Simcenter Testlab Active Picture

PJS
Siemens Phenom
09-25-2017 04:34 PM
(view in My Videos)

The active picture feature of Simcenter Testlab (formerly called LMS Test.Lab) allows editing
and changing a graph inside of any Microsoft Office product, without requiring a license of
the Simcenter Testlab software.  The graph editing options in Office are the same as in Simcenter
Testlab.

This article covers:

 Creating an active picture

 Features of active pictures
 Adding data to an existing active picture
 Active picture plug-in

Creating an Active Picture

To make an active picture, click on the picture tab in the upper right of the graph (Figure 1).

 
Figure 1: Click in upper right and choose “Copy as Active Picture (embedded data)”

Select “Copy as Active Picture (embedded data)” from the pulldown.  Then, in a Microsoft
Office application, right click and select “Paste” as shown in Figure 2. 

Figure 2 – In PowerPoint, right click and choose “Paste” to insert active picture
Active pictures are supported in any application that works with Object Linking and Embedding
(OLE). This includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc. 

To activate the picture, double-click on it as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Double click on pasted image to make it activeWhen the picture is active, the normal
PowerPoint toolbar is not accessible. To exit active picture mode, click once in PowerPoint
outside of the active picture.

There is an extensive set of capabilities available in active pictures.

Features of Active Pictures

Features of Simcenter Testlab active pictures include changing limits, using cursors, exporting to
Excel, weighting, smoothing, integrating, and more…

 
These features are also available both in the Simcenter Testlab software and in the Active
Picture.

Limits and Cursors

As in Simcenter Testlab, the limits of an active picture can be adjusted.  To do so, right click on
the axis of interest and choose “Limits -> Fixed” as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: To change limits, right click on axis and select “Limits -> Fixed”Enter the desired
limits in the Minimum and Maximum field and press the “OK” button.

Cursors can be added and used in the displays as well.  For example, right click in the active
picture and select “Add Cursor -> Double X” (Figure 5).

 
Figure 5: To add cursors to the active picture display, right click and choose “Add Single Cursor
-> X” or “Add Double Cursor -> X”

The maximum value of the data between the cursors can be exported from an active picture. 
Next right click on the Double X cursor and choose “Calculations -> Max” as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 – Right click on the Double X cursor and choose “Calculations -> Max”
A legend will appear which contains the maximum values between the two cursors for each data
curve.  The maximum values can be exported to Excel by right clicking on the legend and
choosing “Copy Values” as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 – Right click on legend and choose “Copy Values” to paste maximums to Excel

After opening Excel, paste the maximum values into a worksheet.

More on display limits and cursors can be found in the following knowledge base articles:

 Simcenter Testlab Displays: Layouts

 Simcenter Testlab Displays: Cursor Tips and Tricks

Weighting and Integration

Data can be conditioned in the display by right clicking on Y-axis and selecting “Processing” as
shown in Figure 8.
 

Figure 8 – Right click on Y-axis and select “Processing -> Integration” to change data from
acceleration to velocity

In the “Processing” menu, the data in the display can be weighted, integrated, scaled, smoothed,
and more…

After selecting an option, the data in the display will be instantly updated.

Data Properties

Viewing a data graph and wondering who took it, where it came from, and how it was
processed?

From the active picture, right click on a curve and choose “Data properties” as shown in Figure
9.

 
Figure 9 -Right click and selected “Data Properties”In the “Data Properties” window, all data
attributes are listed by scrolling from left to right.  Some attributes include:

 PointId – Name of location of measurement

 Resolution – Frequency resolution of measurement
 Actual sensitivity – Calibration factor used during measurements
 Sample frequency – Rate at which data was acquired
 Original project – Name of project that contained the data
 Original project Dir – Directory of project that contains the data
 Window – Type of window (Hanning, Flattop, etc) used to perform FFT
 Average type – Averaging method used to calculate data (peak, energy, etc)

Export to Excel

Right click on the data curve to export the data to Excel.  Choose “Copy Values -> All” as shown
in Figure 10.

 
Figure 10 – To copy data to Excel from an Active Picture, right click and choose “Copy Values
-> All”

Open Excel.  Right click and choose “Paste” in a cell and the data headers and values will
appear.

For more information on copying Simcenter Testlab to and from Excel, see the knowledge base
article: Simcenter Testlab: Import/Export to Excel

Adding Data to an Existing Active Picture

Sometimes, it might be desirable to add an additional piece of data to an existing active picture
already in Microsoft PowerPoint or another program.

This can be done by copying the data directly from Simcenter Testlab into the existing active
picture.

Right click on the data curve in Simcenter Testlab and choose “Copy” as shown in Figure 11.
 

Figure 11 – Right click on data curve in Simcenter Testlab and select “Copy” to move data from
Simcenter Testlab to PowerPoint

Then double-click on the active picture in PowerPoint.  Once the picture is active, right click in
the display and select “Paste to Front” as shown in Figure 12.

 
Figure 12 – Double-click on the active picture, right click, and choose “Paste to Front”Data is
now added to the Simcenter Testlab active picture (Figure 13).

Figure 13 – After selecting “Paste to Front”, data is in active picture

The ability to copy data from Simcenter Testlab into an existing active picture in PowerPoint
was introduced in LMS Test.Lab Revision 17.  It is also possible to drag and drop data
from Simcenter Testlab into an existing active picture.

Active Picture Plug-In

Sharing a powerpoint with a colleague who does not have Simcenter Testlab installed on their
PC, and want them to be able to use the features of an active picture?  Active pictures do not
require a license, but a freely downloadable plug-in is required to be installed. When viewing a
document on a PC without the active picture plug-in, the image can be viewed, but it is not
editable.

The plug-in can be downloaded from the community article: Simcenter Testlab Active Picture
Plug-in and installed on any computer. 

It is not necessary to install the active picture plug-in on a computer that already has Simcenter
Testlab installed.  The plug-in is strictly for PCs without a Simcenter Testlab installation.

Enjoy active pictures!  Questions? Email [email protected] or contact Siemens

PLM GTAC support.

Simcenter Testlab Tips:

 Simcenter Testlab Active Picture

 Simcenter Testlab Active Picture Plug-in Download
 Simcenter Testlab: Import/Export to Excel
 Simcenter Testlab: Documentation Tab
 Simcenter Testlab: Templates
 Simcenter Testlab: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts
 Simcenter Testlab: CTRL-PageUp and CTRL-PageDown to change worksheets
 Simcenter Testlab: How to create a custom workflow
 Simcenter Testlab: Format Based Printing with Powerpoint
 Simcenter Testlab: Eliminate Folder Clicking with List All Blocks!
 Simcenter Testlab: Replace Data Origin...
  Simcenter Testlab: Batch Reporting
 Nastran and Simcenter Testlab: Viewing Mode Shapes and FRFs
 Import ANSYS Geometry and Mode Shapes in Simcenter Testlab

Simcenter Testlab Display Tips:

 Simcenter Testlab: Display Layouts

 Simcenter Testlab: Curve Linestyles
 Simcenter Testlab: Cursor Tips and Tricks
 Simcenter Testlab: Coupled Cursors and Coupled Limits
 Simcenter Testlab: Interactive order cursor!
 Simcenter Testlab: The "Double X cursor"
 Simcenter Testlab: Harmonic Cursors
 Simcenter Testlab: XY Graph
 Simcenter Testlab: Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

Labels:

 Simcenter Testlab

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Comments
JorgeGuzman
Dreamer
07-30-2018 01:19 PM

Is there a way to copy data from an active picture already in powerpoint and pasted to another
active picture? In other words, if I only have active pictures in power point is there a way to get
them all in one? 

I recognize you can always copy both to excel and do a scatter plot but I'm looking for a quicker
way to do it. 

PJS
Siemens Phenom
07-31-2018 09:07 PM

Unfortunately, there is not a way to copy data directly from one active picture to another within a
Office document. 
 

The only workaround is similar to what you mentioned.  Right click on the data and choose
"Copy Values" and paste both data curves into an Excel document.  Save the Excel file.  In LMS
Test.Lab, choose "Tools -> add-ins" and turn on the "Excel data driver".  You will be able to
navigate to the Excel file, overlay the curves in Test.Lab Navigator, and paste as active picture.

Will also submit the copy/paste between active pictures to the development group via GTAC
(www.siemens.com/gtac). 

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