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FlexPDE supports the import of tabular data in several script commands. In each case, the model assumes that a text file contains data defining one or more functions of one, two or three coordinates.  The coordinates may be associated with any quantity known to FlexPDE, such as a spatial coordinate, a variable, or any defined quantity.  At each point of evaluation, whether of a plot or a quadrature computation of coupling matrix, or any other context, the values of the declared coordinates of the table are computed and used as lookup parameters to interpolate data from the table.

 

This feature is useful for modeling systems where experimental data is available and for interfacing with other software programs.

 

The names of quantities to be used as table coordinates may be declared inside the table file, or they may be imposed by the TABLE input statement itself.  

 

Table coordinates must be in monotonic increasing order.

 

TABLE data are defined on a rectangular grid, and interpolated with linear, bilinear or trilinear interpolation.  Modifiers can be prepended to table definitions to create spline interpolation or histogram interpretation, or to smooth the imported data.

 

Table import files are ASCII text files, and can be generated with any ASCII text editor, by user programs designed to generate tables, or by FlexPDE itself, using the EXPORT plot modifier or the TABLE output statement (see MONITORS and PLOTS).

See TABLE File Format for a definition of the table file format.

See Importing Data from other applications for a discussion of TABLE usage.