File Formats

Starting CUBE 7, all models are managed by CUBE projects which has a file extension of .cube-project which replaces the catalog (.cat) files. All applications of the projects have an extension of .cube-app which replaces the .app application files. New files formats for networks are introduced for CUBE 7 which are GDAL or OGR based with an extension of .sqlite and they are referred as CUBE databases. All network mapping is now saved as .cube-map files which replaces the .vpr files. New matrix formats are introduced with an extension of .cube-matrix which replaces the .mat files. A list of all new file formats is given below.

File Editing

Starting CUBE 7, you can continue to open the .net files from earlier versions of CUBE but editing is not supported. The network editing is only possible with the .sqlite files or CUBE databases. So when moving to CUBE 7, if any network editing needs to be done, one needs to convert their CUBE 6 networks to CUBE 7 database network or else you can edit your networks in CUBE 6 and then directly use in CUBE 7 for modelling steps. Also, the .mat files can continue to be opened in CUBE 7 but editing them on the fly is only possible with .cube-matrix files. A list of all supported file formats and the corresponding viewer or editor can be found in File Viewers/Editors.

Cube Convert Utility

To convert the file formats from one format to another, we introduce a CubeConvert.exe utility tool with several options for network or matrix conversion. E.g., to convert the CUBE 6 network to CUBE 7 database, one can use the net-6to7 function and pass the input file and get the output file. Similarly, all other functions can be called/used to convert the file format from one version to another version. Refer to the CubeConvert.exe page for more information on Cube Convert Utility.

File Formats Support

Starting CUBE 7, if you are running a CUBE Voyager program in CUBE 7, your inputs can continue to be in .net format or .lin/.pts or .mat format which also means that CUBE Voyager has not changed when moving to CUBE 7. However, if you are working with CubePy or CUBE API, you can use new file-formats like .sqlite, .cube-matrix to run your modelling steps. Then, for any file conversion, you can use the CubeConvert.exe which supports the old and new formats. A short summary is provided below for reference.