# Layer Slicing

Layer Slicing — MC Grating documentation for Modal Collinear and Modal Conical. This dialog is accessible from the Layers page of Settings Dialog and…

Canonical: https://mcgrating.com/docs/modal/layer-slicing.html


Written by Nikolay M. LyndinLast revised 2015-05-27

This documentation was written for releases up to 2018 and is being revised. Some dialogs have changed since. If something does not match what you see, write to [mc@mcgrating.com](mailto:mc@mcgrating.com).

This dialog is accessible from the*** [Layers](https://mcgrating.com/docs/modal/layers.html)*** page of ***Settings Dialog*** and provides the user with several options:

- To transform a current ***Layer*** into series of layers representing ***Sinus***, ***Trapezium***, ***Triangle*** or ***Profile From File*** shape of interface separating two media. The total series thickness is equal to the ***Thickness*** of initial ***Layer***.
- ***Profile From File*** option supports loading a text profile file (extensions .dat or .txt). File should contain two columns X and Z coordinates (arbitrary units) respectively. The length of the profile table must be greater than or equal to 2. The first line of the columns names is allowed. Columns should be separated by tab or double space. Values in the X column will be normalized by software to a single period while values in the Z column will be normalized to a Layer thickness defined in ***Settings Dialog*** for the initial Layer.
- To merge a successive series of layers into a single uniform (one Cell) layer preserving the total thickness of series.

From the in-application help of Modal Collinear and Modal Conical, documented through 2018. If you publish results computed with MC Grating, see [how to cite it](https://mcgrating.com/references.html#cite).