Users must configure a series of items before starting data acquisition. For example, you must select the signals to acquire, the corresponding mathematical operations to perform, and specify the number of acquisitions. 

From the Signals Form below, four areas are accessible:

• The Command buttons area
• The Available signals listing area
• The Signal processing options
• The Selected signals listing area

Signals Form Menus

In the following figure, the File and Edit menus have the same functions as already described.

View Menu

Toolbar

Shows or hides the various menus from the Toolbar.

Advanced Function Editor

Displays the advanced mathematical functions in editor mode. 

Data Source Menu

Load

Displays the Data Sources Chooser window and allows the user to load a particular plot file or signals from RT-LAB's sensors. Users may also select a file, RT-LAB, TestView or the DataLogger as data sources.

Graph Menu

Plot Signals

Traces the graphs from the selected signals displayed in the area of the selected signal of the Signals window.
This menu item is the same command as the Plot icon on the toolbar or the Start button at the top of the window.

ACCESSIBLE AREAS

Data Source Chooser and Signal Selection

Users can select various data sources through the Data Sources Chooser dialogue found in the Data Source menu.

Clicking Data Source > Load opens the Data Sources Chooser dialogue.

Users can choose from the following options, shown below:

• A File, to which they'll navigate
• An RT-LAB source
• A TestView source
• a DataLogger source

Data Source Chooser > File

ScopeView can acquire data from many source types. Browse these if required through Data Source Chooser > File > Files of type.

To load previously saved sources, click the file you want:

• Select the signal type tab (EMTP, Matlab, etc.)
• Select the file format for the type of work station you are using, PC or UNIX
• Click the Load button. (The Load button moves the files to the area of the available signal.)
• Below the loaded Data Source box is the Signal Type identification.

Data Source Chooser > RT-LAB

When using the RT-LAB option of the Data Source Chooser dialogue:

• Select the Projects from the pull-down, or click the Refresh button to refresh the list
• Select the Models from the pull-down
• Enter any Acq Groups required in the corresponding text boxes
• Click Load to load the HYPERSIM data source

Data Source Chooser > DataLogger

See also FPGA Scope.

When using the DataLogger option of the Data Source Chooser dialogue:

• Either type the target name or IP address in the Target text box and click Fetch Signal Groups to select one
• Click Load to load the dataLogger data source

Signal Selection

• From the pull-down list, select the type of signal you want to study. The list corresponds to the sensors installed in your simulation software or the usable Database.
  • Users can select files from the Loaded Data Source box (scroll-down-list) in order to display or delete them.
  • Users can also remove a single file or Remove All the files from the list and, finally the user can reload all or replace a file.
• Remember, it is possible to study signals from two or more different sources at the same time.

Signal Processing

Below the Available Signals area, six cells and one button are present.

Signal Selection Mode

• Single: Any selected (mouse click) signal will move automatically to the Selected signals list.
• Multiple: Click the signals you want then click the Add Signals button to add signals to the Selected Signals. Multiple selections are possible by clicking and holding the CTRL-key.
• The Add Signals button shows only when the multiple option is selected.

Graph Creation

• Normal: ScopeView displays one signal per graph.
• Superimposed: ScopeView displays two or more traces in the same graph (depending on how many signals you have selected.

Selected Signals

This area shows all the selected signals and their description. The two right-hand columns are used to display or not the result on the page of your choice.
By default the Signal column displays and confirms the selection of different signals.

• To edit a signal, click on its cell, type in your changes and, hit <ENTER>. You must press <ENTER> to commit the changes or <ESC> to cancel. Either of these actions will return user to the default mode.
• The Description column shows the signal description (often the same as the signal name under the Signal column.
• The Show column, when “ticked” , the signal will be acquired and displayed in ScopeView.
• In the Page column, the number written under this column tells ScopeView on what page to display the result from that signal.
• The numbered column at the far left is used to show the background edit menu. Right-click the line you want to edit.

Split Screen Option

Scope View offers a split-screen option to ease the multiple data source use. Simply click the mouse in the Signals area to see the background menu. You can split the area either horizontally or vertically. To revert to a single screen, click on Close View. Below is an example of a horizontally split screen from the data sources loaded in two sections.

Removing a Source

The Remove button enables you to remove the current source or the Remove All button removes all the sources files from the scroll list.

To remove file(s) from the active list, display the source file you want to remove in the Loaded Data source file list;
Display the Data Source menu, and click on the Remove current data source item.
Or click on the Remove All button if desired.
If some formulas contain signals from a removed source, ScopeView displays a message asking to confirm this action. If you confirm, the formulas affected by the removal are automatically withdrawn from the list of formulas to evaluate.

Replacing a Source

The Replace button is used to change the characteristics of a source. This action is useful when you want to keep evaluating the same formulas, but with signals from a different source. The only restriction to replace a source is that the list of available signals should be the same.

• To replace a source, in the Signal Form window, display the Data source menu;
• Click on the source to change, select the Replace item.

ScopeView makes sure that the changes you make follow the replacement criteria. Otherwise, it refuses to execute the requested action.

inserting a Function

The Signals section allows you to insert a new signal or function to the list of Selected Signals to evaluate.

Advanced Functions

To apply an advanced function to a signal, click the name of the signal;

• Select the category of function you want to apply to a signal (or select All to see all the available functions;
• In the Function Name drop list, select a function;
• Click the Add Function button.

Simple Function

The Simple Function (far right of the ScopeView – Signals form) section allows you to specify the mathematical operations to apply to the signals you select in the list of available signals.

You can also configure other characteristics such as:

To apply a simple function to a signal, select the mathematical function to be applied to a signal using the menu related to the Function item.

Select a signal; Click Add Signals button.

List of Formulae to Evaluate

The Selected Signals area contains the list of formulas to evaluate during the acquisition. Each line in the list describes a signal (and a function in some cases) to evaluate and specifies characteristics such as:

• Description
• Show
• Page

Initially, ScopeView displays the results in a graphic page corresponding to their appearance order in the list of Selected Signals. After a first acquisition, you can change the display order by displacing the graphs interactively.
The Selected Signal field specifies a formula to evaluate. A new formula can be generated automatically by ScopeView or built manually.

To insert a new formula automatically, click the selected source in the Data Source list;

• Click the signal you want in the list of Signals
• Select the processing to be applied from the pull-down list under Function to apply
• To edit manually a formula, click in the Formula field of the formula to edit
• Type the formula
• If this formula reuses a signal from another formula, you can then enter manually the identifier that was assigned to it by ScopeView. However, if the formula contains signals, which are not yet part of other formulas, you must insert them as follows to allow ScopeView to assign an identifier to each new signal
• Click the selected source in the list of Data Sources
• Click the Multiple Signal Selection Mode and the function to be applied from the pull-down list under Simple Function to apply
• Click the name of the chosen signal in the list of Signals.

ScopeView has a formula interpreter to evaluate complex formulas. This interpreter supports the following operators and functions:

• Standard arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, ** or ^, vs)
• Assigning in one or many variables that can be reused by other formulas
• Standard mathematical functions (sine, cosine, logarithm, etc.)
• Internal functions for spectral analysis (spectral density, frequency response, etc.)
• TYRAN functions (calculation of module and phase for a symmetric integral component, etc.
• External functions for signal processing (calculation of fundamental frequency, harmonics, digital filters, etc.

Editing the List of Formulae

The list of signals can be edited to change the display order of the formulas or to delete them from the list.
You can edit the list of formulas either using the menu associated with the Edit menu, or the background menu associated with the scroll list. This menu allows executing the following commands:

• To select one signal only, click the far left column beside the required signal.
• Select all to select all the formulas.
• Select none to unselect all the formulas.
• Cut selected formulas and save them in the buffer
• Copy selected formulas in the buffer
• Paste to add to the list formulas from the buffer
• Delete remove selected formulas without affecting the content of the buffer

Templates

In order to accelerate the configuration of repetitive and identical acquisitions from one session to another, ScopeView allows you to save and retrieve the information on the formulas to evaluate.
The following information is contained in a template acquisition:

• List of sources used
• Acquisition numbers
• List of signals to acquire
• List of formulas to evaluate
• Editing information (number of columns, superimposition, zoom, etc.)

Opening a Template

You can load a previously saved template acquisition by selecting the button or the Open Template... item in the File menu. The software displays the form to select the file to open. The scroll list allows navigating in the file tree-structure.

To load a template acquisition, click on the button or from the File menu click on Open Template...

Acquisition Parameters

Number of Acquisitions

The Number of Acquisition field specifies the number of acquisitions to be executed by ScopeView.
If the signals originate from acquisition units, it can be useful to have a number of acquisitions higher than one to see the evolution of the acquisition signals from one acquisition to another or to compute the average of the results obtained.