Exporting data

With Dewesoft X used as an acquisition package, we can use other post processing packages for advanced analysis. Data export is easy, fast, flexible and dynamic with Dewesoft X, supporting a wide variety of popular formats which makes data files highly transportable and can be imported into virtually any analysis program.

To enable efficient export data process perform the following procedure:

1. Set export data properties - define the type of data with data export and determine time axis (time range of data for export can be defined)
2. Exported channels - select the channels to export from channel list
3. Export option - select another software application as target for data export and offline analysis (MS Excel, FlexPro, Dewesoft, File export, Clipboard, ...)
4. Template management - create and edit templates (scripts) which are listed on central post-processing in FlexPro and MS Excel part of the screen
5. Perform export data - after all settings are done, select Export data button to export data

We have also two special procedures to:

• Export multiple files
• Export instrument display to video

Sometimes our data file contains a lot of acquired data and we don't need the whole range of data for analysis. We can select only one part of data and perform analysis and export only on the selected part.

To export only a part of acquired data, select the time range on the recorder (or vertical recorder) with zooming in the portion of data.

NOTE: Only the selected portion of data will be exported. To export the full range of data, first zoom out to the entire length of data.

To export the selected data, press the Export button on the main Dewesoft X tool bar. The Export button is available only in Analysis mode.

Once you press the Export button, the following window will appear:

Data export

Select type of data from data export drop down list:

• Real data (data exported with full speed)
  
• Reduced data (for this type of data we can select several different calculations: min, max, RMS, average)
  

Time axis

Select the type of time scale from time axis drop down list:

• Relative time axis will start with time 0 at the beginning of the measurement.
• Absolute time axis will export absolute date and time of measurement as the time axis.
• Trigger time axis will start with time 0 at the trigger point (pretrigger will show negative time values).

The next step is to select the channels to export from displayed cannels list:

Selection can be made in two ways:

• Click on the  icon in the Exported column to select from displayed menu:
  • Select all channels - all the channels will be selected for export.
  • Deselect all channels - this will deselect all the channels. None of the channels will be exported.
  • Invert selection - this will invert you selection. The channels that were selected for export, will not be selected anymore and the channels that were not selected, will be selected for export.
• 
• In the Exported column toggle between this choices to export/do not export particular channels. If the rectangular is in dark grey color, the channel will be exported and if the rectangular is in light gray color, it will not be selected for export.
  

NOTE: As a standard, all channels will be exported.

Channels can be moved up with the click on  button and down with the click on the  button. This will change the export order.

With the click on the  button, your selected channel will be moved on the top.

The export list options will be stored when we choose Store settings and events from main data manu,

Dewesoft X "online" export options

In Dewesoft X you can define which channel will be exported, in which order export the channel and the exported rate before starting the measurement.

Go to Global channel view, which can be found under Math plugins - Channels.

Right click on the main column and select Edit columns option.

• Exported - in the Analysis mode, when exporting data, the channel will be selected for export.
• Export order - define the export order, channel with number 1 will be exported first, ... .
• Export rate (Hz) - for each individual channel define the export rate.

Dewesoft X supports the following data export possibilities. Simply click on the prefered application to select it.

• FlexPro - direct data transfer via ActiveX
• MS Excel - direct data transfer via ActiveX
• File export - several file formats (txt, unv, uff, mat, dat, wav, ...)
• Dewesoft - stores selected area in new Dewesoft data file (used to cut files)
• Clipboard - copy the data to Window's clipboard, it allows pasting the data into another running application

We strongly recommend FlexPro, a third-party application that is easy to learn and use, and yet extremely powerful. Dewesoft X offers easy export to this format and advanced automation when data is exported to this program, including the ability to run custom macro scripts inside.

The other file formats (except FlexPro and MS Excel) just prompt you for a filename, which you supply using s standard Windows file dialog box. Click Export and the software will do the rest. Be sure to suplly a proper filename extension.

If you select the File export option, the following display appears:

• Export file name - name of exported file
• File directory - name of directory where the exported files are saved; select it with double click from drop down list
• Existing files - list of existing files in selected directory that are the same type
• Export file type - list of available exported file type

The supported data file formats are:

Build-in formats

FlexPro (*.fpd) - powerful, easy to use data analysis software

Excel (*.xls) - standard spreadsheet software (not useful for large amounts of data)

DIAdem (*.dat) - Powerful data analysis package for automotive industry. Diadem has an option to export certain groups of channels at specific sample rate, so the resulting data file is shorter. We can achieve this by de-selecting Export all channel groups with full rate and defining the rate for each channel group (PAD, CAN, GPS, Plugin and Math). If -1 is entered, the data will be exported at a full rate.

Matlab (*.mat) - Common analysis and mathematics package.

Export precision can be selected from drop down list between Single and Double. Usually single precision is enough, but sometimes Matlab functions expect data in double precision. Please be aware that the amount of exported data will be doubled if this option is chosen and Matlab files can't axceed 2 GB. Matlab can also export each channel with separate time channel or exports all data with full speed if Export asynchronous channels with full sample rate check box is checked.

Universal file format 58 (*.unv, *.uff) - For import to 3D modeling and structural analysis software from different vendors.

Famos (*.dat) - Famos file format export. Use channel colors can be checked to use Dewesoft X channel colors, otherwise default Famos color is chosen.

NSoft (*.dac, *.mdf) - NSoft file format

Text/CSV (*.txt, *.csv)- Delimited ASCII text file. With checked Export events also events will be exported in the text file.

Sony (*.log) -Sony DAT recorder data format

RPCIII (*.rsp) - RCP III data format used for road load data analysis. Bufferlength field can be set to match the analysis capabilities. With large files larger buffer length is recommended. The buffer length should be multiple of 2, i.e. 256, 512, 1024 and so on.

Comtrade (*.cfg) - Comtrade data format for power analysis

CAN messages - Tab delimited export of CAN messages for replay in demo mode.

ATI (*.ati) - For direct import in iDEAS analysis package (available as custom export).

Technical Data Management (*.tdm) -

HDF5 (*.hdf) -

Standard Data File (*.dat) -

WFT (*.wft) - Nicolet file format (available as custom export)

Wave (*.wav) - wave audio data format (available as custom export)

Google earth KML (*.kml) - Export of GPS path to Google earth (available as custom export)

Broadcast Wave Format (*.bwf) - Multi channel audio data format (available as custom export)

FileReplay - Export channels and use them as a replay file in a new Dewesoft X setup.

The procedure to export data file to new Dewesoft data files and select the exported time range was primary used to cut the files.

Export file name - name of exported file

File directory - name of directory where exported file to be saved; select with double click from the drop down list

Existing files - list of existing files that are the same type in the selected category

After selecting time range on the recorder display, entering export file name and selecting Export data button, only the acquired data for selected range (and for all channels) will be exported to new file.

Export data to Windows clipboard (or copy data to clipboard) allows pasting the data into another running application.

With this option the channels to export can be selected from displayed Channel list (at the bottom of the window).

To enhance export data to Microsoft Excel and FlexPro, following procedures can be used:

1. Select application - click on either FlexPro (ActiveX) or MS Excel (ActiveX) on Export option
2. Template management - Template Management controls are only available for Microsoft Excel and FlexPro export option to manage template - scripts, which are listed on central Postprocessing in FlexPro / MS Excel part of screen; templates can be created and changed or deleted
3. Select template (script) - appropriate script should be selected from the list of available scripts
4. Import Flexpro (databases) - MergeDB script allows the user to import existing FlexPro-Databases to the exported measurement data

If you click on either FlexPro (ActiveX) or MS Excel (ActiveX) on Export option, additional Template management controls in left bottom part of screen and list of available templates - scripts on central Postprocessing in FlexPro / MS Excelpart of screen are displayed:

MS Excel

FlexPro

For both, Microsoft Excel and FlexPro export option you will see that a list of preformatted scripts appears in the center of the screen with two columns Setup name and Description of script. Now you should select from the list of available scripts. You can select any one of them and then click the Export data button below the format icons to perform the exporting. Don't forget to select the channels to be exported before you press the Export data button.

User of MS Excel and FlexPro can examine the preformatted scripts and macros that are loaded in the \Dewesoft\System\X2\Scripts subdirectory and learn how to create their own scripts for export.

NOTE: Please note that FlexPro and Excel export requires that these applications are already properly installed on the computer, or else the exporting will fail.

The concept is very simple: once the script is created, just load any data file and run the script. What happens next is a big time-saver. Dewesoft X runs this script:

• automatically starting the other application (you will see a notice on the screen that it is starting the other application, and there will be a slight delay as it does so and establishes communication)
• creates the dataset
• runs the script

Let‘s say that you have a script that takes four incoming signals, runs 3^rd octave analysis on them, creates a polished looking report, complete with your company‘s title bar and logo, automatically puts in the data and other variables from the data file, and formats it for your color printer. After you click the Export button and this process runs, you will see your final report on the screen, and just need to click print to complete your report!

This is the power of "hot script" ActiveX data exporting from Dewesoft X to either MS Excel or FlexPro.

Typical FlexPro screen

Typical MS Excel screen

MS Excel export function knows about Excel‘s built-in limitation of 65536 rows per worksheet. If your data is longer than that, it simply creates multiple-worksheets within the workbook. It also makes a simple chart with the first several thousand data points for each input channel shown. You can use all of MS Excel built-in tools to change the chart format and make additional calculations and graphical outputs. But please be aware that MS Excel is not intended to handle million of data points.

Template management controls

You can easily create your own scripts in MS Excel or FlexPro, or edit the existing ones.

Just press the New template button to create a new one or Edit template to change an existing script.

To delete an existing script simply select it and press Delete template button.

When you press New template button, you have to enter a setup name, a description and a comment for the new script.

When you confirm your entries click on Process button or selct Edit button to change an existing script; MS Excel or FlexPro will automatically start with currently selected template.

NOTE: For more details about creating scripts please refer to the original MS Excel or FlexPro documentation.

If you want to export several files at once, there is a nice function available. Press the Analysis button to enter the file explorer. Select all files you want to export.

There are two possibilities to mark several datafiles (similar to Windows Explorer):

• to mark several files which are listed near to each other, keep the Shift button pressed during selection,
• to mark several files picked out of the list, keep the Ctrl button pressed during selection.

After all files to export are marked, select Multifile export from data menu:

Now the Export multi file window appears:

This window allows you to select:

• device and the directory - on File directory part of windows select destination of exported data
  
• export format
  
• time format - relative, absolute or trigger time type
  
• export type - full speed data, reduced data: Min, Max, RMS and/or Average type can be selected by checking appropriate box:
  

Press the Export button to start the export process or Cancel to leave without exporting the files.

Note: the export keeps the original file names for the exported files is the checkbox is marked. 

Dewesoft multifile export

Multifiles can also be exported to Dewesoft datafile format.

A new way of presenting data is the multimedia documentation. Dewesoft X offers the possibility to export any instrument screen like scope, recorder, 2D graph... to a video, which can be replayed in any video player.

Select Export screen to AVI from the Edit menu and the following Export screen to AVI file window will appear:

According to your requirements, you can change the export settings on this window . The following settings can be changed:

• File name and storage path - select folder and file name:
  
• Resolution from 640x480 to 1280x1024 selectable from drop down list - high resolution will create larger files!
  
• Frame rate from 1 to 30 - standard video player can not handle faster data; select from drop down list:
  
• Play speed perfect for slowmotion (from 1/2x to 1/10000x real time) or fast overview (from 1x to 5000x real time); select from drop down list:
  
• Sound channel - select from drop down list one of the available analog channels to be your audio channel:
  
• Video compression - DivX codec or similar is recommended. Press the Change button and the window will appear for selecting standard compression codec from the drop-down list and for configuring them.
  

When you have done all the needed changes press the Export button to start the export or Cancel to leave without exporting the video.

The export progress will be displayed in an Export screen to AVI file window.

When Dewesoft X has completed the export (depending on data and compression, this can take several minutes) you can open the exported file in a standard video player.

Dewesoft X offers a possibility to automatically export the data into selected file format.

Under Extensions (Settings -> Extensions)) first enable the AutoExport plugin.

Search for AutoExport and enable it:

After that, the plugin icon will be seen in the channel setup:

In the plugin, you select to which format the data are exported and where to:

NOTE: If the auto export option is enabled, the export type and options are stored in the setup file.

Please note: if you don't have the AutoExport plugin under Extensions it can be downloaded from our webpage:

Just copy the downloaded .dll file into Addons folder: