This article outlines the steps to make a PowerPoint report: 1. Processing Data 2. Creating a Testlab Report 3. Creating Queryable Data 4. Making a PowerPoint Print Format 5. Printing the PowerPoint Report 6. Changing a Print Format 7. Option: Query Data from Run
1. Processing Data
Open Simcenter Testlab Neo Process Designer 2606 and select the “Process” tab at the bottom of the application (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Selecting the “Processing” tab to get started.
The “Processing” tab will only appear if the “Process Designer” add-in is loaded in Simcenter Testlab Neo. This can be done by going to FileAdd-insProcess Designer.
Other add-ins (Signature Analysis, Sound Quality, Fatigue Analysis, etc) may be required for the specific type of processing being performed. After running the process, data will be selected from the “Active Analysis” and assigned to displays to be used in the PowerPoint report.
More about using the Process Designer in these knowledge articles:
After processing data, create a “Testlab Report”. A “Testlab Report” consists of a series of displays that contain data as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: A "Testlab Report" with three FrontBack graphs.
Reports, just like displays, can be deleted or added by clicking on the down arrow as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3: Reports can be named, deleted, etc by clicking on the down arrow next on the Report tab.
It is even possible to have multiple reports, each with a unique set of displays, within a project.
The Testlab Report and corresponding displays can be created using two different methods:
Preview Displays
Fixed Displays
The methods are described in the next sections.
2.1 Preview Display Method
The “Preview” display can be used to quickly generate display layouts based on the processed data contained in “Active Analysis”. Highlight data in the pivot table so it appears in the “Preview” graph.
Once the Preview shows the desired data, copy the preview display to a “Testlab Report”. To do so, click the dropdown arrow next to the “Preview” tab and choose “Add Picture to new Report” (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Creating a fixed display by clicking on the down arrow in the Preview tab and choosing “Add picture to new Report”.
A new picture tab is created. The data in the new picture will need to be replaced with “queryable” data as described in the next section.
More information about Simcenter Testlab Neo displays can be found here:
Graphs can also be created as in Simcenter Testlab Neo by clicking the green “+” icon in the display area.
After clicking the green button, a list of displays is created. Select the type of graph desired, such as a “FrontBack” or “Waterfall” as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Open a new fixed display by clicking on the green “+” button and selecting the desired display.
Multiple displays can be created this way. Each display will be one page in the resulting PowerPoint. More information about Simcenter Testlab Neo displays can be found here:
With the displays open, data from the “Active Analysis” needs to be placed into the graphs. The data that is placed in displays must be “Queryable” data. “Queryable” data can be automatically updated when a new set of processing is performed.
Queryable data is identified by a “Q” next to the curve name in the graph. If the data does not have a “Q” in the legend:
Preview: If the display was created from the Preview tab, then the data will need to be replaced with queried data. Remove the data in the display.
Empty: The display is contains no data, then follow the next instructions.
In the Display ribbon, change “Regular Data” icon to “Data as Queries” (Figure 6) if it is not already selected.
Figure 6: Select “Data as queries”. Data placed in displays will be in query format.
Drag and drop data from “Active Analysis” into the displays as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: From “Active Analysis” drag and drop data into the displays.
When replacing or dropping curves in the display, a “Q” appears next to the name in the legend (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Selecting “Data as Queries” and replacing data in the premade graphs so that they now contain a small letter “Q” in the legend.
The curves should now show the query indicator with the letter “Q” appearing in the legend.
More information about Simcenter Testlab Neo queries and display layouts can be found here:
A PowerPoint Print Format can be defined to custom the final report: company logos, color schemes, etc can be set in advance.
To create a PowerPoint Print Format, open the drop-down menu in the Report section and select “New Print Format…”. Enter a name for the print format and then click “Ok” (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Click the Report icon drop down arrow and select “New Print Format…”. Name the new print format and press OK.
A PowerPoint document opens automatically. This document is a print format for the PowerPoint report that will be generated by the process (Figure 10).
Figure 10: An example of the PowerPoint print format template that appears after a new print format is named. It can be edited and then saved.
The print format template can be edited by changing the master slides of PowerPoint:
Logos: Add logos or other standard PowerPoint format items.
Graph Size: Change the size of the graphs on the slide.
Annotation: Add annotation fields anywhere on graphs.
If using descriptive annotation, fields can be added in the PowerPoint template such as “Test Engineer”, “Date”, or “Frequency Resolution”:
Select the “Add-ins” ribbon in PowerPoint.
Click on a graph.
Click “New Field” in the Add-ins” ribbon.
Select from list of annotation attributes and place them in PowerPoint. Multiple attributes can be selected and added.
These attribute holders are filled automatically when the report is generated.
After editing the PowerPoint document, save it and return to Simcenter Testlab Neo.
Click on the new PowerPoint icon drop-down menu and select “Assign to Process” (Figure 11).
Figure 11: Click the report drop down menu with the PowerPoint icon and turn on the checkboxes “Assign to Process” and "Auto Print after Processing".
Also turn on the "Auto Print after Processing" checkbox.
A PowerPoint icon should appear next to the report icon. The PowerPoint print format is now assigned to the process and ready to run.
After selecting some new data to process, click on the “Run” button in the lower left state bar to execute the process.
After the process has finished, select “Accept” (Figure 12).
Figure 12: After running the process, click “Accept” button (left side of state bar) to automatically print the report in a new PowerPoint instance with the data.
After pressing “Accept” the PowerPoint will be generated and opened. (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Example of Powerpoint with graphs with automatically filled data from a process.
The data is placed into the graphs defined in the PowerPoint template.
Enjoy the PowerPoint report!
6. Changing a Print Format
Once a Testlab Report and Print Format has been coupled to the process, graphs cannot be edited or deleted.
To change an existing PowerPoint format, first decouple the PowerPoint Print Format by clicking the drop down icon on the report and selecting “Decouple Print Format” (Figure 14).
Figure 14: Under the PowerPoint icon, choose “Decouple Print Format” to break the association between the Process and Print Format. This allows graphs to be edited again.
Once decoupled, the graphs can be edited again, added, or layouts changed. If any changes are made, the format needs to be saved as a new print format again with a unique name.
Previously created formats can be opened from the drop-down menu next to the report icon. Select “Couple Print Format…” (Figure 15).
Figure 15: Click on report icon and select “Couple Print Format” to couple a Print Format to a Process.
A list of previously created PowerPoint templates appears. Select the format that should be used.
The selected format can then be assigned to the process and used to generate the report.
7. Option: Query Data from Run
Instead of using data from the "Active Analysis", it is also possible to setup a Report from a data run that was already processed (Figure 16):
Figure 16: Another option to select data for a Testlab Report is to use data from an already processed run.
The query data (marked with a "Q") needs to be edited to reference the "Active Analysis" so it will update when a new data set is processed. This assumes that the already processed data run is representative of new data that will be processed.
To change the source, select “Edit Queries” in the Display ribbon (Figure 17).
Figure 17: Press the “Edit Queries” button in the Display ribbon.
In the “Edit Queries” menu, change the source from “Active Section” to “Active Analysis” (Figure 18).
Figure 18: Click the “Edit Queries” button in the ribbon to pull up the dialog box for querier sources and properties. and change the source to Active Analysis.
Remove the Run and Section properties if they are included in the queries (Figure 19).
Figure 19: In the “Edit Queries” menu, remove the section and run name properties.
The Run property is not currently supported for this workflow. The graph will now contain queryable data with the source set to Active Analysis.
Enjoy printing to PowerPoint automatically with Simcenter Testlab Neo Process Designer!
