Data Locations¶
Where AutoPhaseAnalysis stores binaries, caches, and settings.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| BGMN binaries | ~/.autophaseanalysis/bgmn |
| Working dir (transient downloads) | ~/.autophaseanalysis/work |
| Per-chemical-system CIF cache | OS app-data dir → AutoPhaseAnalysis/cifs/<system>/ |
| Presets / recent files / session | QSettings (OS-native store) |
The OS app-data directory resolves via Qt's QStandardPaths, so on macOS it is
under ~/Library/Application Support/AutoPhaseAnalysis/, and equivalent
per-user locations on Linux and Windows.
The CIF cache¶
The first search of a chemical system downloads its structures from COD and caches them per-system. Every later search of that same system reuses the cache and skips the download — this is the single biggest speed-up for repeated work.
The cache is self-healing: a completeness marker is written only when a
fetch finishes. If a download was interrupted mid-way (cancel, crash, dropped
network), the next run detects the partial cache and re-fetches it instead of
silently searching a degraded candidate pool. Downloads fall back automatically
from crystallography.net to the qiserver.ugr.es mirror.
Clear a chemical system's CIF cache from Tools → Refresh COD cache in the
GUI, or with the clear_cif_cache tool over MCP.
Offline use¶
Once a system's CIFs are cached and BGMN is installed, analyses of that system run without internet access. You only need connectivity for:
- the one-time BGMN engine download, and
- the first search of each new chemical system.