ang, .osc or .edaxh5 file does not, and MTEX assumes setting 2, the most common one. Another setting is passed by number, and 'setting',0 switches the correction off:

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.ang','setting',3);

Bruker

ESPRIT writes HDF5.

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.h5');

The file states its coordinate system, and MTEX applies the matching alignment.

Thermo Fisher

xTalView writes HDF5.

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.h5');

xTalView writes the map with its x axis opposite to the specimen x axis the Euler angles refer to. MTEX applies the matching alignment, a half turn about the y axis.

NanoMegas ASTAR (ACOM-TEM)

ASTAR exports its orientation maps from the .res results as .ang files. MTEX recognises them by their first header line and reads the positions in nanometres.

ebsd = EBSD.load('map.ang');

As for EDAX .ang files, the alignment of Euler angles and map is not stored; check the assumed setting 2 against the specimen before relying on directions in the map.

3D data: Xnovo, DREAM.3D and Neper

Volumes measured with Xnovo GrainMapper3D (LabDCT) and voxel data from DREAM.3D are imported as an EBSD3 volume, grain meshes from DREAM.3D and tessellations from Neper as grain3d grains.

ebsd = EBSD3.load('volume.h5');
ebsd = EBSD3.load('volume.dream3d');
grains = grain3d.load('mesh.dream3d');
grains = grain3d.load('tessellation.tess');

Xnovo states positions in millimetres and DREAM.3D in micrometres, and MTEX keeps those units. 3D EBSD Analysis, DREAM.3D Grain Meshes and Neper Interface continue from here.

X-ray and neutron pole figures

Pole figures are read from the files of Malvern Panalytical (X'Pert, .xrdml), Rigaku (SmartLab), Bruker and Siemens (D5000), Seifert and Scintag diffractometers, from the neutron diffractometers at Dubna, Geesthacht and Jülich, and from the texture programs popLA, BEARTEX and LaboTex.

pf = PoleFigure.load('measurement.xrdml');

Importing Pole Figure Data covers the formats and the crystal symmetry a pole figure file needs.

Next

Importing EBSD Data explains what an import produces and what it cannot guess, and Reference Frame Alignment how to verify the alignment before trusting any specimen-relative result.