Currently, the GRID object has three options for its data source...
- TEXT FILE
- CLASS TAG
- DATABASE
I am requesting that a fourth data source be added, Indusoft's binary history files (*.hst).
We have 5000 tags stored in these file types (half are stored every 15 seconds and kept for four months, and half are stored every 15 minutes and kept perpetually). It would be very useful to be able to specify a tag or list of tags and have the numerical data populate the grid. The TREND object does this and displays the data graphically; I want to be able to display it numerically.
I am aware that the HST2TXT function is available, but this method requires an excessive amount of file and string manipulation. For example, if I wanted the data from three tags that were stored in three different HST files, I would have to apply the HST2TXT function to each of those three files for each day that I wanted the data. So for a one week period, I would have to convert 21 HST files which translates into 42 ASCII files (21 TXT and 21 HDR). Then I'd have to parse out the three tags I'm interested in and write them to a new file to be read by the GRID object.
Extracting the tags directly from the binary HST files is the only way to go.
Another way to approach it might be to create a new function similar to the HST2TXT function that would perform the conversion on a TAG name basis, rather than FILE name basis. You could call it TAG2TXT.
And finally, shouldn't a user be able to select data in rows and/or columns and copy it to the WINDOWS clipboard? (Ctrl-C doesn't appear to funtion, but it should)
Thank You,
