Overview

Version 3.0 was a major update of the Data Analysis Tool. The lessons learned from previous versions, along with customer feedback, have been applied to create a tool more in line with customer needs. Version 3.1 adds to the automation capabilites to allow completely automated operation. It remains a component of the Data Trending & Analysis System (DTAS), now in its fourth release.

The Data Analysis Tool is designed to provide detailed information over a short time frame, typically from hours up to several days (there is no specific limitation on the length of time).

The user can:

• log into any available DTAS data values database

• query the database to find the time stamp of the most recently added data point

• save the list of mnemonics to a text file

• select the mnemonics to analyze

• set the time domain of the data points to analyze

• download data sets with or without point frequency filtering and data value filtering

• display tables of the downloaded data

• copy selected portions of the data table to the clip-board

• save selected portions of the data table to a text file

• print selected portions of the data table

• create and save subsets of the download data

• perform maximum, minimum, mean, and standard deviation analysis on a selected portion of the data set, the entire downloaded data set of a selected mnemonic, or the entire database data set for the selected mnemonic (standard deviation not available for entire database).

• perform a limit violation check on the downloaded data set

• view the Project Database information stored on the server for the selected mnemonic

• export the downloaded data directly to Microsoft Excel using its COM interface (if the user has Excel installed on the system).

• export the downloaded data to one or more comma-delimited text files

• create various types (line,point,bubble,bar,area) of plots of the downloaded data or of data-reduced data sets

• create plots based on functions applied to the data or to previous function plots

• view plots with limit settings drawn

• create point plots of one mnemonic versus another mnemonic

• print any chart

• save any chart as a JPEG file

• copy any chart to the clip-board

• zoom in or out on any chart

• scroll any chart

• save the current settings for data download and chart set-up

• restore saved settings

• automate the process of downloading data and creating products

• automatically transfer products to a remote FTP server.

As an aid in setting the time domain, the user can also see the current date in day-of-year format.

The absolute limits for this tool are as follows:

• No data set can be larger than two billion data values

• No more than ten mnemonics can be analyzed at once

• No more than five function plots can be displayed at once.

• Each data value downloaded uses about 20 bytes of RAM. The maximum number of data points that the user can expect to download and analyze is ultimately determined by the amount of RAM in the user's system. The tool uses from four to eight megabytes of RAM in overhead, depending on how many plots and tables the user creates. To determine the maximum number of points that can be downloaded for a particular system use these formulas:

    (Total RAM) - (30 MB for the operating system) - (8 MB for program overhead) = Available RAM.

    (Available RAM) / 20 = a rough estimate of the number of data points that can be downloaded.

This assumes no other programs are running. If other programs are present subtract their memory usage from the available RAM total before dividing.

From the above it can be seen that tool runs best with a system with at least 64 MB of RAM, with 128 MB preferred for large data sets.