X-axis Scaling

[CoastalMaineBird]

DIAdem 2012 SP1, Win 7.

I thought DIAdm was a great idea when I first saw it, but getting it to actually work has been a royal PITA.

It doesn't actually honor the waveform T0, and I've been round and round withe Tech support on that - NI is not going to fix it.

So, I'm trying to generate (in LabVIEW) a TIME channel to go with my signals, because that's what the customer wants.

So, I wrote a little test thingy to generate a TIME channel (not a waveform) at 1-sec intervals, and a corresponding signal.

I record both of those.

I wait 5 seconds.

Then I generate another TIME channel at 1-sec intervals, and a corresponding signal.

I record both of those and close the file.

The code is shown at the beginning of this JING: <http://www.screencast.com/t/t6rAUPgrClR>

You can see the data - the TIME channel has time of day, and the SIGNAL goes 0-9.

The trouble is, When I drag the TIME and SIGNAL channels to the VIEW, it shows me a blank graph.

After much pulling of hair, I found out that it’s actually showing me time 0, as in 00:00:00 AM, Jan 1, year 0000.

SERIOUSLY? Somebody thought that was a good idea ?

That’s not helpful.

If I zoom out enough (about 30 times), then I can see my data in the year 2016.

Then I can zoom in on it, and it shows up correctly.

So, what am I missing?  Is there an AUTOSCALE option for the X-axis that I haven’t seen?

Should I record the time as RELATIVE time, since the start of the file?

[CoastalMaineBird]

Attached is the data file produced above.

[CoastalMaineBird]

Customer reports no such problem on DIAdem 2014.

[Otmar]

Hello Steve,

Here is what I get when I load the data file you had provided into DIAdem VIEW in version 2015:

The default VIEW layout is auto-scaled, as far as I remember it always has worked that way in DIAdem VIEW. The only thing I changed in the image above was to add the point markers.

The table also shows the time and data information correctly.

The only explanation I can come up with for the effect you are seeing is that in your installation of DIAdem someone has changed the default layout to not auto-scale anymore - it is possible to set the zoom range in a VIEW area and save the layout to make that the default zoom range. Any new area you create should always auto-scale by default.

You can save the layout you are using to a TDV file and send it to me, I'll have a look at it to see why it would zoom out so much ...

Best regards,

     Otmar

[CoastalMaineBird]

OK, thanks, Otmar.

Making a new area did the trick.

I don't know enough about this to claw my way out of trouble, but somehow, the VIEW got saved with autoscaling = OFF.

I looked around for some AUTOSCALE setting, but couldn't find it (and still havn't).

But a new area fixes it.

Thanks!

[Otmar]

Steve,

I'm glad we got this resolved. The scaling setting for the X-axis in VIEW is controlled by the band or frame cursor settings, which are stored as part of a VIEW layout - if you are way zoomed out when you save the layout, it will remember that setting. Hitting the "Zoom Off" icon in an area will re-enable to auto-scaling feature.

If you are ever interested in getting a short introduction to DIAdem, I would be happy to spend 90 minutes giving you a WebEx based introduction of it's features and capabilities. It's a fantastic tool, and sometimes our LabVIEW customers/users can benefit from an introduction to the DIAdem paradigm, which is rather different from the LabVIEW world.

Let me know if you'd be interested in that, and we can schedule some time to do that in the near future.

Best regards,

      Otmar

[CoastalMaineBird]

Thanks, Otmar. 

I remember meeting you at NI Week 2011, and you introduced me to DIAdem.  I told my customer about it and they're all in.

I don't need to actually use it myself, except just enough to test my LabVIEW code writing files.

Obviously, I don't t yet know enough for even that.