C3konvertasit

C3konvertasit is an open‑source software utility developed for the processing and conversion of files in the C3 format, a structured data representation commonly used in scientific research and industrial applications. First released in spring 2023, the project was initiated by the data‑engineering team at the Institute for Computational Studies to address growing interoperability needs among software platforms that use the C3 specification for parameter sets, simulation outputs, and configuration data. The name “C3konvertasit” reflects its core function—converting C3 files to more widely supported formats such as JSON, XML, and CSV while preserving metadata integrity.

The core conversion engine is written in Python 3 and relies on the PyC3 library for parsing C3 schemas. C3konvertasit supports single‑file and batch conversion modes, offers a command‑line interface as well as a minimal graphical front‑end for users who prefer visual workflows. Additional features include schema validation against custom user‑defined rules, a real‑time preview of converted structures, and the ability to map C3 fields to user‑specified output columns through a JSON configuration file. The project is licensed under the MIT license, which encourages adoption and modification in both commercial and academic environments.

Since its release, C3konvertasit has been cited in a number of domain‑specific studies, notably in bioinformatics pipelines where C3 datasets are used to encode experimental protocols. Its modular design facilitates the integration of new output formats; contributors have added support for YAML and Parquet after community requests. Future releases plan to extend the tool with a cloud‑native deployment option that can automatically trigger conversions as files are ingested into distributed storage systems.