OpenOffice - import and charting 1

[jmw]

Does anyone have experience of using open office spreadsheets?

I have project where data from a multi-stream flow computer will be logged using a program running in Windows (various Windows OS dependent on the age of the PC allocated to each system, much is scavenged from previous system installations). This will be repeated in various installations and the data then collated together into a master spreadsheet (data base later).

The end user is OK about using a PC with Windows but doesn't want to then have to shell out for MS Office (and especially not for Vista) when all he wants is to DDE the data into a spreadsheet and display the data graphically and in real time. He will then collate the data from several different systems into one spreadsheet/database later on.

Now I'm running blind here and am guessing there are going to be problems, no matter what MS or Open Office claim and I can foresee a few but would welcome any help/experiences/cautions.

I have several problems to solve, the first is going to require the logging program to be modified so that it can open the Open Office spreadsheet rather than Excel (it currently asks you to point to Excel.exe). But is it going to be that simple?

In Excel, I have multiple data sets to graph which is fine if the data numerically is of a similar range but I can be logging density at 950kg/m3, temperature at 30-60degC and viscosity at anywhere from 2 to 4000cst and the flow rates will vary according to the application.
As you know, once you've used up your two axis in excel you have to start messing about with lots of clumsy workarounds to provide an independent scale for each parameter, but is Open Office any different?

Lastly, with data collected together from several different
operating systems, some in excel and some in Open Office, are there any serious compatability problems that anyone knows about.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[romke]

is there a special requirement to use a spreadsheet program?

i can imagine that it would be easier to write the collected data into some form of structured textfile (CSV etc) and then feed the data to a plotting program with somewhat more extended capabilities then excel has. there are a number of open source free plotting programs around. that way you avoid the burden of costly software (that does not really let you do what you want).

 

[jmw]

Thanks Romke,
no special reason except that I am currently constrained by the PC configuration program that is doing the data logging which gives me he option of saving the data as text files or DDE export into spreadsheets.

The users will be vessel crew so ultimately I will have to have some special software written to fully automate the whole process.

It is just that during the establishing process (working out exactly what data to log and how to present it) we have to make do with whatever O/S we have available.
It seemed easiest to try and use Excel except that that is part of office and they don't want to buy office just for excel. Hence I thought of OpenOffice but then I have the DDE export problem that the logging software only points to excel.exe (I was playing with the idea of renaming the open office spreadsheet *.exe to excel.exe.....).
The problem is to generate a real time plot of the logged data with suitable scales.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Clyde38]

Try posting here:

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=904