How do I get Excel TDM plugin to work?

[RichElswick]

perhaps I could write an OLE function to export a group to an Excel worksheet.  I could then extract just the data from the 16 meg file that I want and then allow the Excel users the ability to view just the data they need to see.

Any suggestions or tips on how to do this?  I have looked at it a bit and referenced the Powerpoint OLE example in the Advanced Training Manual for Diadem, so I believe I could do this, but I don't have a great example.  The hard part I see is adding mulitple sheets into one open Excel doc.  Not sure how much it will gain me at this point though. 

Thanks for all the help.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Rich,

DIAdem has a built-in Excel Export Wizard, which you can fully automate with VBScript, and you can also use the VBScript Recorder to create the automating VBScript code as you interactively manipulate the wizard.  DIAdem can also instantiate various Excel AxtiveX objects with the CreateObject() function and push values to cells, etc., as you propose.  DIAdem also allows itself to be automated by external compilers with its two ActiveX servers (DIAdem.ToCommand and DIAdem.ToDataSheet).  If you search on these OLE server names in the DIAdem online help, you will find a full description of their properties and methods.

I mentioned your difficulties with the TDM Excel Add-in and large TDM files, and R&D ran a series of tests, which all performed flawlessly on their computers:

1). One TDM file with one channel, 80MBytes, more than 65K lines for one worksheet.
2). One TDM file with several channels with same length, 160MBytes, more than 65K lines for one worksheet.
3). One TDM file with several channels with different lengths, 170MBytes, some channels more than 65K lines, some not.

R&D and I are hoping you will post one of your troublemaking TDM (and TDX) files on our ftp.ni.com/incoming ftp server so that we can try it here.  The TDM Excel Add-in is designed to offer you a choice of which rows to load when your data file has channels longer than the current 65,536 row limit that Excel has, so you're really not supposed to be having these difficulties.

Please do send over that big TDM/TDX file,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[RichElswick]

I posted one of the problem children up.  Filename is 'Cobasys ExampleTDM.zip'

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Rich,

I have duplicated your Excel loading error on my computer.  The TDM file loads fine into DIAdem, though, where it becomes obvious that there are 31 Groups!

I have forwarded this TDM file on to R&D and asked them to look into it.  Perhaps there is a limit to the number of Groups that can be imported into Excel with the Add-in.  How many worksheets can Excel have open at one time?

More soon,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[RichElswick]

Excel help says the limit is based on availible memory, which opening Task Manager and creating new sheets in Excel confirms this.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Rich,

Yeah, after I posted last time I tried creating more than 32 sheets in Excel manually and it worked fine.  I heard back from R&D today, though, and the issue wasn't too different.  It turns out that Excel only allows you to name a sheet with 32 characters, and some of your group names had differences after the 32nd character, for example:

PnC 50% SOC 250A, 10 sec Discharge pulse, Bitrode Step 45
PnC 50% SOC 250A, 10 sec Discharge pulse, Bitrode Step 46

So Excel threw the error when the TDM Excel Add-in tried to name the "46" sheet, because from Excel's point of view it was trying to create 2 sheets with the name

PnC 50% SOC 250A, 10 sec Dischar

R&D has created a new version of the TDM Excel Add-in which checks for this issue and indexes the Excel sheet names as best as it can.  Note that neither LabVIEW nor DIAdem have any issues with these names, this is purely an Excel limitation to its sheet names.

Give this version a try,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[RichElswick]

yup, it appears that this works for us.  However, since I us Diadem and the end user are others within Cobasys, I will have to wait until they start using it for further feedback or lack of feedback to determine if everything is working right.

Thanks again for all your help and this plugin rocks by the way!