Managing Data
 A FlexPro project database is organized like a file system on your
hard drive. You can organize your data, analyses and presentations into
any number of folders and subfolders. By doing this you can separate
data of different measurements in the appropriate folders, for instance.
The size of this type of database is only limited by the hard drive space
and can take up many gigabytes. When you save a database, you can specify
whether it should be saved complete in one single file on the hard drive
or whether a separate file should be created for each object. The second
method is particularly ideal for large amounts of data. When opening
an existing database, you can specify whether you want to open it directly
or if you want to work on a backup copy. When opening it directly, changes
are immediately implemented in the database, and when working with a
copy, changes only take effect when you save the database. In general,
FlexPro handles databases as regular documents, which means that you
do not notice that you are working with a database. For instance, when
you start FlexPro, you immediately get an empty database and can start
working with it right away.
 FlexPro saves all data organized in datasets. This type of dataset can
be, for instance, a channel of a measurement system or a column in an
external database. Each dataset can be up to 2 GB in size, and can contain
data as whole numbers, floating point numbers, boolean values, date and
time or strings. FlexPro has no problem with non-equidistant data and
non-monotonically increasing data. FlexPro can also store and process
complex data. You can mark invalid values as such so that they are ignored
during rendering and analysis. FlexPro processes large datasets directly
from the hard disk instead of loading them into memory. Datasets can
have different data structures. In addition to scalar values, vectors
and matrices, FlexPro can also manage composite data structures such
as signals with Y and X components. In the header of a dataset, a physical
unit and a comment can be entered for each component. Using FlexPro for
analysis is easy because the FlexPro Y, X and even Z components, when
applicable, can be compiled into a single dataset. FlexPro can actually
simultaneously process Y and X components in a single analysis statement.
Every object in the database, including folders, can contain any number
of parameters. For instance, environmental variables for a measurement
analysis can be stored here.
In addition to the folder and list views with which you are already
familiar from Windows Explorer, FlexPro Explorer offers data view as
a display option. In the data view, data from datasets within the currently
open folder are displayed in a grid. The data view is especially ideal
for entering data manually. If you have stored X and Y components in
separate datasets, you can quickly organize them here by simply arranging
the columns accordingly.
The search function is especially important in working with large databases.
Here you can quickly search for a dataset with the unit “V” for
instance, whose maximum value is greater than 200. The search results
are displayed in a separate window and can be immediately processed. |
RSS Feeds