README.rst

InvPlane

Rotate a planetary system so that an inclination of 0 corresponds to the invariable or fundamental plane.

To compile:

gcc -o invplane inv_plane.c -lm

To execute:

invplane [-amhv] <infile>

The infile contains N+2 lines with the format

NumberOrbiters
CentralMass
Mass SemimajorAxis Eccentricity Inclination LongitudeAscendingNode ArgumentPericenter MeanAnomaly
...

where NumberOrbiters is the number of orbiters (don't count the primary!). The next line is the mass of the primary in solar masses. The next N lines contain the orbital elements of the orbiters in the order shown. The units are solar masses, AU, and degrees. Note that you do not include any strings, just the values of the parameters.

The user specifies the output format at the command line:

-a	an ASCII text file
-m	a big.in file for use with MERCURY
-h	a .hnb file for use with HNBODY
-v	report all warnings

For example, to transform a system with parameters provided in a file called system.in into a big.in file for use with MERCURY, the command is:

invplane -m system.in.

Thanks to Russell Deitrick, Pramod Gupta and Joseph Livesey for testing.