Minitab Format?

[CJasnoch]

I am not really familiar with Minitab however many people at my company use it. I was requested to pull some data out of some text files (many) and import it into a minitab template.

I know using excel is quite easy with LabVIEW but is there something for minitab I am not seeing?

Thank you,

-Collin

Message Edited by CJasnoch on 04-02-2008 01:17 PM

[RavensFan]

I've heard of minitab, but have not really seen it.  I would recommend getting an example file from someone who uses it and see how they format it.  From there, you should be able to use the right combination of Write Text File functions to recreate in that same format.  This is assuming that their file formats are essentially text files.  If they are using some proprietary and/or binary format it, it may not be possible, or if it is, much more complicated.

[CJasnoch]

In a way it is very similar to Excel in that it is a CSV file with some fancy formatting. In particular Minitab has headers. So I do not believe I can put it into a text file and allow minitab to open it in a template.

The template is where their analysis is held. So they are doing a bunch of specs and making sure everything is still controlled. As I said the data is comming from text but my output needs to be Minitab.

[CyberTazer]

There is nothing in the Labview API iteself that outputs in Minitab format that I am aware of. There is a plugin that will read Minitab files. You can find more information here:

http://search.ni.com/nisearch/main/p?q=Minitab

and

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/4741

You might try the main website of the company that makes Minitab as that seems to be where this vi came from. If you are a licensed user, they may give/sell it to you. This would be better than starting from scratch.

[CyberTazer]

P.S. Dont forget that you can access DLL's in labview. If Minitab has a dll that you can access, this would also work well. Check around online through Google.

[CJasnoch]

I had found that earlier but I am not sure what that file is. It is not a VI so I am unsure what it actually does. I am familiar with LabVIEW but not DIAdem.... I have access to the Pro Suite of LabVIEW though...

[CyberTazer]

There is another link near the bottom that tells you how to import this file

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4352

I am not sure what you do with it then however...

[Poormanphysics]

Best way without the fuzz of decoding the format is to use Minitab Automation COM Objects  thats if you code in VB? In MiniTab 15 as an application on an enterprise level they introduced the automation unfortunately you have to code your own Type Lib - I'm still struggling with it 😞 so meanwhile I got the text file from my process have it parsed via ActiveX call from LabVIEW to MS Excel all the way to MSA Process Capability Calculation and GR&R. Check out the MiniTab website you should see some very short description about it - I could also send you the CHM help file if your interested?