01-17-2012 09:39 AM
I need a viewer for viewing waveforms stored in TDMS format without running a single labview VI.
The labview VI is simply too unfriendly to use.
Is there such a software around ? Please advise
01-17-2012 09:48 AM
There is a TDMS plug-in that allows acces to TDMS files from Excel.
"Look Ma! NO VIs!"
Ben
01-17-2012 10:00 AM
Thanks Ben.
I am aware of this plug-in but i need to zoom in/out of the waveforms. I believe Excel does not have this feature in their charts.
Also, Excel takes ages to read in my files and takes ages to process them. There is also a 65K line limit for the 32 bit version of excel.
I need to be able quickly view the waveforms inside my TDMS files, perform zoom in/out and also be able to export any waveform as a graphic file. My engineers created the TDMS files in the field but i need to view them without using a bit of Labview.
Why did NI create such a file format without even providing a proper file viewer for free ?
01-17-2012 10:08 AM
Those requirements are to specialized for a generic reader.
You have a number of options that include;
1) Start with the TDMS file viewer, hack it to spit the file format you want.
2) Write a converter to convert from TDMS to a "good" format for you.
3) Mod the code that spits out the TDMS to write a "proper" formatted file.
Ben
01-17-2012 10:36 AM
Google search " TDMS Viewer"... The first link is a free TDMS Viewer from DMC. Further links teach you how to modify NIs Viewer to suit your needs.
It would be nice if NI provided one. I'm sure it would help to further establish the fomat. You could post the idea at the NI IDEA EXCHANGE.
01-17-2012 10:42 AM
KNA,
The free viewer VI seems like it has all the features you have asked for (load, select specific waveform, zoom, export to image), is there something specific that makes it "unfriendly"? Is there something we could modify to make it better?
If you spend a lot of time working with large TDMS (or any other data) files I would encourage you to take a look at DIAdem. DIAdem is a powerful data management and offline analysis tool that uses TDMS as it's native file format.
Regards,
Simon
01-17-2012 11:26 AM
One option is to buy DIADem. It isn't cheap but well worth it's value.
Ton
01-17-2012 12:26 PM
Hi KNA,
The TDM Excel Addin that Ben mentioned installs with LabVIEW, so you should have it already. Just double-click on the TDMS file to load it in Excel. Better yet, have you ever tried NI's DIAdem software, which is our interactive evaluation environment for TDMS data files?
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments
01-17-2012 12:35 PM
Should I fight this suggestion of Diadem?
"If you can't beat them join them."
When you are ready to purchase a seat license for Diadem send me a private message and I'll get you hooked up with my sales people.
Mwahahaha.
Ben
01-17-2012 09:10 PM
i have just tried the TDMS viewer from TMC. There is a major limitation.
I can only view the first 2s of data.
i have also installed the evaluation of diadem. It is better but the user interface is a disappointment. Why do i have to go through so many steps to view the waveforms ?
It will be good to have a kind of waveform viewing interface similar to that of the SPICE simulator waveform viewers. I come from an Analog IC design background and see the similarity between this TDMS file format and the many file formats such as Hspice .tr0 as well as spectre .psf format.