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Author Topic: Display ddt file  (Read 1822 times)

Davidous

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Display ddt file
« on: October 26, 2020, 10:32:28 am »
Hello,

I don't know if it is possible, but I wold like to try it.
We have many measurement files. The raw data has the extension .ddt. The manufacturer of the measuring device provided a program, which can display this file. In the mean time I developed another program, which is better for my use, because it has some practical extra functions. This program can visualize txt data, but it would be very good if I could see the raw data graph at the same time.

Does anybody know anything about this .ddt files? (I attached one of these files)

Thank you in advance!  :)

MarkMLl

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2020, 11:17:05 am »
What sort of kit? What software are you running? What operating system? To save anybody else the trouble


00000000: 4441 444c 0001 4845 4144 7d00 0000 0000  DADL..HEAD}.....
00000010: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000020: 0000 0000 f03f 0000 0000 0010 0000 0100  .....?..........
00000030: 0000 0231 3600 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ...16...........
00000040: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000080: 0000 0044 4154 4128 0001 0000 0000 0000  ...DATA(........
...


Does that DADL "magic number" mean anything to you... some libraries or app that you're running?

MarkMLl

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Davidous

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2020, 11:42:05 am »
I use Win10 on my computer.
This file is generated by the measuring device. (It measures with the use of eddy currents)
Sadly I cannot say, that DADL "magic number" has any meaning to me.

MarkMLl

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #3 on: October 26, 2020, 12:05:23 pm »
What SORT of measuring device? What MANUFACTURER? If you don't want to tell us have you looked on Sourceforge and Github?

MarkMLl
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Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
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Davidous

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2020, 12:33:21 pm »
It is an eddy current measuring device. We measure the surface cracks of rails with it. I am not allowed to tell you the manufacturer.
I already searched the internet for these ddt files, but I didn't find anything.

How did you create this? :

00000000: 4441 444c 0001 4845 4144 7d00 0000 0000  DADL..HEAD}.....
00000010: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000020: 0000 0000 f03f 0000 0000 0010 0000 0100  .....?..........
00000030: 0000 0231 3600 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ...16...........
00000040: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000080: 0000 0044 4154 4128 0001 0000 0000 0000  ...DATA(........

MarkMLl

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2020, 12:34:52 pm »
Unzip and run through xxd | head Simples.

It appears to be based on blocks of data, each one of which starts with a 4-byte magic number and is followed by a little-endian length which includes the magic number. Now all you need to do is look at the values in the DATA blocks, which by eye I'd say are 32-bit numbers but without a schema or example output I'm not going to speculate further.

MarkMLl
« Last Edit: October 26, 2020, 01:18:13 pm by MarkMLl »
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winni

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2020, 01:27:50 pm »
I am not allowed to tell you the manufacturer.


Hi!

A little hint is necessary.

The suffix .DDT is either Football Manager or Microsoft Age of Mythology.

Or maybe something totaly different?

Winni

Davidous

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2020, 01:35:23 pm »
Hi!

With the help of MarkMLI I already know, that it is a binary file. I could load it with Binary Viewer. Now I would like to display this binary file on a graph in lazarus.

MarkMLl

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2020, 01:36:24 pm »
The suffix .DDT is either Football Manager or Microsoft Age of Mythology.

I admit that it caught my eye because of the antique "Dynamic Debugging Tool" that existed on various OSes.

MarkMLl
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Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
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Sieben

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2020, 01:44:18 pm »
There is also a Diagram Designer Template mentioned here:

https://www.filemagic.com/en/data-files/ddt-file-extension/3-ways-to-open-ddt-files/

which looks like a good guess - but obviously isn't...

I'm afraid you will have to ask the manufacturer - to just know it's a binary file is of no use if you don't know how to read and interpret it.
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MarkMLl

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2020, 01:49:30 pm »
With the help of MarkMLI I already know, that it is a binary file. I could load it with Binary Viewer. Now I would like to display this binary file on a graph in lazarus.

For something which has this level of opacity with implied NDAs etc., that wasn't help, that was free consultancy.

The thing you need to watch out for is that the few bytes at the start of the file don't comply with the format of the rest of it: you've got DADL followed by what might possibly be a two-byte version number.

The HEAD block is not a multiple of 4 bytes, so you can't just read everything in 4-byte chunks.

Most of the rest of the file is DATA blocks. My suspicion is that the 32-bit numbers in there come in simultaneously-captured groups, where one of the numbers might be a timestamp indicator.

If I were doing this- and it's hardly the first time I've tackled measurement data in an unknown format- I'd first dump it to a textfile so that any numeric structure could be reconciled with data you have in some other format (display from proprietary software... it's a longshot but is CES relevant?).

After- not before- the numeric sequence has been mined you start thinking about how to display it graphically.

MarkMLl
MT+86 & Turbo Pascal v1 on CCP/M-86, multitasking with LAN & graphics in 128Kb.
Pet hate: people who boast about the size and sophistication of their computer.
GitHub repositories: https://github.com/MarkMLl?tab=repositories

Thaddy

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2020, 03:40:30 pm »
Sigh. .ddt is just a poorly chosen file extension on Windows, because there it simply means the link manager (as above explained and is a file to start from the explorer. It is indeed ancient, but it still works.)

So you have to have some for info or reverse engineering capabilities to know what your ddt file is... Heeh, it is just a record in your case.
Specialize a type, not a var.

Davidous

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Re: Display ddt file
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2020, 02:06:10 pm »
Thank you, I will give it a try. :)

 

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