DIAdem Idea Exchange

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Hello,

work would be much easier for me if direct debugging of Dialogs would be possible. It should be like debugging of scripts.

You set a breakpoint, let the script run and when it is paused you can look for the values of variables and continue in single steps.

Debugging with the Microsoft Script debugger is not really a comfortable solution.

2) The data type "variant" is great. But sometimes a type definition would help much (I'm used to define the type of variables, even from Visual Basic).

I would have the need for a "type" definition to combine several values to "one variable". With this construction a function could give some values in one result (e.g. a vector) and it would save some calculation time or global variables.

Example:

type rgbcolor

dim r

dim g

dim b

end type

dim color as long

dim a as rgbcolor

a = conv_rgb(color)

msgbox a.r & " " & a.g & " " & a.b

function conv_rgb(col_long as long) as rgbcolor

...

end function

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Reorder script tabs

In the DIAdem interface, there are menubar buttons available that allow the user to "Save ___ As...", whether it's a script, SUD, layout, etc. In the script editor, there is also a "Save All" button that saves all of the opened scripts. However, 9 times out of 10 I just want to save the current layout/script/whatever. It would be great to have a standard "Save" button either in addition to or in place of the "Save As..." button in the menubar.

(Yes, I know I can use the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+S" or click "File --> Save" but these options are not as readily apparent as the "Save As..." or "Save All" icons, so I find myself clicking one of those and then having to click several more times just to get out of it...when all I wanted was a one-click save.)

An added benefit would be (like in the Script editor), if the file has not changed then the "Save" icon could be grayed out. That way the user would know that the current state of the current script/layout/etc was saved to disk.

Sometimes it is necessary to call a procedure with an optional argument. VB provides an opportunity to do so: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f25e2b6b.aspx. I created a little workaround which is not working in every case, for example not, when the optional parameter is at the last position of the argument list.

Call Example1(1,) 'throws an error message
Call Example1(1) 'throws an error message
Call Example2(1,,3) 'works

' Not working
Sub Example1(param1, param2)
    If VarType(param2) = 10 Then param2 = 0
End Sub

' Working
Sub Example2(param1, param2, param3)
    If VarType(param2) = 10 Then param2 = 0
End Sub

My idea is to introduce optional parameters for procedures in the argument list with the possibility to define a default value.

Sub Example1(param1, Optional ByVal param2 = 0)

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Text box rendered size

I often create custom reports that have a box drawn "FreeFrame" with a text box "FreeText" inside. In some cases, I put too many characters in the text box and it breaks the bounds of the box. It is difficult to predict the size of the text box unless you use a font like courier. I would like the property of size added to the report text box.

The use case is update the text box with the text.
Check the rendered text box size.
Adjust font size if the box exceeds the size of the surrounding box.

"add or replace" for data objects

Hello

When developing scripts, I frequently add channel groups for analysis results, using

call data.root.channelgroups.add("analysis")

However, when re-running the scripts, successive groups "analysis1", "analysis2" etc. are created. This is a handy feature that I should not want to miss at some times, BUT

at other times I want to skip the creation of new channel groups. As a work-around I litter my code with 'exist'-statements such as

If not call data.root.channelgroups.exists("analysis") then

call data.root.channelgroups.add("analysis")

end if

Set oResGrp = data.root.channelgroups("analysis")

Now, my suggestion is to add a command such as "AddOrReplace" or "Use", which would use the existing group if it exists and creates a new group if not. Pretty much the same behaviour as with the calculator, where

CH("NewChannel")= CH("oldChannel") will create a new channel or overwrite an existing one.

call data.root.channelgroups.add("analysis")

would work as we know it and

call data.root.channelgroups.Use("analysis")

would create a new object or use the existing one.

Alternatively one could supply an optional paramter to the .Add-method like

call data.root.channelgroups.add("analysis",0)

as default using the well-known behaviour whereas

call data.root.channelgroups.add("analysis",1)

would change to create or replace.

Obviously the same would come in handy for channels or other objects that use an .add-method.

Thank you

Michael

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DIAlog Docking in Data Portal

We've suggested this in person, but thought I'd finally post it to the site.

Despite it being called the Data Portal, we'd like to have the capability of docking DIAlogs of any purpose into the data portal as new tabs alongside 'Structure' and 'List' views.

Non Modal DIAlogs tend to cover some portion of the active window, so tend to get in the way and end up being closed and re-opened by the user despite our resizing and overlapping of the Data Portal. Allowing docking into the Data Portal would allow for convenient sizing (REPORT/VIEW tabs are already re-sized around the data portal) and movement with the application from one screen to another.

The primary example of functionality advancement for us would be our 'Page Browser', which is much like the View/Report 'manage' function, but works for both, allows filtering on both, allows for convenient rearranging of sheets to any other position, and can remain up at all times so users can simply jump to or flip to sheets without re-opening the 'manage' function or slowly tabbing/scanning through all sheets.

Obviously, it's up to you to decide the implementation...having some sort of tab manager at the very top or bottom that switches the 'Data Portal' out entirely for a 'Sheet Portal' and other custom DIAlog options & names could also work, or some other implementation entirely, but as the other tab manager already exists (but only ever contains 2 tabs), I feel would likely be less of a massive UI overhaul.

-Josh

Script editor file saving

When editing a Script. The path for the saving files defaults to the last opened file, instead of remembering the path for each file being editted. This causes files to be saved in the directory of the last file opened, which many times results in the wrong saving location. This is especially an issue when have large number of script files in different directories.

I would prefer that each script file that was being edited would keep it path separate and stored so that it always saves the files to the location that it was opened from.

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I understand that DIAdem is not a console application, but a GUI-application. Therefore, a python command like

val = input("Enter value: ")

will not work because sys.StdIn and sys.StdOut are not available. However, this isn't well-documented and the error given isn't very helpful.

There are other more complicated outputs that I have seen in the console area of my regular Python IDE (I usually use PyCharm) that fail with very unrecognizable errors in DIAdem Python, usually a string of errors in many scripts that looks very intimidating!

It seems that DIAdem is just grabbing the simple "print" statements from Python scripts, and nothing else works. This would be ok if these errors could be bypassed somehow?

Currently, ONE python engine is started with each instance of DIAdem. This behavior is not well-documented and comes with limitations.

For example, if I have an imported function ".py" script called "MyHelperFunctions.py" and import this into another script, the function is only loaded once. If I make edits to this function, and save the file, the edits will not be available until I close/reopen DIAdem!

I suggest having multiple embedded python engines at the same time. And this would enable DIAdem to always be ready for a python call but still retire a python engine that was bloated.

At the least, having a script command to spin up a new python engine would be very helpful for me!

Today I was trying to find the SCRIPT command for "Converting Numeric Channels into XY-Channels" and could not easily find it or record a script to find it. So two requests here: (1) when recording a script, output the script or have a message that says 'sorry!' and (2) update the help with the correct script functions, similar to the other channel conversion functions.

I tried to record a script, executing the ANALYSIS function "Channel Functions -> Channels <-> XY Channels", but nothing showed up in the recorded script.

Looking up the help reference for "Channels <-> XY-Channels" only shows how to display the dialog, Call SUDDlgShow("Main", ResourceDrv & "AnaChnToXYChn")

All of the other "channel conversion" help documents show how to do this in SCRIPT, for example, "Numeric Channels <-> Complex Channels" shows "

ChnConvertNumericToComplex", similar for the Numeric to Time, Waveform, etc. My proposal is below:

Script Call:

Call SUDDlgShow("Main", ResourceDrv & "AnaChnToXYChn")

Set Group = Data.Root.ChannelGroups(1)

Set XChannel = Group.Channels(1)

Set YChannel = Group.Channels(2)

Set YChannel.XRelation = XChannel

I would like a tool that would help identify noise spikes in my data, so that they may be set to NO VALUE or carefully interpolated. In the attached example, I have two torque spikes in my data that are significantly higher than the mean. If I were only looking at one file, I would simply "Set Flags" in VIEW, then "Flags: Remove Data Points". However, I am reviewing dozens of files with several channels of interest.

Peak data points are the most damaging to the components under test, so it is important that we keep the real events and reject the noise.

Concerns with other peak / spike removal options:

Manual Set Flags -> Flags: Remove Data Points; time required
ANALYSIS -> Event Search -> Event = Window -> Upper Limit: In other data files, I have real events with values higher than the noise in this data file.
ANALYSIS -> Digital Filters or Smoothing: This will change all of the data - it will likely narrow the peak-to-peak of my other data and interpolate my noise spikes, adding damage that is not actually real. I only want to remove a few data points in the channel data.

nCode Glyphworks has a nice Spike Detection Tool that uses 6 available algorithms to detect spikes. Once it identifies them, it allows the user to see them, prior to performing any actions - this is important, because it allows the user to identify if they are real or noise, prior to taking action.

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DIAdem Idea Exchange

Dialog Debugging + Data Types

Reorder script tabs

Save Icon (vs. Save As or Save All)

SCRIPT Calling simplification

Save SUD Dialog for previous version

Text box rendered size

"add or replace" for data objects

Search History

DIAlog Docking in Data Portal

Breakpoints - Jump back, Repeat

Comfort-Functions in Editor - Open / Close for if / While / ....

Script editor file saving

Extending grouping feature in DIAdem SCRIPT

Warning and Errorhandling in Dataplugins

Implement "autosave" option in SCRIPT

Improve errors for DIAdem Python logfile issues

Allow multiple embedded python engines at the same time

HELP ( convert text channel to Numeric channel )

Improved Help entry and script recording for "Converting Numeric Channels into XY-Channels"

Noise Spike Detection Tool