How can ascii files be opened with labview

[Ecrh]

Hi

I am trying to read an ASCII files created in another program (Balzers QMS-32 which collects QMS data)  and I keep coming up with "error 8 occured at Open File +.vi:Open File" possible reason: LabView: file permission error. I have attached the VI . Can you help. Would it be easier to open the ascii files in excel and then try to access the excel file in labview ?  How would I do this ? Cheers,

Emily

[JeanPierre]

Most likely, the other program has not released (closed) the file. Try to close the other program so the file is closed or open the file in LabVIEW in read-only mode.

[PNHorn]

Hi Guys,

It is probable as Jean-Pierre said that the file has not been closed off properly from the program that wrote it. If you can get this program to release the file and then read it in normally then that would probably be the easiest solution.

If for some reason you can't get the writing program to release the file to LabVIEW but you can get it to open in Excel then it is possible to open up Excel programmatically from LabVIEW and grab the file from there. The problem is you can't just use a Read from Spreadsheet File.vi in LabVIEW as Excel puts a load of its own formatting around the data so LabVIEW can't recognise it.

I have a program here that will show you how to open up Excel and grab the data from there using ActiveX. I would advise however that if you can get the file to be released properly and just read it in normally as an ASCII file into LabVIEW straight, then you do this as it will be a simpler and easier method to get working.

Hope this helps,

Best regards,

Peter H.

Applications Engineer.

NIUK.