Pressing F1 anywhere in the application will bring up the help screen. ESC will exit the help screen.
Note : Press TAB to highlight(dark blue background) the next help topic(the yellow text below). Then press enter to view it. Or just click on a desired topic with the mouse.
INDEX OF TOPICS:
Creating
Loading
Modifying
Printing
Plots
Printing
Fitted
Viewing
Plots
OTHER TOPICS:
CurveFits
Menus
Data
reduction
Importing
Files
About
CurveFits
File
Create
Use this option to begin entering data for a NEW data file. You will first be asked for the name of the data file you wish to create. If a file with that name exists, you will be then notified and asked if you wish to overwrite it or not.
File
Use this option to load a pre-existing Curvefits data file.
File
Use this option to either: a
a) Save your newly created data file using File|New
b) Save your modified Curvefits data file.
File
Load&Fit
This is an 'express' option. It will load a pre-existing curve fits file, run it through the curve fitting process and then take you to the fit selection dialog.
File
Change Directory
Use this to change the current directory of Curvefits
File
View Text
Use this option to use the internal file viewer to examine text files. Useful for examining text data files that you want to import. Note that the viewer will only display the first 64K of the file.
File
Set Printer
This option allows you to choose your printer (either Epson or Laserjet & compatibles) and select the port to print to (LPT1 - LPT9)
File
Dos Shell
This option will shell you to the DOS command line.
Data
Add Pair
This option allows you to add a data pair to the currently loaded data file.
Data
Delete Pair
This option allows you to delete the highlighted data pair from the currently loaded data file.
Data
Modify Pair
This option allows you to modify the values of the highlighted data pair
Data
Add Loop
This allows the addition of multiple data points to data file. The program will loop through the data pair addition process until either the Cancel button is selected or the Esc key is pressed.
Data
Reduce
This allows you to multiply all the data pairs in a data file by two constants. One for the X value and another for the Y value. This is good for reducing the magnitude of data files that have large values, which tend to overflow the exponential functions.
Data
Import Text
You will be asked for the name of the data file you wish to convert, and a formating string for the text file data.
For numbers you wish to use you will specify the code '%Le' in the format while numbers that are to be ignored will be specified with '%*Le'. The format string will tell the program what each line in your text file looks like, and therefore how it should be processed. U
For example, if your text file looks like this :
1.01232 12.8373
2.98210 4.87371
You would use this format string :
%Le %Le
If there are more than two numbers per line, you can specify which numbers you want to use (realizing of course that CurveFits can only use TWO data points). )
For a text file that looks like this :
16.9872E+02 16020202020.2 -1928.34E-02
123.32323 1.32233 22332.2
If you wanted to use columns one and three
use the following format string :
%Le %*Le %Le
or if your data appears like this :
1.4, 2.11
6.1, 12.32
use this format string :
%Le, %Le
compare this with the previous :
1.22982 , 12121
corresponding format string :
%Le , %Le
Any amount of consecutive spaces can be reduced to one space but any spacing between commas, numbers etc MUST be noted. You must also use an %Le or %*Le for EVERY number appearing on a line.
One last more complex example:
text file:
time = 1, velocity = 3, acceleration = 6.82287
time = 2, velocity = 4, acceleration = 5.28701
appropriate format string is :
time = %Le, velocity = %*Le, acceleration = %Le
Also keep in mind that the format string IS case sensitive!
Data
Output Text
This will convert the currently loaded data file to a text file.
Fits
Perform Fits
This will perform the curve fits on the currently loaded data file. The length of this process depends on the size of the data files. On a PC with an 80386/20Mhz CPU plus an 80387 math coprocessor, a data file with 100,000 points will take about 17.5 minutes, 1000 points about 8 seconds.
Fits
Best Correlation
This will display, in sorted order, the available fits by best correlation.
Fits
Best Std Err
This will display, in sorted order, the available fits by standard error.
Fits
View Fits
This will bring up the fit selection menu.
Fits
Desktop Colors
This allows you to change the default colors of the desktop.
Fits
Graph Colors
This allows you to change the default colors in graphics mode.
Window
This will move focus to the next window on the desktop.
Window
Previous
This will move focus to the previously focused window on the desktop.
Window
Close
This will close the currently focused window on the desktop.
Exit
Exit the program and return to DOS
CurveFits 4.27 Main Menu
Option: CF515 equivalent keystrokes:
(1) CREATE DATA FILE Alt-F1
(2) LOAD/ERASE DATA FILE F2 ( erasing no longer supported )
(3) EDIT DATA FILE F2
(4) CURVE FIT MENU F4 Alt-V
(5) EXIT PROGRAM Alt-X
Best Window
The 'Best' window (either Best Correlation or Best Standard Error) displays the list of available fits in sorted order. Pressing enter will display the plot of the hilighted fit. Clicking on a fit will display it also.
Press enter for more
Help.
Data Window
Press enter for more
Help. M
This is a display of all the data points in the currently loaded data file. 1
The data file can be modified from this window.
Enter - Will allow you to change the values
of the currently highlighted data
pair. (Also can be accomplished
by clicking on a pair with the
mouse).
Delete - Will delete the currently highlighted
data pair.
Insert - Allows addition of a data pair to
the file.
Fit Selection Box
The Fit preceded by the 'R' has the best correlation coefficient while the fit preceded by the '
' has the best standard error. Fits that are unavailable will be marked with 'N/A' (Not Available). This can happen for three reasons:
(1) Data has values which would cause
calculations to have undefined
results (division by zero,
logarithms of zero and below etc.)
(2) Data has caused FPU registers to
overflow/underflow during the
calculation of equation coefficients.
(3) Polynomial fit cannot be used on file
with less than 4 data points.
(Use quadratic or linear fit)
CurveFits v5.15
Curvefits is protected under the copyright laws of the United States. The program is Copyright, 1995 by the author John P. Arkins All rights reserved. D
Curvefits is a curve fitting program written in Borland Pascal 7.0 9
Borland Pascal is a Trademark of Borland International. F
SHAREWARE NOTICE
-----------------
CurveFits is not in the public domain, it is shareware. If you find this program useful, please register it by sending the $25 registration fee to the below address. Any comments or suggestions are also welcome. Thank you very much. m
Registration : John P. Arkins
54 Pearl Street
New Hyde Park, NY 11040-3814
Comments Only:
Compuserve : 73633,3417
Internet : 73633.3417@compuserve.com
Creating at data file
In order to create a data file, press ALT-F1. You will then be asked for the name of the data file you wish to create. If you specify the name of an existing file you will asked whether you wish to overwrite it or not. The program will then loop through the data entry process. Enter an X value, press either tab OR enter, enter a Y value and then press enter again as the OK button is now hilighted and will be activated. If a blank or invalid data field is entered the pair will not appear in the data window. The data entry loop will continue until either ESC is pressed or the Cancel button is selected.
Loading the data file
To load an existing CurveFits data file press F2. Enter the name of the data file you wish to load. The file will now be loaded and a data
window will appear on the desktop. From here you can either modify
file or run the data through the curve-fitting process by pressing F4.
Hard Copy
Plots can be sent to the printer from the graph screen. What is currently displayed on the screen is what will be printed. Therefore you should zoom and move about, select the data marking options etc that you desire. Q
To send the printout to the printer , press E
while viewing the graph screen.
If you desire a text file listing of the original data along with the fitted values for it, press P when the graph is displayed. This will create a text file with the name '*.prn' where * is a number, 1 or greater. If 1.prn exists a file 2.prn will be created, and so forth. This can then be printed from the DOS command line by typing a line like:
C:\>copy 1.prn prn E
For listing of graph screen options press F1 from the graph screen.
Viewing data plots
In order to view a plot of the currently loaded data file, you must perform the curve fitting calculations on the data by pressing F4 or by selecting Perform Fits from the menu bar. After this you can see the fits in either two ways : #
1) Press Alt-V and bring up the fit selection box. 2) Select 'Fits' from the top menu bar and then either best correlation or best standard error. This will list the fits in appropriate order. Then highlight the fit you wish to see and press enter. You can also click on it with the mouse.
In order to Import Text files into the program, the companion program CONVERT.EXE must reside in the same directory as CF515.EXE.
This computer has failed a simple division test known to be performed incorrectly by PC's powered by Intel Pentium chips. Since this program performs many floatinmg point calculations with the notorious FDIV instruction, the data produced may be suspect.
File
Clear Desktop
Closes all files, windows etc. Returns program to it's initial state.
(.txt)