Northern Eclipse Help Reference

 DDE Options


Dynamic Data Exchange

Dynamic Data Exchange or DDE is a method that Windows programs use to communicate and share information.  Northern Eclipse has DDE capabilities to share information with spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and possibly other programs supporting programs of DDE, depending on their vintage (e.g. Lotus 123 or Quattro Pro).

Setting up Excel for the first time

Once DDE Options is selected, click on the Browse button and then find Excel.exe on your hard drive. (We do not recommend running DDE over a local network!)  Once the Excel ”exe” file has been found, click on open from the selection window. The DDE options menu should now look something like this:

If Excel cannot be found, be sure it has been loaded onto your computer first. Also, be sure that Excel is run at least once prior to linking through DDE. Once the DDE link has been established all subsequent data logging will use this connection. Book1 will be launched, and data will go to sheet1 (unless other wise specified). It is highly recommended that when saving data, not to use the Save command, but use the Save As command in Excel and then use a name other than Book1. We recommend saving Book1 as a blank file and then, using Windows Explorer, making the Book1.xls file a read only file. This will allow Book1 to be empty the next time Northern Eclipse automatically launches and sends data to Excel.

Hint: If a macro is required in excel, write the macro in excel, and save it in Book1 as an empty file, then each time Northern Eclipse launches Book1 the macro will be ready for use in Excel.

The Starting Location is adjustable for situations where it is necessary to send data to different Pages, Rows or Columns. The most common use of this option is to continue sending data to an existing spreadsheet.  DDE logging may be setup to do 2D or 3D data logging, however 3D data logging may only be used up to the number of pages in your spread sheet. Continue on the Same Page, which is the default option, appends data to the end of a current spreadsheet. After Excel has been configured to the desired setting click on OK, to save the settings.


See Also

Measure
Mono Tutorial
Color Tutorial
Distance Measure

References

Table of Contents
Function Reference
Menu Reference
Toolbar Reference
Options Property Pages Reference