The given filename must be accessible to the solver application. At present the bitmap file must be in either the PPM (portable pixmap), GIF, or BMP formats. (Formats other than the PPM P3 (text) format may be handled by spawning an any2ppm subprocess.)
White areas of the bitmap are interpreted as being non-magnetic (or having 0 thickness); all other areas are assumed to be composed of the material specified in the “Material Parameters” section. Thickness is determined by the relative darkness of the pixels in the bitmap. Black pixels are given full nominal thickness (specified by the “Part Thickness” parameter above), and gray pixels are linearly mapped to a thickness between the nominal thickness and 0. In general, bitmap pixel values are converted to a thickness relative to the nominal thickness by the formula 1-(R+G+B)/(3M), where R, G and B are the magnitudes of the red, green and blue components, respectively, and M is the maximum allowed component magnitude. For example, black has R=G=B=0, so the relative thickness is 1, and white has R=G=B=M, so the relative thickness is 0.