<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Data Logging > Batch Tags

 

Often there is the need to mark the start and end of a period of Log file data and 'label' it with a Batch number. Then subsequently be able to refer to this period of data by its Batch number during either Logfile Conversion or Historical Replay.

 

Logfile Conversion

 

To select a Batch for Logfile Conversion click the Find Batch Number... button from the Log File Convert Manager.

 

 

A Batch number can contain both letters and numbers, so it can be also thought of as a Batch name or Batch ID.

 

Both SpecView Text User Variables and certain Instrument variables which are text strings (such as Recipe names) can be used in this way.

Once a variable is marked as a Batch Tag from the Variables Properties box, when SpecView is online any changes to the value are recorded, together with the date and time of the changes.

 

 

Changing a Batch Tag from one value to another value effectively marks the end of one batch and the start of another batch.

 

Setting a Batch Tag to an empty string (in other words clearing it so that it contains no characters) will mark the end the batch without marking the start of another.

Note that an empty string will be displayed as '[ ]' by default, this can be changed from Preferences - Display.

 

A batch is not considered complete until its Batch Tag has been changed either to another Batch number or to an empty string. As the values of SpecView's User Variables are saved when it goes offline, a batch can continue when SpecView is back online.

 

For example, if SpecView was monitoring multiple furnaces, then create a SpecView Text User Variable to use as the Batch Tag for each furnace, such as SpecView.Furnace1Batch, SpecView.Furnace2Batch, etc.  

 

Here is some sample data showing 3 batches:

 

 

This data would be listed as:

 

 

Only show batches for last:  (days)

Enter the number of days to find batches for, any number from 0 to 10,000 days, as there could have been many hundreds of batches.

 

Only show batches that match:

Either enter the whole Batch number (which is case sensitive) or use wildcard characters to filter out all occurrences of a particular batch from potentially many hundreds of batches.

Some examples of the use of wildcard characters are:

 

 Wildcard:                Means:                                Would match:

 *                        All                                Anything

 *Hot                        Ends with 'Hot'                        Hot, VeryHot, MediumHot, 123Hot

 Hot*                        Begins with 'Hot'                        Hot, Hotter, Hottest, Hot6789

 H?t                        'H' one character 't'                Hot, Hxt, H9t

 H??t*                        'H' two characters 't'                Heat, Heater123, Hoot

 *Hot*                        Has 'Hot' anywhere in it                Hot, 123Hot456, VeryHotInHere

 

 

 

Force CSV filename to Batch Number:

This checkbox is only shown when finding batches for Logfile Conversion.

This overrides the filename that the specified format would normally produce, replacing it with the name of the selected batch.

Any characters in the Batch number which don’t fit with the Windows Filenaming Rules are converted into underscores.

 

There is no way to delete batch information from SpecView's data Logfiles without also deleting the data Logfiles themselves. The action Logging: Purge Log Files also purges batch information.

 

Note: In order to ensure that a batch contains all the relevant data it is necessary to ensure that the Batch Tag is changed (to mark the start of the batch) before the batch starts for real. Similarly the batch run must have completed before the Batch Tag is changed (to mark the end of the batch).

 

When a Batch has been selected for Log File Conversion:

The Start From/Stop At dates & times will be set according to the Batch and the Batch number will be shown in the Log Report Setup box:

 

 

 

When a Batch has been selected for Historical Replay:

 

To select a Batch for Historical Replay click the Other... button on the Historical Replay Control Panel then Find Batch Number... (see below)

 

 

 

Will display this box:

 

 

Rescale Trend Charts to batch duration:

This checkbox is only shown when finding batches for Historical Replay.

This will rescale the Trend Chart's time span to be appropriate for the duration of the batch. For example if the batch is 3 minutes long then it will use a 5 minute time span.

The chart will be drawn as a 'best fit' between the fixed graduations of time along the X axis.

Note: that there is no link between a GDW & a batch, so ensure the correct screen is open to display the relevant Historical data.

 

 

Select the required batch, then the Start From date & time will be set according to the Batch and the Historical Replay will run according to the rate set.

If there is a Trend chart on the GDW and Auto Pause has been selected in the Options, then it may pause when the Trend Chart is full.

At the end of the replay of the Batch data it will show End of batch Auto Pause in the Control Panel:

 

 

Clicking Play will then continue the Historical Replay beyond the end of the selected Batch.

 

 

Hints & Tips:

- An example of the use of Batch Tags could be where the Strategy Controller is used to watch a 'Profile running status' and when the profile (or recipe, or program) has reached its end state, then a Strategy Controller Action sets the Batch Tag to blank to signal the end of the batch.

 

- If a batch number is to be entered manually then it is useful to put a Text User Variable on the screen (which is not marked as a Batch Tag) for the number of the next batch (For example, SpecView.NextFurnace1Batch).

Then when the batch is ready to be started the first action is to immediately copy the NextFurnace1Batch to Furnace1Batch to start the batch before performing the other actions necessary to start the batch.