Index: /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/io/loadmodel.py
===================================================================
--- /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/io/loadmodel.py	(revision 13942)
+++ /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/io/loadmodel.py	(revision 13942)
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import os.path
+from loadvars import *
+
+def loadmodel(path):
+	"""
+	LOADMODEL - load a model using built-in load module
+
+	   check that model prototype has not changed. if so, adapt to new model prototype.
+	
+	   Usage:
+	      md=loadmodel(path)
+	"""
+
+	#check existence
+	if os.path.exists(path):
+		#do nothing
+		pass
+	else:
+		raise IOError("loadmodel error message: file '%s' does not exist" % path)
+
+	try:
+		#recover model on file and name it md
+		struc=loadvars({},path)
+
+		name=[key for key in struc.iterkeys()]
+		if len(name)>1:
+			raise IOError("loadmodel error message: file '%s' contains several variables. Only one model should be present." % path)
+
+		md=struc[name[0]]
+		return md
+
+	except Exception as me:
+		print me
+		raise IOError("could not load model '%s'" % path)
+