Windows 3.0??? Lousy Path Selection Dialog Box - DIAdem 10

[JeffGrimes]

Uughh!  The Path selection dialog box (PathNameGet) is about 9+ years out of date.  While it obviously can "handle" large path strings...it can't display them.  The dialog box is wauy to small, very NOT windows like, and isn't epandable...

Request to the great guys at NI...Lets bring this component of toolset into the modern age.

Also, as some of us are learning to develop scripts with version 10.1, any chance of getting "beta" help files that are current. 

Thanks

[Julia Dawkins]

Hi Jeff,

I never knew about "PathNameGet" it does look ugly - I usually use a "FileNameGet" command and just take the return parameter, "FileDlgDir" to get the selected path.  It looks like other Windows windows to me.  For example, if I want a user to pick a path (and in this case, I have a default name for a file, if I would later create a file, but this doesn't really matter):

' --- Script starts here- --

If (FileNameGet("ANY", "FileWrite", "c:\", "NewFile") = "IDOk") Then ' Dialog closed with Ok
  MsgBox FileDlgDir
End If

' --- Script ends here ---

Does this help any?

Julia

[JeffGrimes]

Hi Julia, thanks for the response.  I'll have to try this. 

I'm writing a script to batch-process a large number of DIAdem DAT files, converting each to CSV, so that our modeling team can import them into Matlab.

THis particular aspect of the script is ONLY selecting the destination DIRECTORY.  I use your solution to get the filenames to convert.  Didn't know I could return while only highlighting a folder, and not a file.

[Ralf_Mueller]

Hi Jeff,

Did you consider the DataPlugin for Matlab (ni.com/dataplugins)? Perhaps you can avoid the conversion to CSV?

Regards,
Ralf

[JeffGrimes]

Ralf, thank you very much!

This saved the import "wizard" step inside of Matlab.  However, the channel names have the file name prepended to them, resulting in VERY long variable names inside of Matlab.

Our file names have to be quite descriptive for legacy reasons...and include the UUT, Date, and test procedure name with underscores between them.   Channel names are 4 to 6 character descriptors.

FordHyWay1234SN45768_Dec242006_ReferenceTest.aHyKa  would be typical channel...

This doesn not happen inside the CSV wizard.  Is there a way to modify that characteristic in the Data Plugin?

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi Jeff,

There is no way to change the behavior of the DataPlugin, in this case the way it names the channels.  What you can do is programmatically change the channel names with a DIAdem VBScript.  You can also invoke the load process and use the MatLab DataPlugin all from the same VBScript, and you could even create a batch process to loop over a ton of files and do the conversion for each one.

Let us know which of the above you need help with,
Brad Turpin
DIAdem Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[JeffGrimes]

Thanks for the offer, Brad.  The help I'd request is an updated path selection dialog box.  That thing is stuck in Windows 3.0 era.  I could create one myself...but I'd prefer the dialog boxes called be the standard widows ones to maintain good UI design practices.

As for the script.  I have written a script that does the following:

Asks user for DESTINATION directory (the path only dialog)

Asks the user to select multiple files to convert (uses serial processing)

Calls the convert script

exits

The convert script loads the DAT file and saves it as CSV in the destination folder.  I

've tried other export options, and only the MATLAB plugin appends the FILENAME to EVERY CHANNEL.  That doesn't make sense to me...Not that its wrong...just don't see the reasoning behind it, and if there is, I believe it should be optional.

[Ralf_Mueller]

Hi Jeff,

You wrote: "Also, as some of us are learning to develop scripts with version 10.1, any chance of getting "beta" help files that are current."

Could you please explain, what you are missing in which version of the DIAdem help. (The final version was released on December 6.)

We have to work on the help during beta to get the description of the new features complete. But we might be able to change the sequence in which we work on the help topics to provide the most urgent portions of the help as early as possible during beta.

Thanks,
Ralf

[StefanR]

Hi Jeff,

we have an example showing how a TDM file can be read in MatLab. If interested in this, please send an email to

Walter DOT Rick AT ni DOT com

Thanks

Stefan

[Chris@GE]

Hi Brad, 

It looks like the behavior of the MatLab plug-in hasn't changed over the years.  I still get the filename prepended to the channel name in the MatLab output.  (I'm converting datx to MatLab in this case.)  I'm curious how I would change the channel names in the VBS script.  If I re-open the mat file in DIAdem and remove the filename, it gets prepended back when I save it as a mat file.  Am I missing something in the process?  

Thanks,

Chris