This documentation page refers to a previous release of DIALS (2.2).
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Data files

The DIALS programs read and write three main types of data file for storing the experimental geometry, image data and processed reflection data. These are summarised in the following table and described in more detail in the sections below.

File type	Contains
Experiment list	Experimental geometry (plus optional crystal) and image data
Reflection table	Processed reflection data

The data files input and output from the main dials programs are described below.

Program	Reads	Writes
dials.import	N/A	imported.expt
dials.find_spots	imported.expt	strong.refl
dials.index	imported.expt strong.refl	indexed.expt indexed.refl
dials.refine	indexed.expt indexed.refl	refined.expt refined.refl
dials.integrate	refined.expt refined.refl	integrated.expt integrated.refl profile_model.phil
dials.scale	integrated.expt integrated.refl	scaled.expt scaled.refl

Experiment list files

The experiment list file is stored as a JSON file in ascii format. Whilst being human readable (and editable), editing the file directly is generally not recommended. The file contains the location of any imported imagesets and experimental models (i.e. beam and detector, plus optional goniometer, scan and crystal models). It also encodes the relationship between models if multiple sequences or sets of stills are imported. Experiments can share models, e.g. two experiments may share detector models. This allows, for example, joint refinement of experiments.

An example of a short file is shown below.

{
  "__id__": "ExperimentList",
  "experiment": [
    {
      "__id__": "Experiment",
      "beam": 0,
      "detector": 0,
      "goniometer": 0,
      "scan": 0,
      "crystal": 0,
      "imageset": 0
    }
  ],
  "imageset": [
    {
      "__id__": "ImageSequence",
      "template": "centroid_####.cbf"
    }
  ],
  "beam": [
    {
      "direction": [
        -0.007852057721998333,
        3.772524827250213e-14,
        0.9999691721195861
      ],
      "polarization_normal": [
        0.0,
        1.0,
        0.0
      ],
      "divergence": 0.0,
      "polarization_fraction": 0.999,
      "sigma_divergence": 0.058,
      "wavelength": 0.9795
    }
  ],
  "detector": [
    {
      "panels": [
        {
          "origin": [
            -211.53596470096178,
            219.45303890619488,
            -192.7062494437063
          ],
          "fast_axis": [
            0.9999551354884303,
            0.0021159302715049923,
            0.009233084500921031
          ],
          "name": "Panel",
          "slow_axis": [
            0.0021250002879257116,
            -0.999997269169901,
            -0.0009726389448611214
          ],
          "trusted_range": [
            -1.0,
            495976.0
          ],
          "image_size": [
            2463,
            2527
          ],
          "px_mm_strategy": {
            "type": "ParallaxCorrectedPxMmStrategy"
          },
          "type": "SENSOR_UNKNOWN",
          "pixel_size": [
            0.172,
            0.172
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "goniometer": [
    {
      "fixed_rotation": [
        1.0,
        0.0,
        0.0,
        0.0,
        1.0,
        0.0,
        0.0,
        0.0,
        1.0
      ],
      "rotation_axis": [
        1.0,
        -1.5919306617286774e-16,
        -6.904199434387693e-16
      ]
    }
  ],
  "scan": [
    {
      "exposure_time": [
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2,
        0.2
      ],
      "epochs": [
        1360324992.0,
        1360324992.0,
        1360324993.0,
        1360324993.0,
        1360324993.0,
        1360324993.0,
        1360324993.0,
        1360324994.0,
        1360324994.0
      ],
      "image_range": [
        1,
        9
      ],
      "oscillation": [
        0.0,
        0.2
      ]
    }
  ],
  "crystal": [
    {
      "__id__": "crystal",
      "real_space_a": [
        35.23781811553089,
        -7.600614003857873,
        22.077690418635804
      ],
      "real_space_b": [
        -22.657129890916668,
        -1.4698317405529955,
        35.65693038892429
      ],
      "real_space_c": [
        -5.295803077552249,
        -38.99952334925477,
        -4.972795822746061
      ],
      "space_group_hall_symbol": " P 4 2",
      "mosaicity": 0.157
    }
  ]
}

Reflection files

The reflection files are saved in python’s “pickle” format. This is a binary format that is convenient for serializing python classes. The reflection files will contain a table with some or all of the following columns.

Column	Description
flags	bit mask status flags
id	experiment id
panel	the detector panel index
miller_index	miller indices
entering	reflection entering/exiting
s1	the diffracted beam vector
xyzcal.mm	the predicted location (mm, mm, rad)
xyzcal.px	the predicted location (px, px, frame)
ub_matrix	predicted crystal setting
xyzobs.px.value	centroid pixel position (px, px, frame)
xyzobs.px.variance	centroid pixel variance
xyzobs.mm.value	centroid millimetre position (mm, mm, rad)
xyzobs.mm.variance	centroid millimetre variance
rlp	reciprocal lattice point
intensity.sum.value	raw intensity value
intensity.sum.variance	raw intensity variance
intensity.prf.value	profile fitted intensity value
intensity.prf.variance	profile fitted intensity variance
intensity.scale.value	intensity value used for scaling (without scale factor applied)
intensity.scale.variance	variance of intensity value used for scaling
inverse_scale_factor	scale factor determined by scaling (divisory)
inverse_scale_factor_variance	variance of inverse scale factor
lp	LP correction (multiplicative)
qe	detector quantum efficiency correction (divisory)
profile.correlation	correlation in profile fitting
partiality	fraction of reflection measured (i.e. Ifull = Isum/partiality)
bbox	bounding box
shoebox	shoebox data/mask/background struct