Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Overview
The continued increase in processing and storage capacity and the decrease of hardware and software costs has resulted in an explosion of collected data being acquired. But while technology is
enabling faster and richer data retention, storing, managing, and sharing data remains the real challenge. Traditional software packages tend to take one of two limiting approaches: 1) they force
you into a particular format that is not exchangeable with other applications or users or 2) saving data is left so open ended you waste time trying to determine the best way to organize and save
your data to disk so you can share it. NI LabVIEW, designed for the entire engineering process, includes built-in functionality to help you easily save data to disk and create professional reports. By
providing easy yet robust interfaces for file I/O and reporting, you can make the most of your acquired data to make decisions faster.
Table of Contents
File Read and Write Capabilities to Meet Your Needs
Choosing the right file format for saving data in your test system can be a big decision. You need to pick a format that meets your requirements in your current system, but that can also scale as
your test needs change. You have many characteristics to consider when evaluating storage formats:
File sharing and exchangeability
Disk footprint
Simple inclusion of meta information and properties
Reading and writing speeds
Working familiarity with the format
As each application is different, LabVIEW contains a wide array of file I/O options for you to choose from, including ASCII, binary, datalog, ZIP, and XML.
Figure 1. With LabVIEW, choose from many interfaces for reading and writing files, depending on your needs.
As seen in Figure 1, LabVIEW includes basic functions you can use to build files from scratch as well as Express VIs for configuring file I/O parameters from a dialog so you dont have to worry
about details such as opening file references, string formatting, and endianness. Because good file I/O practices can be one of the trickier parts of building any test or measurement system, NI
LabVIEW ships with dozens of examples that you can use to get started with each of the file types.
Figure 2. The TDM data model meets the specific requirements of measurement data.
Also, you can insert your own custom properties at each of the three levels. Each level accepts an unlimited number of custom-defined attributes to achieve well-documented and search-ready
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Also, you can insert your own custom properties at each of the three levels. Each level accepts an unlimited number of custom-defined attributes to achieve well-documented and search-ready
data files. The descriptive information located in the TDMS file, a key benefit of this model, provides an easy way to document the data much like you would document code. As your
documentation requirements increase, you do not have to redesign your application, you simply extend the data model to meet your needs.
Figure 3. With multiple interfaces for writing TDMS files, you can choose the one that best fits your needs.
Figure 4. Using a DataPlugin, you can map any file format onto the TDM data model.
National Instruments provides more than 200 free, downloadable DataPlugins for the most common file formats. For custom formats, you can create your own DataPlugins in LabVIEW and NI
DIAdem software using a documented API, or request that an NI expert create a DataPlugin for you. Using DataPlugins, you are no longer limited by custom formats and applications, and have
options for how to use your data.
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Figure 5. You can configure professional reports using the Report Express VI in LabVIEW.
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Figure 6. You can output DIAdem reports to common report formats for sharing with others.
Using reporting capabilities in LabVIEW, you have several options for creating visually compelling reports to share your results. Also, with the end user in mind, you can print these reports to
common formats that encourage the exchanging of results.
Next Steps
Download the LabVIEW Technical Paper Series
Try LabVIEW
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