dtx_to_wif

This package supports three different tasks:

  1. Convert several kinds of weaving files to WIF.

  2. Find differences between two weaving pattern files.

  3. Read weaving files into memory.

This package is meant to be used from the terminal. If you are not comfortable using a terminal, this may not be the right package for you.

Supported formats

dtx_to_wif can convert the following kinds of weaving design files to WIF 1.1 files:

  • FiberWorks .dtx files
  • TempoWeave .twa files

  • WeavePoint .wpo files (partially: see known limitations)

  • It can also read standard WIF files that have the .wif or .wifw extension. This is useful for differencing files or reading them into memory. (.wifw is a non-standard extension that may be written by WeaveIt).

Converting Files To WIF

First install the software. Pay careful attention to where the dtx_to_wif, etc. executables are installed. The path will be long on Windows.

Run your terminal application.

Type one of the following on macOS or unix:

dtx_to_wif path1 path2 ...
twa_to_wif path1 path2 ...
wpo_to_wif path1 path2 ...
If the program is not found, specify the path to it, as described in installing.

On Windows type:

<...path...>\dtx_to_wif.exe path1 path2 ...
<...path...>\twa_to_wif.exe path1 path2 ...
<...path...>\wpo_to_wif.exe path1 path2 ...

where <...path...> is the path to the file, as shown when you installed dtx_to_wif.

The path arguments can files or directories. All files in a directory are converted, as well as all subdirectories, sub-sub-directories, etc.

Each new WIF file is written to the same directory as the original file with the same file name but a ".wif" extension. If a WIF file with that path already exists, the old file is left unchanged, with a warning. To overwrite existing files, run the command with option --overwrite.

If you run the command with option -h you will see all available options.

Differencing Files

The command line program diff_weaving will compare two weaving files and print any differences in threading, picks, or thread color:

diff_weaving file1 file2

If necessary, prefix this with the path to diff_weaving, as described in #converting-files-to-wif.

This utility focuses on the pattern created, rather than the details of how the pattern is specified. Thus, for example, a pattern specified by a liftplan may compare equal to a pattern specified by treadling.

The program also ignores notes, pattern name, thread thickness, thread separation, and program-specific data (private sections). The reason it ignores thread thickness and separation is because those are difficult to compare in away that reliably produces the expected results: they are floating point values that are quantized differently by different weaving programs.

Reading Files Into Memory

dtx_to_wif can read supported weaving pattern files into memory, using function dtx_to_wif.read_pattern_file.

The files are read into an instance of dtx_to_wif.PatternData. This is used by base_loom_server dobby loom control software. It could also be used by pattern visualization software and weaving design software.

To read a weaving pattern from a file, call dtx_to_wif.read_pattern_file. To read a weaving pattern from a string, call dtx_to_wif.read_pattern_data.

To write dtx_to_wif.PatternData to a WIF file, call dtx_to_wif.write_wif.

Terminal Applications

The standard terminal applications are Terminal for macOS, and cmd.exe for Windows. Other terminal applications are available, but the standard ones are fine.

Known Limitations

The WeavePoint .wpo reader cannot read notes, thread thickness, nor thread separation. Due to this limitation I consider wpo_to_wif only marginally useful. However, the WeavePoint support is sufficient to allow base_loom_server to work with WeavePoint files.

Known differences from the WIF files that FiberWorks writes:

  • The date the dtx file was created is not written to the WIF file, since WIF has no standard location for this information. FiberWorks saves it as a comment in the [TEXT] section ("; Creation ...").
  • The default colors and separations for warp and weft may not match. This is just an internal detail, as the resulting pattern is the same. (I have not figured out the algorithm FiberWorks uses to choose default colors and separations.)

License

This software is licensed under the MIT license. See license.txt for details.