Tue, 11/25/2014 - 11:42 am
I'm trying to build my own procedure using the Igor Pro manual and the built in Liquid Scintillator procedure as an example. I'm having trouble understanding certain details in the pre-built procedure though and the procedure section of the manual hasn't been very clear in detailing the options for a command and what they do/relate to. In particular, the "Make/o/n" and "Make/T/N" commands are confusing me because I'm not sure what the T, N, and O are supposed to mean. Is there another manual I should be looking at, or is III-13 the only instructional information regarding procedure windows and the command options?
Thanks in advance for any help!
It is a tabbed and for assistance on a particular function or operation select the command help tab and all will be revealed for example under "Make" where /oO is explained as overwrite and /T is for creating a text wave.
Make [flags ] waveName [, waveName ]...
Make [flags ] waveName [= {n0,n1,...}]...
Make [flags ] waveName [= {{n0,n1,...},{n0,n1,...},...}]...
The Make operation creates the named waves. Use braces to assign data values when creating the wave.
Flags
/B Makes 8-bit signed integer or unsigned integer waves if /U is present.
/C Makes complex waves.
/D Makes double precision waves.
/DF Wave holds data folder references.
Requires Igor Pro 6.1 or later. For advanced programmers only.
See Data Folder References for more discussion.
/FREE Creates a free wave. Allowed only in functions and only if a simple name or structure field is specified.
Requires Igor Pro 6.1 or later. For advanced programmers only.
See Free Waves for more discussion.
/I Makes 32-bit signed integer or unsigned integer waves if /U is present
/N=n n is the number of points each wave will have. If n is an expression, it must be enclosed in parentheses: Make/N=(myVar+1) aNewWave
/N=(n1, n2, n3, n4 )
n1, n2, n3, n4 specify the number of rows, columns, layers and chunks each wave will have. Trailing zeros can be omitted (e.g., /N=(n1, n2, 0, 0) can be abbreviated as /N=(n1, n2 )).
/O Overwrites existing waves in case of a name conflict. After an overwrite, you cannot rely on the contents of the waves and you will need to reinitialize them or to assign appropriate starting values.
/R Makes real value waves (default).
/T Makes text waves.
/T=size Makes text waves with pre-allocated storage.
size is the number of bytes preallocated by Igor for each element in each text wave. The waves are not initialized - it is up to you to initialize them.
Preallocation can dramatically speed up text wave assignment when the wave has a very large number of points but only when all strings assigned to the wave are exactly the same size as the preallocation size.
/U Makes unsigned integer waves.
/W Makes 16-bit signed integer or unsigned integer waves if /U is present.
/Y=type Specifies wave data type. See details below.
/WAVE Wave holds wave references.
Requires Igor Pro 6.1 or later. For advanced programmers only.
See Wave References for more discussion.
Wave Data Types
As a replacement for the above number type flags you can use /Y=numType to set the number type as an integer code. See WaveType for code values. The /Y flag overrides other type flags but you may still need to use the /C, /T, /DF or /WAVE flags to define the type of an automatic WAVE reference variable when used in user functions.
Details
Unless overridden by the flags, the created waves have the default length, type, precision, units and scaling. The factory defaults are:
Property Default
Number of points 128
Precision Single precision floating point
Type Real
x, y, z, and t scaling x0=0, Dx=1 ("point scaling")
x, y, z, and t units "" (blank)
Data Full Scale 0, 0
Data units "" (blank)
Note: The preferred precision set by the Miscellaneous Settings dialog only presets the Make Waves dialog checkbox, and determines the precision of imported waves. It does not affect the Make operation.
See Also
SetScale, Duplicate, Redimension
November 25, 2014 at 12:29 pm - Permalink
Thank you, that's exactly what I needed! I'm used to other software, where the help menu just provides details about the version and license instead of actual helpful information.
November 25, 2014 at 12:36 pm - Permalink
The Guided Tour of Igor includes an introduction to the various forms of help and documentation in Igor, including the PDF manual, the online help, and other features. In addition it provides an essential introduction to Igor concepts, some of which are idiosyncratic.
You really need to do the first half of the guided tour to efficiently learn how to use Igor. Choose Help->Getting Started to start the tour.
November 25, 2014 at 01:22 pm - Permalink
I think the help files are by far and away the best I have ever seen. The documentation even has literature citations. When did you ever see that! Wavemetrics spends a good amount of time creating the documentation and it is time well spent.
Andy
November 25, 2014 at 08:56 pm - Permalink