The following three snippets of Gaussian output are for an optimization and normal mode analysis of simple olde methane (CH4).
...
******************************************
Gaussian 03: EM64L-G03RevE.01 11-Sep-2007
31-Aug-2014
******************************************
...
incident light, reduced masses (AMU), force constants (mDyne/A),
and normal coordinates:
1 2 3
T T T
Frequencies -- 1356.0070 1356.0070 1356.0070
Red. masses -- 1.1789 1.1789 1.1789
Frc consts -- 1.2771 1.2771 1.2771
IR Inten -- 14.1122 14.1122 14.1122
Atom AN X Y Z X Y Z X Y Z
1 1 0.02 -0.42 0.43 -0.34 -0.13 -0.08 -0.36 -0.23 -0.23
2 6 0.00 0.08 -0.09 0.00 0.09 0.08 0.12 0.00 0.00
...
-------------------
- Thermochemistry -
-------------------
Temperature 298.150 Kelvin. Pressure 1.00000 Atm.
Atom 1 has atomic number 1 and mass 1.00783
...
...
******************************************
Gaussian 09: EM64L-G09RevA.02 11-Jun-2009
31-Aug-2014
******************************************
...
incident light, reduced masses (AMU), force constants (mDyne/A),
and normal coordinates:
1 2 3
T T T
Frequencies -- 1356.0058 1356.0058 1356.0058
Red. masses -- 1.1789 1.1789 1.1789
Frc consts -- 1.2771 1.2771 1.2771
IR Inten -- 14.1123 14.1123 14.1123
Atom AN X Y Z X Y Z X Y Z
1 1 -0.03 0.42 0.43 -0.34 -0.14 0.07 -0.36 -0.23 0.23
2 6 0.00 -0.08 -0.10 0.01 0.10 -0.08 0.12 0.00 0.00
...
-------------------
- Thermochemistry -
-------------------
Temperature 298.150 Kelvin. Pressure 1.00000 Atm.
Atom 1 has atomic number 1 and mass 1.00783
...
...
******************************************
Gaussian 09: EM64L-G09RevD.01 24-Apr-2013
31-Aug-2014
******************************************
...
incident light, reduced masses (AMU), force constants (mDyne/A),
and normal coordinates:
1 2 3
?A ?A ?A
Frequencies -- 1356.0132 1356.0132 1356.0132
Red. masses -- 1.1789 1.1789 1.1789
Frc consts -- 1.2771 1.2771 1.2771
IR Inten -- 14.1119 14.1119 14.1119
Atom AN X Y Z X Y Z X Y Z
1 1 0.02 0.42 0.43 0.34 -0.14 0.08 -0.36 0.23 -0.23
2 6 0.00 -0.08 -0.09 -0.01 0.09 -0.08 0.12 0.00 0.00
...
-------------------
- Thermochemistry -
-------------------
Temperature 298.150 Kelvin. Pressure 1.00000 Atm.
Atom 1 has atomic number 1 and mass 1.00783
...
Two of these things are not like the other. The data's nearly identical (and thank heavens. Unfortunately, Gaussian09 D.01 didn't see the fully-optimized methane as belonging to the Td point group – despite all three versions being run with the same exact input file – but a rigorous re-symmetrization would have taken care of that), but there are some subtle formatting differences between all three versions (including differences between both Gaussian09 versions) that cause the venerable, all-encompassing aClimax program (developed by Timmy, the venerable, all-encompassing A. J. Ramirez-Cuesta) to throw out the following errors for all three cases when you use *.log files from a *nix (UNIX, Linux) machine.
Serious Error: A-CLIMAX has encountered an unhanded error. Please Save your data and contact support
aClimax: Quote Error Number 9
Error Loading File: Error reading data. Please check and try again.
aClimax: WARNING loaded file containing no frequencies
Problem number 1 is the existence of *nix newlines (carriage returns) in the *.log files coming off a *nix machine. Performing a conversion from *nix to DOS (for myself, using LineBreak in OSX, but tofrodos works just as well), the Gaussian03 file now opens just fine in aClimax:
File Loaded: Data Loaded Succesfully [sic].
This, unfortunately, does not improve the matter with the Gaussian09 files, which produce the following error:
Error: One of the numbers you have entered is of the wrong type.Please recheck and try again
Error Loading File: Error reading data. Please check and try again.
Given how little of the .log file aClimax actually needs to produce simulated inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectra, I ran the methane normal mode analyses in three different Gaussian versions to determine what, in G09, was changed to make it just un-G03 enough to fail to load. With those changes figured out, I had a Perl script drafted up that would have converted everything back to the original G03 format. It was awesome. That said, after a small amount of testing to see where aClimax's sensitivities lay, I discovered that very little of the .log file contents needed to be changed out, meaning that simple sed scripts would work just as well for those of us using our Windows boxes (or VirtualBox emulations) only for that "one stupid program" that keeps us having to log in (and, by that, I mean that we have sed already on our computers).
So, the problems between G09 and aClimax not related to carriage returns lie in two places.
1. The spacing of "Atom AN" – at the top of the eigenvector lists are the column labels, beginning with "Atom AN" – or something very close to "Atom AN" (the "|" in the boxes below mark the left edge of the output):
G03 E01 | Atom AN G09 A02 | Atom AN G09 D01 | Atom AN
Yes, the addition of a space or two results in a read error by aClimax. I would call this an… aggressive stringency in aClimax. That said, what did the original space in G03 versions not do that they do do in G09?
2. The spacing of "Atom N" – In the "Thermochemistry" section below the eigenvectors, atomic masses are listed as "Atom N" – or something very close to "Atom N" (again, the "|" in the boxes below mark the left edge of the output):
G03 E01 | Atom 1 G09 A02 | Atom 1 G09 D01 | Atom 1
This change in spacing is also enough to cause aClimax to error out.
The Solution
A small sed script performs the necessary conversions on your *nix box (including OSX) for all .log files in a directory without issue:
#!/bin/sh # This section converts all .log files to aClimax-friendly G03-ish format find . -type f -name '*.log' -print | while read i do sed 's| Atom AN| Atom AN |g' $i > $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 sed 's| Atom | Atom|g' $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 > $i.aClimaxable.log rm $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 done # This section converts all .out files to aClimax-friendly G03-ish format find . -type f -name '*.out' -print | while read i do sed 's| Atom AN| Atom AN |g' $i > $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 sed 's| Atom | Atom|g' $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 > $i.aClimaxable.out rm $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 done
But Wait! Running G0* Jobs Under *nix? Convert To DOS Carriage Returns
The final problem halting your aClimax spectrum generation is the DOS carriage return (^M). For those running DOS-based Gaussian calculations (likely with a .out suffix), your conversion with the short script above (under *nix) likely (hopefully) worked just fine. For those running under *nix, you performed the conversion and still received the following aClimax error:
Serious Error: A-CLIMAX has encountered an unhanded error. Please Save your data and contact support
aClimax: Quote Error Number 9
Error Loading File: Error reading data. Please check and try again.
aClimax: WARNING loaded file containing no frequencies
The solution is an additional line in the sed script that will globally replace all *nix newlines with proper DOS carriage returns. The .out section remains the same.
#!/bin/sh
# This section converts all .log files to aClimax-friendly G03-ish format
find . -type f -name '*.log' -print | while read i
do
sed 's| Atom AN| Atom AN |g' $i > $i.aclimaxconversion_step1
sed 's| Atom | Atom|g' $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 > $i.aclimaxconversion_step2
# This section converts your *nix newlines into DOS carriage returns
CR=`echo "\0015"` # define the Carriage Return
sed -e "s/$/${CR}/g" $i.aclimaxconversion_step2 > $i.aClimaxable.log
done
# this cleans up your folder of temp files
rm *.aclimaxconversion_step1
rm *.aclimaxconversion_step2
# This section converts all .out files to aClimax-friendly G03-ish format
find . -type f -name '*.out' -print | while read i
do
sed 's| Atom AN| Atom AN |g' $i > $i.aclimaxconversion_step1
sed 's| Atom | Atom|g' $i.aclimaxconversion_step1 > $i.aClimaxable.out
rm $i.aclimaxconversion_step1
done
Q. But what if I run the *nix-to-DOS version of the script on an already DOS-output file?
A1. The simple answer is that you'll make your text file double-spaced (which is bad enough). aClimax will then provide the following error when you try to open it:
Error Reading File: Unexpected File End. File May be incorrect or corrupt. Error Loading File: Error reading data. Please check and try again.
A2. I will assume that your problem is that you're running the script in DOS to try to get your G09 to read more like G03. In this case (assuming you're generating .out files), you'll want to use a text editor to make the replacements described above (which is to say, that Perl script might makes it way to this page eventually. If you write a DOS .bat file or similar script for all OS's, I'd be happy to link to it).
