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This Quick Start Guide covers the installation and initial configuration of SpecView.

 

When the computer is connected to an instrument via a serial port (RS232/RS485/RS422/USB) or by Ethernet (TCP/IP), SpecView gets data from and can send data to the instrument. Unlike conventional SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) software, where each data point has to be defined by the user, SpecView has a pre-built database of hundreds of instruments. Most instruments, if already connected to the computer, can be Automatically Detected by SpecView. If the instrument is not connected to the computer, or if that instrument does not support the auto-detection feature, the user selects it from a list. In SpecView this is called Manually Defining Instruments.

 

Below is a step-by-step guide to the most frequently used features of SpecView:

 

Once all the steps below have been followed, the screen should look similar to this:

 

 

Note: The Instrument View (the Zone1 box at the top left) will depend on the specific instrument being used.

 

The steps are as follows:

1. Installing SpecView

2. Starting SpecView

 

If there are Instrument(s) connected, then follow:

3. Automatically detecting instruments and displaying Instrument Views

 

Or, if there are no instrument(s) currently connected to the computer then follow:

4. Manual Definition

 

and continuing:

5. Add a variable to a screen, known as a GDW (Graphical Display Window)

6. Draw a Trend Chart

7. Define a second GDW

8. Add buttons to switch between GDW's

9. Add a Bar chart to a GDW

10. See how it works in Runtime Mode

 

Once installed, follow through these steps by first clicking the link: Starting SpecView.

 

When running SpecView there are numerous 'Help' buttons that will open a relevant topic in the Help, or press the F1 key at any time.

 

Note: SpecView's name for each screen is a GDW (Graphical Display Window).

Each GDW is saved as a file on disk with a filename extension of .GD3 (similar to a Word document having a filename extension of .doc).

From SpecView version 2.5 build 820 (dated 2006), these GDW files have changed their filename extension to .GD3

However, a GDW (or GD3) file is not a standalone file and must be accompanied by all the other files within its Project folder.

An easy way to keep them together when backing-up is to use SpecView's Archive.