Event files are used to import in Qinertia time event markers. They are used to time stamp, for example, a camera shutter event or for Lidar data synchronization.

ASCII Events FormatLink to ASCII Events Format

This is the easiest way to input events is using a CSV like text file format.

The file format is composed of an optional header followed by events markers stored line by line. If Qinertia doesn't find the header, the default configuration values are used. The file can use either Windows, Unix or Linux line ending conventions and should use UTF-8 encoding.

ASCII header

The header is used to configure how Qinertia should parse and import the file. The header always starts with the  $qevent magic keyword to identify it. Then each parameter can be set using a succession of  <param>:<value>  pairs stored line by line.

If there is no header or the parameter is not present in the file, Qinertia will use the default value that is indicated in bold.

Param
Optional
Description
$version(error)

Match ASCII file format version, should be set to 1

$timeSource(tick)

Events time stamp format:

  • gps: Seconds from 6 January 1980 (no leap second)
  • gpsTow: GPS time of week in seconds
  • utcIso: ISO 6801 (e.g. 2020-06-19T11:50:04.535Z)
  • unix: Seconds from 1 January 1970 (UTC time)

Default value is gps

$gpsWeekNumber(tick)

GPS week number to use in case $timeSource is gpsTow

If gpsTow is selected this parameter is mandatory and has no default value.

ASCII data

The ASCII events data part is just a succession of events stored line per line. Each column field is separated by a tabulation '\t' or semicolon ';' character.

Field
Type
Unit
Optional
Description
timestamp--(error)The event time stamp expressed in the format specified by the  $time_source  header field.
idstring-(tick)Event name/id

Example

The example below shows a few events with the file header:

$qevent
$version:1
$timeSource:gpsTow
$gpsWeekNumber:2000
490735.000;EV1
490736.150;EV2
490737.015;EV3
490737.515;EV4
490738.320;EV5
490738.456;EV6
490739.101;EV7
490739.532;EV8
490740.000;EV9
490741.000;EV10
490742.000;EV11
490743.000;EV12
TEXT