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DASYLab Technical Note-LabVIEW and MATLAB

The document discusses several ways to import DASYLab DDF data files into other programs like Excel, MATLAB, and LabVIEW. It recommends using plugins that allow direct reading of DDF files into these programs. Alternatively, the document describes how to convert DDF files to ASCII or DIADEM TDM format in DASYLab first before importing into the other programs. Converting to ASCII or TDM format avoids the need for specialized plugins. The document provides step-by-step instructions for converting DDF files to ASCII or TDM format using the Read and Write modules in DASYLab.

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Dante Castro
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186 views

DASYLab Technical Note-LabVIEW and MATLAB

The document discusses several ways to import DASYLab DDF data files into other programs like Excel, MATLAB, and LabVIEW. It recommends using plugins that allow direct reading of DDF files into these programs. Alternatively, the document describes how to convert DDF files to ASCII or DIADEM TDM format in DASYLab first before importing into the other programs. Converting to ASCII or TDM format avoids the need for specialized plugins. The document provides step-by-step instructions for converting DDF files to ASCII or TDM format using the Read and Write modules in DASYLab.

Uploaded by

Dante Castro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DASYLab Techniques

Using DASYLab DDF files in other programs


DASYLab V10 and V11
Q: I want to read a DASYLab DDF file with Excel, MATLAB or LabVIEW. How do I do that?

A: There are several ways to do this. You can read DDF data directly into MATLAB or NI LabVIEW; you can
convert the data to ASCII data, or, for EXCEL, you can convert to DIADEM TDM file format.

LabVIEW or DIADEM:
Use the DASYLab DataPlugin1 to read the DDF file using the Storage VIs2, Click on the link to review the
information and download instructions for this plug-in.

You can download the LabVIEW Data Plug-in examples. The Read example is very easy to use – all you have to
do is select the file and the plug-in (DASYLab), and it reads the file with no problems.

To avoid this step, you can save the data directly into the NI DIADEM TDM format.
1
DASYLab Plugin: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/4823
2
NI LabVIEW Plugin information: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/4181
LabVIEW, DIAdem, DASYLab, and LabWindows/CVI use the TDM file format to save measurement data. TDM
files comprise the signals acquired by the measurement hardware and the descriptive meta data. Meta data
could be the name and unit of a measurement channel and the name of the test engineer.

The TDM file format contains the meta data and the bulk data. The meta data is saved in the XML format
(Extensible Markup Language) in a file with the tdm extension. The bulk data are saved in a compact binary form
in a file with the extension tdx.

The TDM data format is based on a data model that groups the descriptive data into data sets, channel groups,
and channels.

Note To evaluate TDM data with Excel use the TDM Excel Add-In for Microsoft Excel. This page also
contains more information on the TDM format.

MATLAB:
3
Use the MatLab/Simulink Import Tool (DDF-Read) for DASYLab Data files. This was created by two users, and
you must register to obtain the password for using the tool. It is free of charge.

If you decide to use this program free of charge you accept the following terms of use:
**********************************************************************
* 1. License agreement *
**********************************************************************
1. You have to register.
2. You must not distribute the program files

As a third party software package, the DASYLab support teams cannot support it directly.

3
MatLab/Simulink Import Tool link: http://dasylab.com/content/sendfile.php?fid=299
CONVERT the file using DASYLab to ASCII
If you have access to DASYLab, you can simply convert the file to the ASCII format, using the File Group modules,
Read Data and Write Data.
1. Configure the Read Data module first, and uncheck the “Output in real time” setting, to allow DASYLab to
replay the data as quickly as possible.

2. Create a Write Data module configured to save the data to ASCII or Diadem TDM format.
When you use ASCII, click on the Options button to configure the file format settings, including the column
separator, number of decimals, and the time/date format. Excel works best if the Tab character is used as
the separator.

3. Connect the two modules and run. This screen shot shows that I added a Chart Recorder to display the data
as it replayed.
You can use the Options menu, Copy Channel Names, to copy the channel names from the Read Data
module and the data file to the Write Data module and the output file.

Importing DASYLab DDF into EXCEL


You must first convert the data to a format that Excel understands. See section 3 for details of converting to
ASCII. It works best if you choose TAB as the column separator.

Please note that EXCEL may interpret the time column and format it depending on the number of milliseconds.
You may need to override EXCEL’s automatic format to display the entire time as hh:mm:ss.000.

You can also convert the data into DIADEM TDM format. Choose DIADEM TDM as the file format for the
example above, and use the NI TDM Excel Add-In for Microsoft Excel to open it directly into EXCEL.

Author: CJ Butler, Measurement Computing

Contact: [email protected] or 508-946-5100 x2

July 2010, updated January 2011

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