d-u [-n | scale] < doubles > unsigned_shortsD-U(1)
NAME
d-u - convert double-precision binary numbers to 16-bit unsigned shorts
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SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
d-u reads a stream of machine-native double-precision (8-byte) binary floating point values from standard input, multiplies each value by a scale factor, and writes the result as 16-bit unsigned short integers to standard output.
Each scaled value is clipped to the representable range: values above 65535 are written as 65535 and values below 0 are written as 0. When any clipping occurs, a summary of how many high and low samples were clipped is reported on standard error.
The scale factor defaults to 1.0. A single optional argument controls scaling: either the -n flag or an explicit numeric scale value (the two are mutually exclusive).
Because the input is raw binary, d-u refuses to run when standard input is a terminal, and it also exits if the resulting scale is zero. The inverse conversion, from unsigned shorts back to binary doubles, is performed by u-d(1).
This command is deprecated and is scheduled for removal; it prints a deprecation warning on startup.
OPTIONS
- -n
-
Normalize the data by using a scale factor of 65536.0, mapping input doubles in the range 0.0 to 1.0 across the full 0 to 65535 output range.
- scale
-
Multiply every input value by this floating point factor before conversion. A scale of zero is rejected.
EXAMPLES
Example 1. Quantize a normalized signal
d-u -n < signal.d > signal.uReads doubles in the range 0.0 to 1.0 from signal.d and writes 16-bit unsigned shorts spanning the full 0 to 65535 range, suitable as input to u-d(1) or other unsigned-short tools.
Example 2. Apply an explicit gain and round-trip the data
d-u 1000 < values.d | u-d > scaled.dScales each double in values.d by 1000 before quantizing to unsigned shorts, then converts the result back to doubles with u-d(1), demonstrating the lossy quantization introduced by the conversion.
SEE ALSO
brlcad(1), u-d(1), d-a(1), dconv(1), dmod(1)
AUTHOR
BRL-CAD Team
COPYRIGHT
This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
BUG REPORTS
Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org