Tips

October 2002 - Issue 14
E-Newsletter for Tecplot Users

04.  TECPLOT TIPS - NEW GENERAL TEXT LOADER IN TECPLOT 9.2

General Text Loader, new in Tecplot 9.2, provides a fast, intuitive interface for loading your ASCII data. You can scan files for titles, variables and data, set filters, and preview the processed data. Save settings specific to your data format and apply them the next time you load the same type of file.

This example demonstrates loading a touchstone format file (NBB400.s2p) commonly used by electrical engineers. If you want to follow along, click here to download the raw data file.

Click here for detailed information about General Text Loader features. (PDF 34 KB)

1. To load the file:
A) Go to the File menu.
B) Select Import.
C) Select General Text Loader.

 
2. The Read General Text File dialog appears. If your file does not have a standard extension for text (*.txt), set Files of type to All Files (*.*).

 
3. Once you select a file, the General Text Loader dialog appears. It displays several lines of your file. You can scroll to preview.
 
4. Select different view options for the Data Preview area.

 
1. General

• Limit lines displayed to
  Limits the number of lines displayed in the preview window. For large files, you may want to set this to a number less than the total number of lines. The fewer number of lines, the faster the display.
• Do not limit
  If you select this toggle, the entire file is displayed in preview mode.
• Auto Process
  If selected, General Text Loader automatically refreshes all information about the file whenever any loader settings are changed. For very large files (multi-megabyte), this option is not recommended, since re-scanning a large file can be time consuming.

2. Processed Data

• Show variables names and data
  If selected, variable names and processed data are displayed in the preview window.
• Show variable names only
  If selected, only variable names are displayed in the preview window.
• Show all non-processed lines
  If selected, all lines which will not be loaded are displayed in the preview window.
• Show data in columns
  Displays the data in columns where each column is a variable.
• Show data in blocks
  Shows the data in blocks where each block is a variable.
  

5. Click Title to choose.

• The following options are available:
• You can type in a title.
• Choose a line number from your file which has the title. In our example, the title is in Line Number 1.
• Let the loader find the title based on a keyword in the title.
• You can also choose whether the title length is set by default delimiters, or whether it has a set width of characters.
  

6. Click the Variables button.

• Choose the variables to import:
  Scan the file for variable names using the Start and End Line options. In our example, the variable names are on line 7. Using the auto delimiter works in this case.
• Type in Variable Names.
  
• If you do not want to load every variable in your file, choose Select Variables to Load.
• From the list of variables to load, move one or more to the list of variables to skip.
• Click OK.
  

7. Click Data to choose options for loading the data.

The following options are available:

1. Start Specifications

• Start loading data with the first all- numeric line.
• Start loading on the first line after a specified keyword.
• Start loading with a selected line number.
• In our example we could either start with the first all-numeric line, or start at line number 9.

2. End Identification

• The options to finish loading for the zone are similar to the start specifications.
• In our example we stop at the end of the file.

3. Data Identification

• Set the format of the data. In our example the data is in point format (V1, V2... Vn).
• Set a data value delimiter to indicate when the end of a data value has been reached. The Auto option works for our data set.

4. Data Dimension

• Set I-, J- and K-dimensions.
• Load and identify multiple zones.

5. Data Filters

• Ignore non-numeric characters in the data section.
  

8.Click General Filter to choose data filtering options.

The following options are available:

• Ignore all lines starting with a comment character such as #.
• Ignore all lines containing a specified text string.
• Ignore Selected Character Column Position(s).
• Ignore specific lines.
• Specify values for blanked cell.
  

9. Select View Processed Data and click Scan File to preview your data.

 
10. If you have data formats you commonly use, save the new settings to a configuration file. You can save and apply multiple configuration files.

 
11. Here is a plot made from the example touchstone data file.

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