VIEW won't display channels with same names

[Simon_Aldworth]

Hello,

We have recently installed DIAdem 2010 and are beginning to find channel name problems that we didn't have before with 9.1.

Traditionally we have always set the name-oriented channel references to 'only channel name' and we have never had any problems when displaying multiple traces in VIEW. Now, we find that when we display more than one trace in VIEW with channel names that are repeated we get problems with the axis system display dialogue box. This dialogue box tells me that the X and Y channel names AND NUMBERS are the same for all three traces when in fact the data displayed is different. If I try and change one of the channels it immediately reverts back to the first channel with that name.

I have attached a screen dump to help explain. The image shows a VIEW window with three speed time histories from three separate data files that have been loaded together. The three X channels will all be named 'time' but will be channel numbers 1, 4 and 7. The Y channnels are all 'speed km\h' and are numbered 2, 5 and 8. However, the dialogue box shows that all three traces are made from channels 1 and 2 despite the three traces appearing different. If I change one of the 'time' channels from number 1 to, say, number 4, then it reverts back to number 1 as soon as I move the focus to somewhere else in the box. Version 9.1 never had this problem.

If I swith the name-oriented channel references to '[group index]/channel name' then the problem goes away - even thought the data displayed in the graph is the same!

I'm not entirely clear on the reasons for settling on 'name only' references - probably historical - but I am even less clear on the effect of switching to '[group index]/channel name', particularly with the many autosequences that we use.

Is this a bug that can be fixed?

Regards, Si.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Simon,

I was able to reproduce the effect you described in my DIAdem 2010 SP1.  I noticed that I could still successfully drag and drop XY channel pairs from the Data Portal onto the VIEW graph and avoid that problem, though.  Have you tried drag&drop from the Data Portal yet?  I'd like to suggest that as a workaround while R&D looks into the issue you have reported.

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Simon,

I talked with R&D about this, and it turns out the full and correct answer to your question is that you should change the VIEW layout file to reference the data channels by channel number, not by channel name.  Starting in the VIEW panel, select the menu "Settings>>Layout Parameters...", then choose the "Number-oriented" radio button in the dialog.  After that you should save your *.TDV file so that this setting will stick.  You will need to do this each time or load a *.TDV file that has this setting configured correctly.

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments

[Simon_Aldworth]

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your efforts. I have to say that this is a right pain and an oversight by NI. It should be possible to choose which of the channel orientations should be the default instead of being stuck with it on name orientated.

I usually set DIAdem up so that there are no default files open in VIEW or REPORT as they are of no use to me. Now, I have set VIEW to open a single 2D axis system with number orientated channels as the default as it seem the channel orientation can be saved with the VIEW file. However, to avoid having to keep this special VIEW file somewhere where I will remember it when we change laptops I have saved it as the 'example' file given as part of the installation, which has necessitated changing the security levels on it. All a pain really for such a simple setting.

Cheers,

Si.

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Simon,

I agree that this is a pain for your legacy approach.  The number-oriented channel referencing approach was the default method in DIAdem 8.1 and prior versions.  Starting with DIAdem 9.0 (which introduced the Data Portal with channel groups, and drag&drop, and the TDM file format), we changed the standard channel referencing to name-oriented.  That was about 8 years ago.  At this point very few customers still use number-oriented channel referencing, and I believe you're the first customer to notice this corner case issue when upgrading from DIAdem 9.1 to DIAdem 2010.  We did not intentionally torpedo the behavior of DIAdem for our faithful number-oriented customers, and yesterday when I talked to them R&D was surprised and said that they would look into this.  Hopefully the other improvements in DIAdem from 9.1 to 2010 help will help offset this one frustrating incompatibility.

How do you like the DataFinder?  Would you like me to send you the 15 or so pages of new features that you now have in DIAdem 2010, jumping from DIAdem 9.1 previously?

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments

[Simon_Aldworth]

Hi Brad,

We don't use the datafinder - although I suspect that's for two reasons. Firstly, we don't know what it is or for and, secondly, we are fairly simple users of DIADdem, using it mainly for data processing and mathematics.

By all means send me the document - thank you.

Regards,

Si.

[Brad_Turpin]

Simon,

The DataFinder is a database that DIAdem installs that integrates directly into the NAVIGATOR, so that you can easily query data files/groups/channels or compile properties from multiple files into correlated curves on a graph, etc.  You might be interested in the ability to look inside your data files in the NAVIGATOR to see the group/channel structure and their properties.  This is particularly interesting if you wan to load selected groups/channels from one or more files.

Here are the feature description files,

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments