VDA Tools are easy to use. They provide you with access to most of the Visual Data Analysis potential of PV‑WAVE without the use of programming or complicated command line interaction.

Using VDA Tools you can import data from a file, read the data into PV‑WAVE variables, subset variables, display them graphically or as images, print your results, and save your results.

The VDA Tools are a collection of Visual Data Analysis applications. These applications are based on a core system called the VDA Tools Manager. The Tools Manager, numerous utility routines, and all the VDA Tools are written entirely in PV‑WAVE.

The VDA Tool architecture is straightforward and modular. If you are a software developer building PV‑WAVE applications, you will appreciate the simplicity and flexibility of VDA Tool design. With little up-to-speed time, you will be able to modify existing VDA Tools or design and build new ones.

See the PV‑WAVE Programmer’s Guide for detailed information on how to build and modify VDA Tools.

To allow users to override resources such as color and font specifications, the VDA Tools class resource file wave/xres/!LANG/vdatools/VDATools is loaded by the X system upon VDA Tools initialization. However, because of resource caching features in CDE (Common Desktop Environment) and other desktop environments, this file may not be loaded and the default resources not available to VDA Tools. If this is the case, load the file explicitly with the xrdb -merge command. These resources can be saved in the resource cache by creating a new Home Session (or the equivalent for non-CDE desktops).