Pgnscid is a command line utility (included with Scid) to convert PGN files to si4 databases. It's main advantage over Scid Imports is that it is more reliable for large PGN imports.
To convert a file named "myfile.pgn", simply type:
To create the database in a different directory, or with a different name, one may add the database name to the command line. For eg:
Scid and Pgnscid can also read gzipped PGN files directly. So large files compressed with gzip (such as "mybase.pgn.gz"), do not have to be gunzipped first.
There are two options that may occur before the filename:
-f forces overwriting of an existing database. (By default, pgnscid will not overwrite a database that already exist).
-x causes pgnscid to ignore all comments/text between games. (By default, text between games is stored as a pre-game comment).
Some commonsense formatting of Player Names is done automatically. These include: the number of spaces following a comma is standardized to one. Spaces at the start and end of names, and trailing dots, are removed. And Dutch prefixes such as "van den" and "Van Der" are normalized to have a capital "V" and small "d".
Of course, one may manually edit and spellcheck Player, Event, Site and Round Names via the Scid Maintenance Window once games are imported.