WzPreview Overview

WzPreview is a VDA Tool for interactively providing PV‑WAVE with information about the organization of an external ASCII data file. Use this VDA Tool to view a file’s contents and select which parts of the file are to be read in as PV‑WAVE variables.

The WzPreview Tool is designed to work with ASCII files that have a record separator, such as a carriage return/line feed or newline, at the end of each line. Furthermore, the WzPreview Tool can only be used to read column-oriented files containing 1D or 2D data.Avoid using the PV‑WAVE DEVICE command at the WAVE> command line when VDA Tools are running.

WzPreview Key Components

The WzPreview Tool consists of four parts:

Menu bar—The menu bar contains functions for saving and restoring the VDA Tool, commands for identifying the header, records, and fields in the data file, functions for modifying WzPreview attributes, and online help.

Control area—The control area contains a text field for entering a filename to load into the WzPreview Tool, a Browse button for making file selections, an Autodefine button for automatically defining the header, records, and fields in the file, and the Read button for reading data into variables.

Display area—The scrolling region where you view the contents of the original file.

Message area—A rectangular region at the bottom of the window. This area provides useful information about what you might want to do next with the WzPreview Tool as well as actions performed by the VDA Tool.

Using Online Help

The online Help system for this VDA Tool contains:

Reference material on the menus of the WzPreview Tool. To access this information, click on the links in the WzPreview Contents topic.

Task-oriented information. To access this information, click on the How To link in the WzPreview Contents topic.

A glossary of terms. To access the glossary, click on the Glossary link in the WzPreview Contents topic.

Context-sensitive reference material on dialog boxes. To access this information, click the Help button in any dialog box.

Don’t forget to check the message area at the bottom of the WzPreview Tool. The message area displays helpful information about whatever task you are performing.