This file contains general information about Datafit version 2.1 and Viewplot version 2.1 by Engineered Software. Table of Contents: Section 1 - What is Datafit/Viewplot? Section 2 - Machine Requirements Section 3 - Distribution and License Information Section 4 - Automatic Installation using SETUP.EXE Section 5 - Manual Installation Section 6 - Version 2.1 and previous Release Notes Section 7 - Contacting us Section 8 - Thank you Section 1 - What is Datafit/Viewplot? Datafit is an an Engineering tool which is useful for generating functional equations and FFT calculations for tabular sampled data. It allows the user to import the data from a file or enter it through a built in editor. For curve fitting, Cubic Splines and Least Squares techniques are used. The equation coefficients and calculated vs. entered data can be displayed and printed in tabular format. Statistics, such as correlation between entered and calculated data, are also calculated. Once equation coefficients are determined, the program can generate subroutine source code (Basic and C) which can readily be compiled and used to interpolate the data in user written programs. FFT calculations can be done on the entered data directly, or can be first spline fitted to allow a faster sampling rate. The FFT magnitude and phase calculations can also be displayed and printed in tabular format. In addition, output from this program for both the curve fitting functions and FFT calculations can be fed into Viewplot and the results can be viewed and compared graphically. Viewplot for is an Engineering tool which is useful for plotting functional equations and FFT calculations generated by the program Datafit. It can be used stand-alone, or launched from within Datafit once the programs have been registered. It has the ability to plot multiple curves from one or more datasets and display them in the same or separate windows simultaneously. Plots can be customized by formatting legends, numerical scaling, line colors, line styles and axis/title labels. The plots can be saved, printed or copied to the Windows clipboard for pasting into other applications. Section 2 - Machine Requirements Datafit/Viewplot for Windows requires Windows 3.1 or better. A minimum of four megabytes of memory is recommended. The software has also been tested under Windows NT version 3.5x and Windows 95. A minimum Screen resolution of 800 x 600 is required. The software will run with resolutions less then this, but some of the text or buttons may be clipped in the windows. Section 3 - Distribution and License Information Datafit and Viewplot are being distributed as Shareware. They are not FREE software or Public Domain software. You may freely distribute copies of them to others for evaluation purposes. You may use the software for 15 days free of charge. After the 15 day evaluation you have two options: 1. Register and purchase them from the authors 2. Stop using them and remove the files from your hard disk. You are required to register your copy of DataFit and Viewplot if you find them useful. A lot of hard work went into making them, and a lot more will go into making them better. You MUST register to obtain Technical support. Payment of $30.00 (based on US currency) can be accepted in the following forms: 1. Cash 2. Check/Money Order 3. Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) 4. First Virtual 5. Invoice This payment will cover the use of both programs. Once you are registered, you can obtain technical support, provide input for future releases, get rid of the nagging registration screens, receive upgrade information, and generally feel better about yourself. To register, select "Complete Registration Form" from the Registration Information panel, or double click on the "Register" icon in the Engineered Software program group. The Registration form will appear. Follow the detailed instructions on the form. Depending on your payment option, you will be given instructions on how to send the payment. You only need to complete one registration form for both Datafit and Viewplot. Once we receive the form, you will receive a confirmation letter which will include your registration number and license agreement. Once you have received a registration number, you may permanently enter it by selecting "Enter Registration" from the registration information panel. Be sure to enter your name EXACTLY how it is spelled on the confirmation letter. If you have any problems entering your registration number, please contact technical support. For more information about registering the software, see "Obtaining a License for Datafit/Viewplot" in the online help. Section 4 - Automatic Installation using SETUP.EXE To automatically install Datafit/Viewplot for Windows on your hard drive: 1. If you have received the software from an archive in the form of a .ZIP file, copy the contents of the archive to a temporary directory and unzip the files. Copy the unzipped files to a floppy disk to keep as a backup. If you have received the software on a floppy disk directly from Engineered Software, the files will already be unzipped. 2. If you received the files from an archive, you will also need to download the file "VBRUN300.DLL" and copy it to your Windows\System directory. If you recieved the software directly from Engineered Software, this file will be included and copied automatically during the installation. 3. Place the disk in a floppy drive of your computer. 4. Open the File menu of the Windows program manager and select Run. 5. In the Run dialog box, type A:SETUP or B:SETUP, depending on the floppy drive used. 6. The Setup application will prompt you for additional information as required. Section 5 - Manual Installation If for some reason the installation program SETUP.EXE fails, you can manually install the software by following the instructions below. We won't point any fingers, but typically installation failure is neither your fault nor ours.... Before proceeding, please note the behavior you experienced and let us know what happened. This includes error messages, ect. Problems are rare with the automatic installation, however, we want to make sure the installation goes as smoothly as possible. 1. If you have received the software from an archive in the form of a .ZIP file, copy the contents of the archive to a temporary directory and unzip the files. Copy the unzipped files to a floppy disk to keep as a backup. If you have received the software on a floppy disk directly from Engineered Software, the files will already be unzipped. 2. If you received the files from an archive, you will also need to download the file "VBRUN300.DLL" and copy it to your Windows\System directory. If you recieved the software directly from Engineered Software, this file will be included and copied automatically during the installation. 3. Place the disk in a floppy drive of your computer. 4. Create a directory called "Engrsoft" on your hard disk. This will be the directory where the software will reside. For example, at the c:\ prompt, type the following: mkdir engrsoft 5. Change to the directory you have just created and create another directory called "projects". This is where the project and solution files will reside. For example, type the following: cd engrsoft mkdir projects 6. Change to the floppy drive and type the following command: c:\windows\expand datafit.ex_ If your windows installation is in a different directory, substitute the correct path for in the line above. Also note the underscore character at the end of the file name. 7. Expand will ask you to "Enter the location for the expanded files." Enter the complete path to the "engrsoft" directory you created in step 4 above. 8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for each file in the following list: datafit.ex_ viewplot.ex_ datafit.hl_ viewplot.hl_ register.ex_ register.hl_ 9. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the following list of files, except when prompted for location of expanded files, specify the directory "c:\windows\system". If your windows installation is in a different directory, substitute the correct path for in the line above. You should check the dates on these files, and do not copy over them (if they exist) if the dates on the files in the windows directory are newer than the files on the floppy disk. You may want to back up these files in your windows\system directory before proceeding. Re-read the previous two sentences, and please do not continue until you complete those two steps! commdlg.dl_ gauge.vb_ grid.vb_ cmdialog.vb_ spin.vb_ threed.vb_ vbrun300.dl_ 10. Copy the file readme.txt (this file) to the "engrsoft" directory you created in step 4 above. 11. Create a program group called "Engineered Software". In that program group, create the following program items: "Datafit" - executable datafit.exe "Viewplot" - executable viewplot.exe "Datafit Help" - datafit.hlp help file "Viewplot Help" - viewplot.hlp help file "Register" - executable register.exe This step is done a little differently, depending on whether you are running Windows '95, or Windows 3.X, or Windows NT 3.5X. In Windows help, you may want to look up "creating folders" or "program groups" for Windows '95, or "program groups" in 3.x or NT 3.5x. The icons for the executables are em-bedded in the executable file. 12. Create a file called "datafit.ini" in your windows directory. The file should contain the following lines: projectdir = C:\ENGRSOFT\PROJECTS fontface = Courier fontheight = 10 default_x = 0 default_y = 0 Make sure the file appears EXACTLY (upper/lower case) as shown above. In the projectdir line, the path should be to the "projects" directory you created in step 5 above. If your machine does not have the Courier font installed, you may want to try Courier New, or another font resident on your system. For more information, see the section "Customizing Datafit" in the Datafit online help. 13. Create a file called "viewplot.ini" in your windows directory. The file should contain the following lines: screenwidth = 600 screenheight = 800 default_x = 0 default_y = 0 projectdir = C:\ENGRSOFT\PROJECTS Make sure the file appears EXACTLY (upper/lower case) as shown above. In the projectdir line, the path should be to the "projects" directory you created in step 5 above. For more information, see the section "Customizing Viewplot" in the Viewplot online help. Section 6 - Version 2.1 and Previous Release Notes Datafit and Viewplot Version 2.1 is a FREE upgrade for current Version 2.0 and 1.0 users. Not every upgrade will be free, but some interim releases will be. If there is a charge for upgrades in the future, it will be somewhat less than purchasing it for the first time. If you register the software, you will be notified of new releases. Work is going on on a daily basis, so register the software and submit your requests. We can't guarantee that we will honor every feature request, but we will do our best. Changes/Bug Fixes in Datafit Version 2.1 1. Text note box was added. This allows the user to type notes in the text box which are saved along with the projects. See the section "Entering Notes" in the online help. 2. FFT capabilities added. See the section "FFT Calculations" in the online help. 3. The calculated Y data for Cubic Splines was corrected in the View Equations/Statistics Panel. Previously the calculated data was displayed incorrectly because the solved coefficient data was not read in as double precision. 4. The installation program previously overwrote the datafit.ini and viewplot.ini files in the Windows directory if the software had already been installed. If the files already exist, they will no longer be overwritten. 5. Backward file compatility exists to previous versions. 6. If the default windows fonts Courier, Ms Sans Serif, or Arial were not present on the users system, the user would get an error which said "Invalid Property Value". A more descriptive error message comes up, and the program continues with the windows system standard font. 7. If the screen resolution is less than 800 x 600, a warning panel tells the user to change his screen resolution to a minimum of 800 x 600. The software will continue, but there will not be enough screen real estate to display the screens, hence buttons and text may not show up. 8. We now accept payment of various forms. See section 2 above. 9. Adding printing status panels. Changes/Bug Fixes in Viewplot Version 2.1 1. The ability to display FFT calculations was added. 2. The default axis limits initialize to more 'reasonable' values instead of fitting to max and min values. 3. Input data is now displayed at the top of the equation list when opening or importing a new file. 4. Added 3D check boxes in colors and line style panels. 5. The ability to view plot coordinates by clicking was added. See the section "Show Coordinates" in the online help. 6. Backward file compatility exists to previous versions. 7. Adding printing status panels. Changes/Bug Fixes in Datafit Version 2.0: 1. Added additional Least Squares functions. These are common functions used in scientific and statistical analysis. See the section "Specifying Equation Types" in the online help. 2. Added ability to export source code in C and Basic to readily include the solved equations in other source code. See the section "Exporting Program Subroutines" in the online help. 3. Revised the View menu to more easily view the solution parameters. See the section "Viewing Output" in the online help. 4. You can now access Viewplot directly from Datafit. The software must be registered before this feature can be accessed. See the section "Viewing Output" in the online help. Changes/Bug Fixes in Viewplot Version 2.0: 1. Viewplot can run in either standalone mode as before, or can be accessed directly from Datafit. The software must be registered before this feature can be accessed. See the section "Viewing Output" in the Datafit online help. Stay tuned. Some more neat stuff is on the way.... Section 7 - Contacting us If you have any questions or problems installing or setting up the programs, you may contact us via email at johng@kagi.com, or by US Mail at: Engineered Software C/O John A. Gilmore 1315 Varner Road Pittsburgh, PA 15227 For more information, please see the section "Obtaining Technical Support" in the online help. Section 8 - Thank you Thank you for taking the time to evaluate this software. We hope it does what you need easily and efficiently. If you have any comments, good or bad, PLEASE send them to the address in Section 7.