Percentage Sign (%) in filenames

[tuflow support 0]

Q:

When trying to run a batch file to convert a maximum water level from .dat format into .asc format I get an unexpected error.  The batch file line is:

C:\TUFLOW\Utilities\w64\TUFLOW_to_GIS_w64.exe -asc -b -t99999 M01_5m_1%AEP_001_h.dat

A:

This is most likely that the percentage character is treated as a special character in a batch file.  For a description on this, please see the Microsoft site here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/75634

In general I would tend to avoid special characters such as % in filenames where possible, for example there is a list here:  http://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/web/cms/characters-avoid/

Whilst the % characters should generally fine in TUFLOW, are supported by Microsoft, however, they may require additional effort in batch files, e.g. may need to be wrapped in quotes (“) or have escape characters ignored.

Another thing to note is that TUFLOW can directly write the outputs to .asc grid.  You can output multiple file formats from TUFLOW and can set the data types, output interval etc based on the output format.  For example in the below, the model will output dat and asc formats with only the maximums for the asc.

Map Output Format == dat asc
Map Output Data Types == h V q d
Map Output Interval == 300
ASC Map Output Interval == 0 !only maximums for asc format
ASC Map Output Data Types == h V d Z0