A2L Converter Tool

Knowledge

A2L files are written in a structured ASCII format (*.a2l). Because of this special format the XCP Master Filter needs a hugh amount of time to parse these kind of database files. To get rid of parsing the *.a2l file at every XCP Master Filter initialization, the internal parser converts *.a2l files to a *_converted.xml file. The parsing of these *_converted.xml files is more performant.

If the specified a2l - folder contains a *_converted.xml with the name of the *.a2l file, the XCP Master Filter automatically uses the *_converted.xml file. Otherwise, the XCP Master Filter converts the specified *.a2l file and places the *_converted.xml file in the same folder. For the next initialization, the XCP Master Filter finds this XML file and uses it, which significantly reduces the initialization time.

Tooling

The A2L Converter Tool can be used to manually convert *.a2l to *_converted.xml files. This is necessary when:

Usage

The executable can be found in the bin-folder of the Calibration Toolbox package:

$(CALIBTB)/bin/a2l_converter_tool.exe

The tool must be called with a command line and the following options:

A2L Converter Tool
Usage:
    a2l_converter_tool --help
    a2l_converter_tool --a2l <*.a2l filename> [--xml <*.xml filename>]

The --xml option is not necessary. If you're not providing a path for a new xml file, the tool is using the path of the given *.a2l file and only adding the *_converted.xml posfix. After calling the tool, the specified *.a2l file is converted and the created *_converted.xml file can be found at the previously specified location.