About the Project

Indentation Toolbox (indentoolbox) is an open‑source Python toolkit for post‑processing instrumented indentation tests (nano/micro‑indentation). It provides a consistent data model, vendor‑agnostic readers, analysis routines, and plotting helpers so you can go from raw files to clean, reproducible results quickly.

Smart indentation testing post‑processing with Python.

Goals

  • Reproducible workflows: standardize units, metadata, and project structure.

  • Vendor‑agnostic ingestion: read common exports (e.g., Hysitron/TI, XP DCMII) into a unified format.

  • Robust analysis: compute key quantities (work, hardness, indentation modulus) with transparent methods.

  • Educational material: serve as hands‑on support for workshops and courses on indentation testing.

History

The project started in 2023 to support a tutorial delivered at the French national workshop Indentation 2023 in Tours. Since then, the toolbox and its tutorials have continued to evolve and are used as teaching material for subsequent events (e.g., Indentation 2025 in Besançon).

What you can do with indentoolbox

  • Structured data model: Test, Step, and Batch objects, plus Device, Operator, Sample metadata for reproducible analyses.

  • Tip models: spheroconical and pyramidal tips with contact area functions; read .ara files to build tip objects.

  • File readers: load data from Hysitron/TI (including nanoDMA AVG), XP DCMII Excel exports, and folder‑based projects with TOML metadata.

  • Processing routines: compliance correction, work of indentation, parabolic and unloading fits, indentation modulus and hardness calculations, averaging across repeated indents, thin‑film utilities.

  • Plotting helpers: quick plots of hardness and indentation modulus versus displacement for inspection and reporting.

  • Jupyter‑first workflow: explore data and iterate interactively; optional lightweight widgets are available for simple data selection tasks.

  • CLI starter: an indentoolbox init command scaffolds a basic project structure.

Who is it for?

  • Researchers and engineers in materials science and mechanics working with instrumented indentation.

  • Students and workshop attendees who need a clear, hands‑on introduction with reproducible notebooks.

  • Labs looking to standardize post‑processing across instruments and teams.

Design choices

  • Consistent SI units: readers convert common vendor exports to SI (e.g., force in N, displacement in m).

  • Transparent data structures: container classes serialize to/from TOML/CSV for portability and archiving.

  • Extensible architecture: add new tip types, readers, and processing steps without rewriting the core.

Note

Current tip support focuses on spheroconical and pyramidal geometries. Additional tip types can be added; contributions are welcome.

Team and credits

  • Ludovic Charleux — lead developer

  • Emile Roux — co‑developer

  • Christian Elmo — co‑developer

  • Alessandro Benetto — co‑developer

Learn more

  • Setup and installation: see docs/source/setup.md.

  • Examples and notebooks: explore the examples/ folder.

  • Workshop lineage: tutorials originated at Indentation 2023, Indentation 2025.

  • License: GPL‑2.0 (see LICENSE).