How can channel titles, ranges, intervals, etc. for a text file be imported into LabChart?

The LabChart text import function can read in certain types of settings information as well as just the tab-delimited data.  This information is provided through data header lines, each of which begins with a keyword, such as Interval, Channel Title, Range and so on.

 

Interval

 

The Interval data header specifies the interval between consecutive LabChart samples: the value applies to all channels. The reciprocal of the interval should correspond to one of the values in the Default data rate pop-up menu, otherwise the closest value is substituted. The time unit after the interval must be a valid LabChart time unit (hr, min, s, ms or µs).

 

Datetime and TimeFormat

 

A Datetime keyword and value indicate the date and time, in coded form, of the original recording.

TimeFormat indicates in what form the time was saved. Read Text uses the values to reconstruct time information from the loaded file, and match the original LabChart file exactly. These keywords have no use in files from sources other than LabChart.

 

ChannelTitle

 

The ChannelTitle data header simply records the channel title for each channel. Each title is set off in double straight quotes, so that spaces in channel titles are preserved.

 

Range

 

The Range data header sets the LabChart range for the data, if it has not been set by units conversion. It is similar to setting the scale from the scale pop-up menu in the Amplitude axis for a channel. It overrides the automatic determination of the data range from the sample values (and may clip data values outside that range to those limits if it has been manually altered).

The units after the range value must be one of the following: kV, V, mV, µV, Hz, PPM, BPM, Count, Sec, ms. The first four (voltage) units may have a suffix .s or .s^-1, indicating the time integral or derivative. The Sec unit is displayed in LabChart as s, and the unit name Count is not displayed at all.  A column with no range value in between columns with range values should have a single asterisk (*) in it instead, for the Range header line. If there are fewer values than columns of data, the value in the last column applies to following data columns.

 

UnitName, TopValue, and BottomValue

 

The UnitName data header turns on units conversion in LabChart for each channel corresponding to a column of data with a unit name in this line. This is an easy way to change the default units (volts) of an imported text file.  The TopValue and BottomValue header lines give information about the maximum and minimum values of units conversion. If they are omitted, Read Text determines a suitable range automatically when the data is imported.  A column with no units conversion in between columns with unit names should have a single asterisk (*) in it instead, for the UnitName, TopValue, and BottomValue header lines. If there are fewer values than columns of data, the value in the last column applies to following data columns.
 

Note: To see how the data header lines need to be formated, please review the example text file located HERE with a text editor progam such as Apple TextEdit or Microsoft Notepad.

For further technical assistance with this or any other issue, please contact ADInstruments Technical Support by clicking HERE