The package sims_GalSimInterface provides a seamless interface between CatSim and the image-generating software package GalSim.  The package is designed so that, as catalogs are generated via the usual CatSim API, FITS images are simultaneously written to disk containing the objects in your catalog.  To access this functionality, users instantiate special InstanceCatalog daughter classes defined in

sims_GalSimInterface/python/lsst/sims/GalSimInterface/galSimCatalogs.py

After calling write_catalog() to create the normal ASCII catalogs, users can then call the method write_images() to create FITS images of all of the objects in the catalog as they appear on the specified camera.

This process is explained in detail in the examples provided in

sims_GalSimInterface/examples/notebooks/
sims_GalSimInterface/examples/scripts/

The notebook GalSimTutorialCustomCatalog.ipynb is especially helpful.  We recommend using that as your principal source for documentation on how the CatSim-GalSim interface works.  It can be viewed in the installed sims_GalSimInterface code as described above or here.

Return to the main Catalog Simulations Documentation page.