Topological Material Analysis 1
Analyse the structures of materials using tools from TDA
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TopologicalMaterialAnalysis is a Python application to analyse topological structures in materials. It can be used via a graphical user interface or a command line interface. It was developed in conjunction with the Glass Structure and Mechanics Group, Aalborg Unviersity.
Currently, you need the following Python packages to be installed:
You will also need to ensure tkinter, CGAL, oneTBB are installed.
The full documentation is built using doxygen, which you will need to install if you want to build the documentation locally. This README contains a quick start guide, and the documentation shouldn't be necessary unless you encounter erros, or wish to contribute to the application.
To build the documentation locally, run
in the top-level repository directory. Then, the HTML documents will be generated in Documentation/html
. doxygen also builds LaTeX documentation, which is in Documentation/latex
which needs to be compiled. Do to so, run
in Documentation/latex
.
Once you have all the packages installed and are in your python environment of choice, navigate to the GUI directory, and from a terminal (on Mac/Linux) or Command prompt(?) (Windows), run
You can then select from 3 different modes: single
, multi
and batch
. Using the GUI should be pretyy self-explanatory from here.
To run the CLI, use
The SETTINGSFILE
should be an .ini
file, and each section
corresponds to a set of variables. Depending on what mode is being used, the contents of the section will differ a little bit. Each section
needs to contain a variable MODE
which can have values single
, multi
, or batch
. All three modes also need information about the structure settings to use, which are also stored in an .ini
file. This structure file can also be used to load structures when using the GUI. For information on formating the structure file, see Structure files section.
To use the CLI of ToMA, it is easiest to specify the settings in a .ini
file. Depending on which mode of ToMA you want to use, there are different parameters required. Common to them all is MODE
, which, unsurprisingly, specifies the mode.
In single mode, ToMA analyses a single structure at a single timestep, and so requires the following parameters:
STRUCTURE_FILE
: this is the file containing the structure you want to analyse.FILE_FORMAT
: format of the structure file.SAMPLE_TIME
: which time step you want to analyse.CONFIGURATION_FILE
: the file which contains information about configuration you are analysing, see the Configuration files section.CONFIGURATION_NAME
: name of the configuration in the configuration file. while the following are optional:N_THREADS
: number of threads to use for Oineus.KERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute kernel persistence.IMAGE
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute image persistence.COKERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute cokernel persistence.THICKNESS
: set how thick the top and bottom slices should be for kernel/image/cokernel persistence, as a decimal, representing the relative thickness.SAVE_PLOTS
: boolean, set to true if you want to save the plots.For example:
In mutli mode, ToMA analyses a single structure at multiple timesteps, and so requires the following parameters:
STRUCTURE_FILE
: this is the file containing the structure you want to analyse.FILE_FORMAT
: format of the structure file.SAMPLE_START
: which time step you begin analysing at.SAMPLE_END
: which time step to end at.SAMPLE_STEPS
: step size.CONFIGURATION_FILE
: the file which contains information about configuration you are analysing, see the Configuration files section.CONFIGURATION_NAME
: name of the configuration in the configuration file. while the following are optional:N_THREADS
: number of threads to use for Oineus.KERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute kernel persistence.IMAGE
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute image persistence.COKERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute cokernel persistence.THICKNESS
: set how thick the top and bottom slices should be for kernel/image/cokernel persistence, as a decimal, representing the relative thickness.SAVE_PLOTS
: boolean, set to true if you want to save the plots.For example:
In batch mode, ToMA analyses every structure it can find in a directory and all subdirectories, at multiple timesteps, and so requires the following parameters:
PARENT_DIR
: which directory to commence the search in.FILE_EXT
: what the file extension is, any file with a different extension will be ignored.FILE_FORMAT
: format of the structure file.SAMPLE_START
: which time step you begin analysing at.SAMPLE_END
: which time step to end at.SAMPLE_STEPS
: step size.CONFIGURATION_FILE
: the file which contains information about configuration you are analysing, see the Configuration files section.CONFIGURATION_NAME
: name of the configuration in the configuration file. while the following are optional:N_THREADS
: number of threads to use for Oineus.KERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute kernel persistence.IMAGE
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute image persistence.COKERNEL
: boolean, set to true if you want to compute cokernel persistence.THICKNESS
: set how thick the top and bottom slices should be for kernel/image/cokernel persistence, as a decimal, representing the relative thickness.SAVE_PLOTS
: boolean, set to true if you want to save the plots.For example:
Configuration files contain information about the type of material you want to analyse. They should be .ini
files. In particular, it needs to contain information about the atoms you want to consider, the radii to use for each one, and settings for repeating the unit cell. In particular, if you have simulated a material through which certain atoms flow, and want to consider the backbone through which these atoms move, you can do not need to modify the file from the simulation: ToMA will only use atoms of the specified types when constructing the $\alpha$-complexes for persistent homology.
Very important, a structure file can contain information about several different structures, they just need unique names. An example of specifying a structure is: