CFD Online Discussion Forums - writing solid body position to a file

hi,
unfortunately, i don't know how to do this well, but i'm also looking for a solution to this problem. Obviously, there is no ready-to-use functionObject for logging positions as there is for forces.
using other functionObjects, i got the demanded values, but in a very bad structure:

i used functionObject "writeRegisteredObject" in controlDict to write object "dynamicMeshDict":
a)

Code:

functions

{

    positions 

    {

        // Forcibly write registered objects



        type            writeRegisteredObject;

        functionObjectLibs ("libIOFunctionObjects.so");

        log                 yes;

        

        outputControl   timeStep;

        outputInterval  1;

        writeInterval   1;



        // Objects to write

        objectNames    ( dynamicMeshDict );

    } 

};

this produces folders and files for every single timestep :eek:

this means, i would get thousands of files like
caseRoot/80.01/uniform/sixDoFRigidBodyMotionState.gz
caseRoot/80.0199/uniform/sixDoFRigidBodyMotionState.gz
caseRoot/80.0298/uniform/sixDoFRigidBodyMotionState.gz
and so on, each containing a file like
b)

Code:

/*--------------------------------*- C++ -*----------------------------------*\

| =========                 |                                                 |

| \\      /  F ield         | OpenFOAM: The Open Source CFD Toolbox           |

|  \\    /   O peration     | Version:  2.3.0                                 |

|   \\  /    A nd           | Web:      www.OpenFOAM.org                      |

|    \\/     M anipulation  |                                                 |

\*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

FoamFile

{

    version     2.0;

    format      ascii;

    class       dictionary;

    location    "80.0199/uniform";

    object      sixDoFRigidBodyMotionState;

}

// * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * //



centreOfMass    ( 3.3 0 0.1386375 );



orientation     ( 0.99807619 0 0.061999301 0 1 0 -0.061999301 0 0.99807619 );



velocity        ( 0 0 0.0045163445 );



acceleration    ( 1.3211615 -2.6233042 0.84606626 );



angularMomentum ( 0 -0.2529557 0 );



torque          ( 1109.8274 99.511973 -24.488035 );





// ************************************************************************* //

but does NOT create a logfile.
in fact, this is the information i was looking for, but i would prefer to get a single file like

c)

Code:

#time centreOfMass orientation velocity acceleration angularMomentum Torque

80.0199 ( 3.3 0 0.1386375 ) ( 0.99807619 0 0.061999301 0 1 0 -0.061999301 0 0.99807619 ) ( 0 0 0.0045163445 ) ( 1.3211615 -2.6233042 0.84606626 ) ( 0 -0.2529557 0 ) ( 1109.8274 99.511973 -24.488035 )

80.0298 ( ... ... ... ) (.. ... ... .. .. .. .. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (... .. ..)

80.0398 ( ... ... ... ) (.. ... ... .. .. .. .. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (... .. ..)

80.0497 ( ... ... ... ) (.. ... ... .. .. .. .. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (.. .. ..) (... .. ..)

like for forces output.

i know its just a matter of batch processing to collect all b)-files to a single c)-file, but it is not very clean to temporary overflood the case-directory with thousands of folders, containing folders, containig archives, containing files... before collapsing them all to one single text file.

So does anyone know a smarter solution to log these values in a single file at runtime?

regards
simon