WiTec WIP / WID

Status: Partial · Vendor: WiTec · Extensions: .wip, .wid

WiTec .wip and .wid files are binary project containers written by WiTec Project / Project FIVE for confocal Raman workflows. They can hold single spectra, maps, line scans, image/navigation metadata and project-tree objects. nirs4all-formats decodes one observed Project FIVE map layout natively; the broad interchange path remains the WiTec ASCII export, handled by the row-oriented spectral table reader. The format is Raman, adjacent to the core NIRS point-spectrum scope.

Instruments & software

Produced by WiTec Project and Project FIVE for WiTec confocal Raman microscopes. Public fixtures show both the older WIT^ signature and the Project FIVE WIT_PR06 signature; the committed Sa4.wip fixture is a WIT_PR06 project containing a TDGraph spectral map.

File structure

The reader sniffs .wip/.wid by the leading project signature (WIT^ or WIT_PR06) and emits a Definite probe for both. Only the WIT_PR06 TDGraph layout is decoded:

  • the supported geometry SizeX=90, SizeY=55, SizeGraph=1024, DataType=6 (unsigned 16-bit);

  • LineValid flags, validated strictly as boolean (0/1) bytes, so an interrupted acquisition emits its valid spectra instead of all physical grid slots;

  • the WiTec FreePolynom calibration coefficients, used to reconstruct a wavelength axis;

  • the TDGraph SpaceTransformationID model/world origin, scale and rotation matrices, used to derive physical map positions.

What nirs4all-formats extracts

  • Signals — one SpectralRecord per valid spectrum, each with a single raw_counts signal typed RawCounts (raw CCD counts).

  • Axis — the FreePolynom wavelength axis converted to Raman shift (cm-1) using the ExcitationWaveLength (532.099 nm in the fixture).

  • Metadata — physical map positions in micrometres; diagnostic counts for valid/invalid lines, physical grid slots and physical spectrum index; and the FreePolynom order and bin range used before Raman-shift conversion.

  • Provenance & warnings — every record carries witec_wip_experimental_parser, plus explicit warnings for the layout limit, the derived Raman-shift axis and the derived map coordinates.

  • ASCII export — WiTec single-spectrum ASCII exports decode through row-spectral-table as raw CCD counts with a nanometre axis.

Variants & support status

Variant

Status

Notes

WIT_PR06 TDGraph map (Sa4.wip geometry)

Experimental

The one decoded native layout; strict LineValid, Raman-shift axis, physical coordinates.

WiTec ASCII single-spectrum export

Supported

Routed to the row-oriented spectral table reader.

Legacy WIT^ projects

Detected / refused

Sniffed but refused with an explicit unsupported-layout error.

Other WIT_PR06 layouts / project-tree objects

Detected / refused

General single spectra, maps, line scans and time series not yet extracted.

Limitations & known gaps

  • There is no general native project-tree parser; only the single WIT_PR06 TDGraph geometry above is decoded, and all other native layouts (including legacy WIT^) are refused rather than guessed.

  • Typed WiTec metadata (laser, objective, integration time, acquisition settings, broader map geometry) is not yet normalised.

  • A paired ASCII export from the same Sa4.wip project, and conformance reports against external WiTec-capable readers, are still wanted.

Reference readers

Layout cross-checks reference pynxtools-raman, hySpc.read.Witec and the LabberI2A WIPfile loader.

Samples & validation

The native path is validated by samples/raman_witec/Sa4.wip (Zenodo 7907659, ODbL v1.0): the regression test asserts 4410 emitted spectra, 1024 Raman-shift points, the first raw-count values, the underlying wavelength range, the 532.099 nm excitation wavelength and first/last map coordinates, plus the diagnostic layout metadata (4950 physical grid slots, 49 valid lines, 6 invalid lines, 4410 emitted spectra). The ASCII path uses samples/raman_witec/Si-wafer-Raman-Spectrum-1.txt. The reader stays experimental until more WiTec project variants and paired vendor ASCII exports are available.