Shimadzu's XRD software saves powder diffraction measurements as binary .raw files, which
other programs rarely open. This page reads them and writes the pattern as a plain .xy file
(2θ and intensity), plus .xye, CSV, Excel and XRDML, without any Shimadzu software.
How to convert Shimadzu RAW to XY
- Upload the
.rawfile; several files or a ZIP of a folder work too. Shimadzu, Bruker and Rigaku.rawfiles are told apart by their content, so nothing needs to be chosen. - Pick the intensity: Counts as stored in the file, or Counts per second (the counts divided by the counting time per step).
- Download the
.xyfor plotting or phase identification, or the.xyefor Rietveld refinement.
What is read
- The pattern: every point, at the angles of the scan (start, end and step as stored).
- X-ray source: the anode and the wavelength recorded in the file (Cu Kα1, 1.5406 Å, in a copper-tube file), so d-spacing, Q and Cu-equivalent 2θ use the right value.
- Measurement conditions: tube voltage and current, scan mode, scan speed, time per step and the divergence, scatter and receiving slits.
- Sample and date: the sample name and the measurement date.
The preview lists all of this, and the Excel workbook has it on a metadata sheet. The XRDML download keeps the original 2θ positions, counts and counting time for HighScore, GSAS-II or Profex.
Counts and counts per second
The file stores counts per step. Counts per second divides them by the time per step; Normalised scales the strongest point to 100 for overlaying patterns.
Good to know
- Shimadzu support is new. The angles come from the start, end and step in the file and are checked against the number of points, and the conditions are shown as stored, but no Shimadzu text export of the same measurement has been available yet to compare the counts with.
- Files with more than one range, or laid out differently from the files we have seen, are reported as not supported instead of being guessed at. Export them as text in the Shimadzu software; a two-column table of angles and intensities converts here too.
- A file that was cut off while copying is reported as incomplete; copy it from the instrument PC again.
Bruker's .raw files are covered by Bruker RAW to XY, Rigaku's by
Rigaku RAW to XY. To plot against d-spacing or compare with Cu reference
patterns, see 2θ to d-spacing.
More about what this tool reads and writes: XRD Pattern Converter (RAW, BRML, XRDML, RAS).