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⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ∑ ≥ Lab-Trac 2.0 ∫ ≥ ∫ ≥ User's Manual ∫ ‘ÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕº Materials Engineering Software Formulation Management and Analysis Software Version 2.0 Manual Revision 2.0.a Copyright (C) 1993 M Squared Technologies 2128 Hidden Pine Lane Apopka, Fl 32712 (407) 880-2627 ______________________________________________________ Table Of Contents Subject Screen Page ------------------------------------------------------ On Line Manual:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 7 3 Introduction:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 11 5 Installation:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 12 5 DOS Configuration:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 12 5 Using Lab-Trac With a Disk Cache:˙˙˙˙˙˙ 13 6 Lab-Trac Installation:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 15 6 Start Up Scripts:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 18 7 Lab-Trac Batch File:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 20 8 MS Windows Installation:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 21 9 Exiting Lab-Trac:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 23 10 Formulation Hierarchy:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 24 10 Quick Start Tutorial:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 25 10 Lab-Trac Database Keys:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 27 11 Formulation Tutorial:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 29 12 Input Cursor Key Control:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 31 13 Fabrication Tutorial:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 35 14 Report Generator Tutorial:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 37 15 Lab-Trac Database Functions:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 42 17 Adding/Editing Records:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 42 17 Deleting Records:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 43 18 Undeleting Records:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 44 18 Locating Records:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 44 18 Exporting Data To a File:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 45 18 Printing Data:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 47 19 Re-indexing The Database:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 49 20 Switching Indices:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 50 20 Exit, Return and Continue:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 51 21 Formulations and Reports:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 52 21 Formulations Database:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 53 21 Creating and Editing a Formulation:˙˙˙˙ 56 23 Work Request Screen:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 57 23 Material Formulation Screen:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 61 25 Entering Data:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 62 25 BWM - Batch Weight Multiplier:˙˙˙˙˙˙ 62 25 Components & Weights:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 63 25 ESCAPE Data Entry:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 64 26 Material Properties:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 64 26 Fabrication Screen:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 65 26 Formulation Analysis:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 66 27 Analytical Equations:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 68 27 Calculation Summary:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 72 29 Reports & Documents:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 73 29 Selecting Report Formats:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 74 30 Generating a Report:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 75 30 Report Status:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 75 30 Viewing a Report:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 76 31 Deleting a Report:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 76 31 Master Document:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 77 31 Process Document:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 78 31 Engineering Labor Costs:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 79 32 Report Summary:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 79 32 System Setup & Information:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 84 34 CPU Speed:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 84 34 Memory:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 85 34 Printer Port:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 85 34 Registration:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 86 35 System Setup:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 86 35 Setting Defaults:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 86 35 User Defined Properties:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 87 35 Labor Rates:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 88 35 User Defined Utility:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 88 36 User Defined Word Processor:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 89 36 ASCII Format:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 90 36 Reports & Printer Control:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 91 37 Formatted Reports:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 93 37 Screen Snow:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 93 38 Significant Figures:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 94 38 DOS Services:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 94 38 Re-Index Databases:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 95 38 Play Time:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 96 39 Unit Conversions:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 96 39 Active Keys:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 97 39 Menu Selections:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 97 39 User Defined Program/Suppliers Database:˙˙ 100 40 Periodic Table:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 102 41 Word Processor, User Defined:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 103 42 Calendar & Time Service:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 104 42 Stopwatch:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 106 43 Scientific Calculator:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 109 44 Examples:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 110 44 Materials Database:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 115 46 Components:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 116 47 Density:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 116 47 Percent Solids:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 117 47 UDF Material Properties:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 118 47 Copyright Notice:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 119 48 License Agreement:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 120 48 Warranty & Support:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 121 49 Correspondence˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 124 50 Appendix:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 123 50 User Notes:˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ 124 50 ______________________________________________________ On Line Manual: The F1 key activates the On Line Manual at any point in Lab-Trac. Major topics can be located by entering "__" into the search condition or major headings by " : ", (Omitting the quotes). The manual for Lab-Trac is being distributed electronically. This type of manual has several advantages over a standard printed manual. For the end user, information is always available for reference when you need it and not stuck on your desk or left at home. Second, it provides you with a means to retrieve information contextually throughout the program. For example, when you are working in the Materials Database, the MANUAL menu button will automatically place the manual at this section. However, if you absolutely need printed matter to mentally digest, you may print any portion of the manual. A file called MANUAL.DOC is an ASCII or text file which you may add your own notes and using the BUILD start-up script, you can add this information to the electronic manual. This file can also be imported into any standard word processor. Lab-Trac is designed to be an "open" program, where it's information and report information are openly available in ASCII format for your use in other programs like spreadsheets, standard monthly or program status reports. The following menu items are available for the On Line Manual. ESCAPE - The escape key will exit the On Line Manual. PAGE UP - These keys will scroll the window up or DOWN down to display the next page of text. UP, DOWN - The directional arrow shown on the ARROWS numeric key pad or on the extended key board will scroll the text screen up or down one line at a time. HOME - Displays the first line of the document. END - Displays the last page of the document. G - GO, will position you at any screen number in the document. S - SEARCH, You are prompted to enter a search string. All lines will be shown at the top of the page which exactly match the entered search condition. Entering a colon will show all major topics of the manual. C - CONTINUE, executes a continued search based on the previously entered search condition. P - PRINT, will execute a sub-menu which can print a single screen, a 60 line page or the entire document. M Squared Technologies is continuously updating this manual. You may receive an update for the file MANUAL.DOC. To update your electronic manual, execute the install program from the distribution diskette. _____________________________________________________ Introduction: The genesis of this software grew from the need to create many material formulations optimized to specific volume fractions of filler components. Calculating these numbers by hand was a time consuming task, but this was only half the battle. Once the materials were formulated, the formulations had to be documented and fabricated. A typical project produced hundreds of material specimens each with a different formulation. Lab-Trac was designed to make formulations fast and easy and to database your entire materials development process. ______________________________________________________ Installation: DOS Configuration: Lab-Trac requires at least 535,000 bytes of free memory. MS-DOS's CHKDSK.EXE or MEM.EXE will show you the total available memory. Check your CONFIG.SYS file for unused device drivers which consume memory. Lab-Trac requires the following specifications in the CONFIG.SYS file on your boot drive. FILES = 50 BUFFERS = 20 DOS 5.0 users will want to load the DOS kernel into high memory with the following specifications in the CONFIG.SYS file. DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=high SHELL=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /e:512 /p FILES=99 BUFFERS=20 An AUTOEXEC.BAT file which loads the sub-directory LABTRAC into the DOS path is shown below. @echo off path = c:\dos;c:\windows;c:\labtrac c:\dos\smartdrv.exe 2048 512 /e prompt $p$g cls Please consult your DOS and Windows manuals for complete descriptions on these commands and device drivers. Using Lab-Trac With a Disk Cache: Installing a disk cache can dramatically improve your computer's performance. To install the disk cache provided with DOS or Windows, include the following line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 512 Improper exit of Lab-Trac may occur when using a disk cache program which uses delayed write buffers. If you are using such a disk cache the buffer needs to be flushed after exiting Lab-Trac to ensure that all program data is written to the disk. This flush technique can be accomplished by including either of the following lines in a batch file which calls Lab-Trac. Batch file to call labtrac and flush the disk cache. For SMARTDRV.EXE @echo off c: cd \labtrac labtrac smartdrv /c For PC-CACHE.EXE @echo off c: cd \labtrac labtrac pc-cache /flush Lab-Trac Installation: The installation of Lab-Trac is performed from the distribution diskette. The files which make up Lab-Trac are compressed into an archive file. This file will unarchive itself into the correct file structure for the proper configuration of Lab-Trac. Place the distribution diskette into the appropriate floppy drive. Set the DOS home directory to the root directory of this drive, i.e., "A:" or "B:" and "CD \". Type the following syntax to install Lab-Trac to the "C" hard disk. A:\> install c: Any valid DOS drive specifier can be used for the installation. The installation performs the following tasks or you may choose to perform the installation. 1. Copies the file LT_ARC.EXE to the root directory of the drive where you wish the installation to create the tree structure. 2. Executes the file LT_ARC.EXE. 3. The execution of LT_ARC.EXE builds the following tree structure. C:\ ƒƒø(Root) ≥ √ƒ LABTRAC (Lab-Trac Source Directory) ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒDOCS (Reports & Logs) ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒEDITORS (Editors, Shareware) ≥ ≥ ≥ ¿ƒPHONE (Suppliers Database) 4. Installation is complete when Lab-Trac begins by executing LABTRAC.EXE. Lab-Trac is installed in the subdirectory "\LABTRAC". Select the drive specifier which contains this subdirectory. Change to the Lab-Trac subdirectory, "CD LABTRAC". Execute Lab-Trac by typing "LABTRAC" and the ENTER key. Lab-Trac cannot run from a floppy drive because of the intense disk activity that this program performs on the databases. When Lab-Trac is first executed, you will be prompted to enter your name as the licensed user. This information will be encrypted into the LICENSE.DAT file. Do not attempt to edit this file or Lab-Trac will become disabled. For our commercial customers, it is suggested you enter the organization or laboratory which procured the software. When your order was filled, your company name and serial number for Lab-Trac were branded into Lab-Trac. Start Up Scripts: Lab-Trac has several start-up scripts which may be enabled when you execute the "LABTRAC" command line. C:\LABTRAC> labtrac initialize Resets all indices, configuration files and reloads the file "MANUAL.DOC" into the manual database. C:\LABTRAC> labtrac re-index Resets the indices for all the databases. This can resolve strange behavior within the database utilities which is caused by the failure to exit the Lab-Trac through normal channels or inadvertent power loss. C:\LABTRAC> labtrac build Rebuilds the manual from the file "MANUAL.DOC". This is useful if you want to customize the manual by adding sections or notes. C:\LABTRAC> labtrac reset Resets the program run time to 0.00 hours. This is useful when starting a specific project to log all time devoted to the project. Generally, this run time is used by M Squared Technologies to assess the experience gained by our users. C:\LABTRAC> labtrac new Erases the file ACTIVE.LT which stop the recursive execution of Lab-Trac. Failure to properly exit Lab-Trac leaves this file present which will stop the execution of subsequent sessions of Lab-Trac. Lab-Trac Batch File: The following file can be created with any editor that creates an ASCII or text file. This file is an example of a batch file. Load this file into a subdirectory which is called by a DOS path call and you may start Lab-Trac at any location on your computer. LT.BAT @echo off rem labtrac batch file c: cd\ cd labtrac labtrac cd\ rem end of file ______________________________________________________ MS Windows Installation: After Lab-Trac is properly installed to the hard disk, Lab-Trac can be install under the Windows program manager to run in 386 enhanced mode. You must have at least an 80386 SX processor to access this mode in Windows 3.0+. Consult your Windows documentation for access this mode. Lab-Trac comes with the following Windows files which will assist you in the installation of Lab-Trac. This installation example assumes that Lab-Trac has been install to the subdirectory C:\LABTRAC. LABTRAC.GRP - Windows Program Group File LABTRAC.ICO - Windows Icon for Lab-Trac LT386.PIF - PIF for Windows Enhanced Mode LT286.PIF - PIF for Windows Standard Mode The following procedure installs Lab-Trac using the Windows Program Manager. Copy the file LABTRAC.GRP into your Windows subdirectory. From Program Manager, Select "FILE" "NEW" "PROGRAM GROUP" "OK" For the program group properties enter the following: Description: Lab-Trac Group File: labtrac.grp Select "OK" The new program group should appear in the Program Managers Window. You may have to specify the appropriate path statement for the group file if Lab-Trac is installed in a different subdirectory. You may wish to setup the PIF file for Lab-Trac to run in background mode. This can be helpful when generating a report or printing. You may edit LABTRAC.PIF to change this parameter using the Windows PIF editor. ______________________________________________________ Exiting Lab-Trac: Lab-Trac is very suitable for exploration instead of reading the manual. However, always exit the program through the ESCAPE key. Lab-Trac is a database program and the databases require you to exit the program in a prescribed fashion. Failure to adhere to this advice may result in the corruption of indices and possible data loss. ______________________________________________________ Formulation Hierarchy: An engineer or laboratory will work on many projects during their lifetimes. Each project may require several materials to accomplish their design goals. The development of each material may require many formulations of different chemicals. Specific formulations may vary in one component or process variable yielding numbered specimens. Lab-Trac is designed to database a simple formulation or an entire laboratory with many projects. The following is a schematic of the development tree which is implemented in Lab-Trac. Project (Composite Wing) Material (SKINS) Formulation (SKIN-1) Number ( 1, 2, 3, 4 ) (SKIN-2) Number ( 1, 2 ) Material (Coatings) Formulation (RE-1) Number ( 1, 2, 3 ) (RE-2) Number ( 1 ) Etc. ______________________________________________________ Quick Start Tutorial: An example formulation is distributed with Lab-Trac. The purpose of this example is to illustrate the typical use of the data fields within the program. Follow this example as you read this tutorial. Lab-Trac is entirely menu driven. The On Line Manual will help you with reference documentation at any time by pressing the F1 key or selecting the MANUAL menu button. Begin your tutorial session at the main menu of Lab-Trac. This menu is shown with a boiling beaker. A scroll bar highlights the first menu item, "On Line Manual". The On Line Manual is available at any time within Lab-Trac. The MANUAL menu button can determine the area of the program in which you are working and will automatically place you at the right point in the manual. Press the ENTER key to pop up the manual. Scroll the manual with the up and down arrows. Press the ESCAPE key to exit the On Line Manual and return to the Main Menu. At the Main Menu, press the down arrow to highlight "Formulations and Reports". Press the ENTER key to pop up the Material Formulations database utility. All Lab-Trac database utilities behave in a similar fashion. The up and down arrows select a specific database record and the left and right arrows select a menu button or item. The ENTER key activates the menu item in relation to the highlighted database record. Lab-Trac databases are shown with a scrolling display of records which can be formulations, unit conversions, materials or chemical elements. The up and down arrows scroll through the records. The status bar located at the left of the record window shows you the relative position within the database. When the solid block is at the top, you are positioned at the first record in the database. The entire set of keys for database manipulation are listed below. Lab-Trac Database Keys: [Home] - Top of the database [End] - Bottom of database [Page Up] - Scrolls up a page [Page Dn] - Scrolls down a page [Up Arrow] - Scrolls up records [Dn Arrow] - Scrolls down records [<- ->] - Scrolls menu items [Space] - Switch Indices [Cntrl][U] - Un-deletes Recent Deletions [A-Z] - Fast Search* [F1] - On Line Manual [F10] - Information Window [Enter] - Select menu items * - Not implemented on all databases. The program is designed to be intuitive but if you get lost at any time, press the F1 key or MANUAL menu button and up will pop the Lab-Trac manual. Formulation Tutorial: Lab-Trac is designed to manage projects, materials, formulations and test specimens. The design of the data architecture reflects this concept. Consequently, you may specify a project name, material series, formulations and specimen numbers. Place the menu selection bar over "EDIT" and press the ENTER key. The work request screen contains the accounting and managerial information for the example formulation. You must enter a project name, material series, formulation series and a specimen number. The formulation series must be a valid DOS file name as this name will be used to name a report file which contains the analytical data for the formulation. A valid DOS file name can have up to eight characters, a - z, 0 - 9, a period and up to a three characters for the extension. The specimen number can be any number between 1 and 999. This number is used as the DOS extension to the report file. The example formulation will have a report file named EXAMPLE.1. The menu selections from this screen will allow you to edit the existing data; exit back to the formulation database screen; set formulation defaults or continue to the next screen. The hot keys active at this data screen are F1 which will toggle the manual and F4 which will pop up a calendar. Toggle the menu selection bar to the CONTINUE button and press the ENTER key. This will cause Lab-Trac to proceed to the material input screen. You can input up to 24 material components for formulation analysis. If you enter a material or component which exists in the Materials Database, its properties will automatically be input into the formulation. Hot keys for this input area are very important for entry efficiency. The F1 key will, as always, pop up the manual. The F2 key will pop up the periodic table of chemical elements. The F3 key will display the materials in the materials database. When you are entering data in the input mode, you may short cut scrolling through all of the input cells by pressing the ESCAPE key. We will now modify the components in the example formulation. Position the selection bar on the COMPONENTS menu button and press ENTER. The data displayed on the screen will change color and an input cursor will be shown. You may change the data where the input cursor is located. The input cursor functions with the following keys. Input Cursor Key Control: [ENTER] - Input the data [Up Arrow] - Next Record [Down Arrow] - Next Input Field [Left Arrow] - Scroll Left In The Field [Right Arrow] - Scroll Right In The Field [Back Space] - Destructive Scroll Left [Delete] - Delete The Character At The Cursor A data field may be too narrow for the entire length of the data entry. In this case the data will scroll across the data window. Press the ENTER key and watch the cursor pop to the next entry cell. When the cursor is located in an entry cell, this cell can be edited. Once a cell has been past, you cannot back track. You must progress down through the cells and restart your edit. To avoid having to progress through empty cells, press the ESCAPE key once and at the next component, the edit session will be complete. The new information will be input directly into the formulation database. If all 12 components are full on page 1, page 2 will automatically be shown. You may directly address page 2 and page 1 for a combined total of 24 components. There are menu buttons for page 1 and page 2 or you may press the PAGE DOWN or PAGE UP keys. The page number is shown in the center of the material input header. Try changing one component's weight. When the screen changes color back to the original shade and the cursor disappears, your edit session is complete. Scroll the menu button bar to the CONTINUE selection and press ENTER. A message will alert you to the loading of the component data into the calculation array and the formulation analysis page will be shown. It will take a few seconds for the calculation to be complete. This time is dependent on the processor type and speed. A 12 megahertz, 80286 calculates the material properties in under 12 seconds where a 50 Mhz, 80486 executes the calculations instantly. This analysis screen displays the weight and volume fractions for the solids portion of the formulation. It is assumed that all volatile material are liberated and that these numbers represent the final product. Entrapped volatiles can be added as an additional component with a pseudo solids content and the appropriate liquid material properties. For Example; Components Weight Density % Solids g g/cc ------------------------------------------------------ Resin 100 1.24 98.00 Entrapped Resin 100 1.21 2.00 Note The solids content for entrapped resin + resin = 100% Formulation totals are shown at the bottom of this screen. It is important to note the difference between a formulation and a batch. These values differ by a "Batch Weight Multiplier". This concept and implementation allows you to scale a formulation to most any size. For example, a quart formulation can be modified to a gallon mix by simply changing the BWM from 1.0 to 4.0. Formulation data is defined to have a BWM equal to 1.0. Batch properties will have a BWM less than or greater the 1.0. The formulation analysis page has five menu buttons. We will now execute the ITERATE WEIGHTS button. You will be placed back on to the material input screen and ported into the edit mode. Change the weight of the component(s) you wish to optimize for their weight or volume fraction. When your are finished, execute the CONTINUE button and the results will be calculated. You may execute this optimization loop any number of times. Fabrication Tutorial: We will now explore the FABRICATION menu button from the material input screen. This screen will allow you to input and database the actual fabrication weights which were used to create the end product. These weights are used in conjunction with the components properties to calculate both the weight, volume fractions and the user defined properties. Execute the EDIT DATA menu selection. You are prompted to enter or edit fabrication information and labor time. This time is associated with the labor rate for technicians. Labor rates can be set for all formulations in SYSTEM SETUP from the main menu or set in the work request screen using the DEFAULTS menu selection. Lab-Trac will calculate the formulation and project labor costs and present these figures in an associated report. Enter the material component weights from the technician input on the fabrication work sheet. Ideally these weights would match identically with each respective formulation weight multiplied by the Batch Weight Multiplier or BWM. However, reality dictates that we always pour a little bit too much or not enough. Notice, when Lab-Trac calculates the weight variance of the fabrication to batch formulation, a positive variance is shown in green, a negative variance in red and an exact equivalence in yellow. The PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys allow the viewing of all 24 components. You must enter fabrication data in order to access the fabrication areas of the report generator. Press the CONTINUE menu button to return to the material input screen. Now that all of our data is specified for this formulation, press the CONTINUE menu button from the material input screen. Material analysis calculations will be made and the formulation analysis screen will be shown. Report Generator Tutorial: The last section of the tutorial will explore the report generator. The report generator is designed to provide you with all the information and analysis about your formulation. The report generator can be accessed in two ways: (1) A formulation in edit or add mode can enter the report generator or (2) a formulation can be selected from the database screen and be directly ported to the report generator. You may select from eight reports. The access of these reports depends on the status of your formulation. For example, if there is no fabrication data specified, the fabrication reports are not checked. If these reports were to print, you would waste considerable paper displaying zero values. An example report for the example formulation is displayed in the Appendix. It would be valuable to study each report's content. A report can be structured or unstructured in it's presentation. A structured report has headers and footers and is proportionately spaced to fit nicely on each page. Each report footer contains the reports name and page number. The report header displays the security markings specified from the work request screen. An unstructured report is suitable for importation or cut & paste into another document. All reports and exported data from Lab-Trac is saved in the \LABTRAC\DOCS sub-directory. Choose the SELECT menu button to select which reports will be generated into your report. Press the ENTER key and a cursor will appear in the first available report box. Pressing an alphanumeric key will form a check mark and select the report. To un-select a report, press the SPACE BAR. The ENTER key will leave the existing selection and pop to the next selection box. The Example formulation will have all but two reports selected. The manufacturing work sheet is not required because the manufacturing status is set to complete via entered fabrication weights. A new formulation with no fabrication weights will cause the manufacturing work sheet to be selected automatically. You may re-select this report if desired. Lab-Trac Logs are created from the calculator and stopwatch. Both these utilities can record to a file. These files can be incorporated into your report automatically with this selection. When your selections are complete, execute the GENERATE button to create your report. This process will create approximately 25 pages of reports for the example formulation. Report generation has been bench marked on a 50 Mhz 80486 to take 3-4 seconds and on a 12 Mhz 80286 1 - 2 minutes. You may view your report with the VIEW selection. We suggest that you preview your report before sending it to the printer. All reports are saved in an ASCII format with a name formed from the formulation name and specimen number. For Example; Formulation Series; EXAMPLE ==> Report Name Specimen Number; 1 EXAMPLE.1 These files may be sent to you favorite word processor for further refinement or incorporation into standard documents. The remainder of the report generator will be covered in the On Line Manual. The Lab-Trac system settings for creating this report can be entered from the System Setup selection from the main menu. The printer used for the sample report was an HP Laser Jet, set with a Courier 12 CPI font. Lab-Trac Systems Setting were; Formatted Reports = Yes Top Margin = 1 Left Margin = 11 Eject Page = No The correct settings for your printer can only be determined through trial and error. If you turn your printer off during a Lab-Trac print session, You can choose to print the report over or exit Lab-Trac. ______________________________________________________ Lab-Trac Database Functions: This section will re-empathize and expand on some of the topics covered in the previous tutorial. This section covers the database functions which are available for the formulations, unit conversion, periodic table and materials database. Each function can be selected from a menu button. Some of the special functions, like undelete are driven from special key strokes. Adding/Editing Records: To add a record to a specific database, select the ADD menu button. When you add a new record to a database, a blank record is appended to the end of the database file. The program expects that you will fill this record with data. The program traps the entry of blank records. The entry of a blank record will usually abort you from an add or edit operation. When editing a specific record, highlight the record with the highlight bar and select the EDIT menu button. The modified record will automatically be placed into the correct order and the selection bar will be repositioned. Deleting Records: A record can be deleted by positioning the highlight bar over the record then selecting the DELETE menu button. The deletion of a record could be a perilous maneuver for valuable data. A formulation has over 100 data fields. The deletion of just one formulation could cause a good deal of work to be lost. Lab-Trac recognizes this concept and temporarily buffers the delete operation. This means you can delete a record and as long as you do not exit Lab-Trac, the record can be undeleted. However, when you exit Lab-Trac, a small maintenance program is run to cleanup all recent deletions and pack the database. This improves the overall performance of the database. Undeleting Records: If you inadvertently delete a record, press the following key sequence: [CONTROL] [U] These key strokes will undelete all recently deleted records and place the selection bar at the top of the database. Locating Records: There are two methods to locate a record within a database. The most generic method is to press one of the A-Z or a-z keys. A case sensitive search will find the first record with the index key starting with the letter selected. The index key is usually the first field shown in the database table. However, Lab-Trac gives you the opportunity to switch to an alternative index which maybe any one of the other data fields shown in the database table. The F10 key will display the current index key. You may notice a compound index key, this is a combination of several data fields. The second method for locating a record is more specific to the data contained in the record. Select the LOCATE menu button. A query window will be displayed and you are required to enter the exact search data string. If Lab-Trac finds a match, the highlight bar will be positioned at the record or a "Not Found" message will be displayed. The formulations database may be selectively searched by any combination of the three search fields. Exporting Data To a File: This utility will copy the contents of the selected database into an ASCII or text file. The file will be located in the \LABTRAC\DOCS subdirectory. The file name is user specified and you must use a valid DOS file name, i.e., up to eight (8) alphanumeric characters. The default file extension is ".DAT" for data. Select the EXPORT menu button and the file selection window will be shown. Enter the name of the file. A blank file name aborts the EXPORT function. There are two formats for exporting data. The LIST format simply dumps the database list as shown on the screen to the file. The ALL selection will dump every data field of each record to a file. This export can be quite lengthy. The database status bar on the left hand side of the data table will show the approximate position of the data dump. You may abort the export process any time by pressing the ESCAPE key. The formulation database does not have this option because many of the data fields are for internal Lab-Trac calculations. A system error or right fault may occur if the disk is full. It is advised to cancel the program and clean up the disk to free up space. Restart Lab-Trac with the "RE-INDEX" start script to ensure the indices are current. Printing Data: Select the PRINT menu button to print the contents of a database to the current line printer. Lab-Trac checks to see if the printer is on line. You will get an off line message and the print menu will not activate if the printer can not be poled by the computer. Typical solutions include; turning on the printer, a loose cable, the wrong port entered in the Lab-Trac Set Up configuration or an A/B port switch set in the wrong position. When the printer is on line, the print menu will be displayed. The print choices are the same as for the export utility. The LIST option will print a list of the database as shown on the screen. The ALL selection will print a good deal of information. Each data field and record will be printed. A large number of the data fields are used internally by Lab-Trac and would be of no interest to the average user. However, there is always one guy who really wants to see all of the data in a file to be really sure that there is nothing classified contained in the file. So for you, who ever you are, print to your hearts content. You may cancel the printing process by pressing the ESCAPE key. It may take a few moments to stop printing because of the printer internal buffer. Laser Jet printers with large amounts of memory may not be able to abort in time, as all the data will be streamed to the printer. To remedy this situation, wait until the Lab-Trac printing message disappears, then turn off the printer to flush its memory. Try not to turn off the printer during the middle of a print job. This will create a system error and Lab-Trac will require you to clear the printer and turn it back on or exit the Lab-Trac program. This error trap safe guards your data and gives you a second chance to finish the print job. Re-indexing The Database: Lab-Trac databases are cross indexed where each database has two indices open during data manipulation. One index is active and the other is passive. This indices allow the data to be ordered in a logical format. As data is added or deleted from each database, the indices are updated to reflect this modification. Lab-Trac buffers a good deal of data manipulation into memory before writing it to the disk. This process enhances the speed of Lab-Trac, but it requires the proper exit of Lab-Trac. Corrupt indices are the major cause of strange data behavior within a database. This situation can be fixed by using a start up script to reindex the databases before starting Lab-Trac. The Lab-Trac System Setup selection from the main menu will also reindex all the Lab-Trac indices. Switching Indices: The SPACE BAR will switch between the two indices for each database. The F10 key will display the current index key and the status of the database. The following table summarizes the indices for each database where the index key is shown in parenthesis. Database Index 1 Index 2 ------------------------------------------------------ Formulations Material (SERIES) (DATE) Formula (SPECIMEN) Specimen (NUMBER) Unit Conversions Unit From (UF) Unit To (UT) Periodic Table Element (NAME) (ATOMIC_NO) Materials (MATERIAL) Name (DENSITY) ------------------------------------------------------ Exit, Return and Continue: Selecting the EXIT menu button will exit a major sub- program back to the main program. This menu button is also significant because it usually returns to the main menu. The RETURN menu button exits a sub-program to a higher level sub-program and the CONTINUE button advances through several levels of sub-programs. The ESCAPE key always exits the present level of the program regardless of the program type. This key also aborts most functions. The ESCAPE Key is the last key you will always press when exiting Lab-Trac. This is be make sure that this action is really what you intended as all databases will be shut down and cleaned up for the next access. ______________________________________________________ Formulations and Reports: This section describes the materials formulator, analysis calculations and reports. This information will be very useful in attaining a proficient knowledge of Lab-Trac. The quick start tutorial gave you a brief preview on how to edit and iterate to create a material formulation. Lab-Trac strives to allow most any person the ability to create formulations which have been predominately performed by engineers. However, we cannot stress the importance of being aware of the hazards which may be attributed to certain kinds of compounds and the interactions with other materials. The creation of a formulation, optimizing its content and fabricating the formula to a final product, are all examples of the typical process of material engineering. Lab-Trac makes each one of these steps painless. Formulations Database: The formulations database is selected from the Main Menu. This interface will allow you to select a formula by highlighting it with the scroll bar. You may then perform the following processes on that formulation: EDIT - Edits the current formulation ADD - Adds a blank record to the database and executes the input program. CLONE - Creates a duplicate image of the current formulation and adds and increment of 1 to the specimen number. Formulation specific information is not cloned. DELETE - The highlighted formulation will be deleted and the scroll bar positioned at the following record. The key sequence CONTROL U will undelete the most recently deleted records. LOCATE - This selection will allow a search of the database by any combination of Material Series Formulation Specimen Number. Quick searches are executed any time a character key A-Z or a-z is pressed. For example, if you press the W key the database will be searched for the first material series starting with a W. REPORTS - The Lab-Trac report generator is executed on the highlighted formulation. The data for the formulation will be read into memory and the report generator will function as if you were editing or creating a formulation. EXPORT - Lab-Trac is completely open for data exchange. Most databases have an export function. You will be prompted to select either a LIST or ALL for an export condition. A LIST is a dump of all the formulations in the screen list format. An ALL selection will dump each formulation by record and field. These data dumps will go to the file name you specify, located in the \LABTRAC\DOCS sub-directory. These files are in ASCII or text format so they may be used in a spreadsheet or word processor. MANUAL - This menu selection differs slightly from the F1 activation of the On Line Manual. When activated, this selection automatically places the reader at the associated position in the manual based on the current position of the program. EXIT - Exits the formulations database and returns to the Main Menu. The ESCAPE key will always back out of the current program selection. Creating and Editing a Formulation: A formulation can be created in two ways. First you can create an entirely new formula, and second you can slightly modify an existing formulation by cloning. Here we will briefly explore the process of creating a new formulation. From the main menu (boiling beaker) scroll the selection bar to "Formulations and Reports" and press the ENTER key. The next screen displayed will be the Formulations Database table. Select the ADD menu button and press the ENTER key. This section will cover all the information you will need to edit a formulation. To Edit a formulation, place the selection bar over the formula of interest, then select the EDIT button and press the ENTER key. Work Request Screen: The first screen you encounter in the addition process is the "Work Request" screen. This information relates to the personnel, accounting and identification of the formulation. The information on this screen should be filled out as completely as possible. Project Name - This identifies the project that you are working on. For our example, this project is named XZ FIGHTER. Date - This data field will mark the date of the creation of this formulation. Classification - Many companies impose security classifications on their intellectual property. Typical markings include; "Proprietary", "Confidential", "Secret - Special Access". The security message will print on the top of a formatted report. This field can be up to 72 characters long and you may see the data field scroll horizontally when adding long messages. Engineer - The person who creates the material formulation will place his or her name in this block. Technicians - The personnel who will perform the fabrication and testing are listed in this data field. Charge Number - This block will contain the accounting information which will fund the project. Any of your corporate auditors will appreciate you tracking your costs. Material Series - This information describes the sub-task of the project. This example will use RADOME COATING. Formulation Series - This data describes the next level of effort in the sub-task. This can be a milestone off of a Gant Chart, a material trial, or an experiment. For Example, our Formulation Series will be RC-1. This will be a specific resin binder with varying concentrations of filler material. Remember that this data will construct the report file name so it must be a valid DOS file name. Test Specimen Number - As the filler concentration varies from formulation to formulation each formulation will be unique by its specimen number. In this manner we can relate general groupings of materials while creating unique specimens. The specimen number forms the extension of the report file name. Notes - There are two line for jotting down a few note about the specific formulation. These fields scroll horizontally when typing long notes. If you leave each data field blank, the program automatically exits back to the database table. You must enter at least a PROJECT NAME, MATERIAL SERIES, FORMULATION SERIES and a TEST SPECIMEN NUMBER. Upon completion of this data, the menu button will appear at the bottom of the screen. Edit Work Request - This will allow you to edit the data shown on the "Work Request" screen. Exit - This selection will save the new formulation and exit back to the Formulations Database table. This selection is useful when you want to create many duplicate formulations using CLONE. Defaults - This sets specific defaults which override the main system settings. These parameters are significant decimals or digits for the analytical results and labor rates for engineering and technical personnel. Continue - This button advances to the "Material Input" screen. There are two hot keys which can be activated while you are on the "Work Request" screen. F1 - Activates the On Line Manual and F4 - pops up the calendar and time/date utility. This utility is handy when you can't remember when you actually performed some task or when the data/time on the computer is incorrect and needs to be reset. Material Formulation Screen: This screen is where you will enter the material data for creating a formulation. First we will examine the hot keys shown at the bottom of the screen. These keys will assist you in the creation or edit of your formula. The F1 key pops up the user manual. The F2 key accesses the periodic table with 106 chemical elements each having over 20 properties. The F3 key pops up the Materials Database. The ESCAPE key will exit an edit session. Entering Data: Position the button selection bar over COMPONENTS and press the ENTER key. This activates an edit session depicted by the cursor shown in the data entry fields. The first data field is the BWM or Batch Weight Multiplier. This number is a scaling factor applied to all the weights on the formulation sheet. For example, you formulate a small batch of material, 100 grams of resin and 30 grams of fiberglass. The formulation is exactly what you want but you need to make a batch with 1000 grams of resin and a proportionate loading of fiberglass. Set the BWM to 10 and away you go to the fabrication lab. BWM - Batch Weight Multiplier: A BWM of 1.00 automatically turns off the calculation of batch properties. So for our example enter 2.00 and ENTER. The next data field is the material component field. Here you must enter the name of the component. If you can't remember the name of a materials component, press the F3 key and up pops the Materials Database. Components & Weights: Mentally select the material EPOXY RESIN. Press the ESCAPE key and the Materials Database will close, placing you right back into your edit session. Now enter the material name, EPOXY RESIN. Enter the weight you will be using in the formulation ( 100.0 ). Since this material is already in the Materials Database, Lab-Trac automatically looks up the properties for this material and imports them into the correct data fields. The second material will not be in the Materials Database. Enter the material name, FIBERGLASS. Next enter the component weight ( 50.0 ). Now the material property data fields open for you to enter the materials information. Enter ( 1.54 ) for the density and ( 98.8 ) for the percent solids. For now, do not be concerned with the user defined properties as these are discussed in length within the Lab-Trac Set Up section. ESCAPE Data Entry: After you have entered the second material, press the F3 key again and observe that your new material has been automatically input into the Materials Database. Escape the Materials Database and return to the edit session. Press the ENTER key several times and watch the cursor scroll through the data fields. To short circuit this behavior, press the ESCAPE key and at the next material the edit session will be complete. Material Properties: You may edit the materials properties using the PROPERTIES button. This button directly accesses the Material Database. Any changes that are made from this screen will directly effect all the formulations which use these specific components. To enter a formula specific property without changing all the other formulas in Lab-Trac which use the host property, add a new material with a slightly different name and the associated properties. You may enter up to 24 components for a single formulation. PAGE 1 shows components 1 - 12 and PAGE 2 shows 13 - 24. The PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN buttons directly access these components. The Page Up and Page Down keys also access these pages. When component 12 is entered and complete, Lab-Trac automatically scrolls to page 2. Fabrication Screen: The FABRICATION button displays the fabrication screen. Here you may enter the weights used to actually fabricate the material. This screen displays the batch weights. Batch weights are the formulated weights multiplied by the Batch Weight Multiplier. This screen also displays a variance analysis between the ideal batch weight and the fabricated weight. This screen pages in the same fashion as the formulation page. Specifying fabrication weights will set the fabrications status flag on the Formulations Database screen. Select the CONTINUE button and the Material Formulation screen will reappear. Toggle the button selection bar to the CONTINUE button again and the Formulation Analysis screen will appear. Formulation Analysis: The menu buttons available from the "Formulation Analysis" screen are ITERATE, REPORTS, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN and EXIT. The ITERATE button will allow you to step back to the "Material Formulation" and immediately edit the components weights. This iteration will enable you to quickly optimize a specific component to a specified weight or volume fraction. The REPORTS button will access the "Report Generator". The PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN keys display components 1 to 12 or 13 to 24. EXIT exits back to the Formulation Database table. The process for formulation analysis is described below. Data is loaded into the memory from the database. The material analysis calculations are executed while a message window displays "One Moment Please". The speed of these calculations depends on the access time of your hard drive and the CPU speed. An Intel, 12 Mhz, 80286 executed this calculation in 12 seconds while an Intel, 50 Mhz, 80486 executes in 2 seconds. In either case, the execution time is efficient enough to provide a responsive feel. Formulation properties are shown at the bottom of the screen. Note, that these parameters are not the batch properties as they are not factored by the BWM. It is true that the weight and volume percents and the predicted material density are independent of the BWM. Also note that the weight and volume fractions or percents shown on the screen are indicative of the solids, not the formulated materials. Analytical Equations: The weight of solids for a material is dependent on the percent solids value. The following equation illustrates this relationship. Weight of = (Formulated Weight) x (Percent Solids) Solids Weight and/or volume percent values are weight and/or volume fractions by the factor of one hundred (100). Weight Fraction = (Weight %) x (0.01) Volume Fraction = (Volume %) x (0.01) The solids volume of a material component is calculated from the solids weight divided by the density of the component. For example; Volume Weight of Solids (g) of (cc) = -------------------- Solids Density (g/cc) Where the density of a component reflects the material as a solid. When storing density values in the materials database keep this concept in mind. The weight fraction of a component is calculated by dividing the solids weight by the summation of all the component solid weights in the formulation. Solids Weight Weight Solids A Fraction of = ---------------------- Component A ‰ ( Wt. Solids 1 to n ) Weight % A = Solids Weight Fraction x (100) Where n is the total number of components in the formulation. The volume fractions are calculated in the same fashion. The report generator will display the weight and volume fractions for both the solids and volatiles of all components calculated from the formulated weights, solids weight, batch weight and fabricated weight. You may pick and choose the data applicable to your application. The predicted composite density is calculated from a "Rule Of Mixtures" equation. For Example; Predicted Property = [Vü{a}˘Î{a}] + ...+ [Vü{n}˘Î{n}] Where n = number of components Vü{n} = Volume Fraction of n Î{n} = Property ( Density of component n) User defined properties for each component can be specified in the System Setup section. These properties are calculated according to the following equations. WT = Calculation by component solids weight i.e. Cost{n} = Wt. Solids{n} (g) ˘ UDF($/g) where UDF = User Defined Field VL = Calculation by component solids volume i.e. Cost{n} = Solids Vol.{n} (cc) ˘ UDF($/cc) WF = Calculation by component weight fraction. i.e. Results{n} = Wü{n} ˘ UDF{n} where Wü = weight fraction VF = Calculation by component volume fraction. i.e. Results{n} = Vü{n} ˘ UDF{n} where Vü = weight fraction Calculation Summary: In summary, the Formulation Analysis screen performs the following calculations. The formulation weight is multiplied by the percent solids of the material and divided by the density to yield the solids volume. All solids volume are summed and factored to yield the volume fraction of solids and volatiles for each component in the formula. The weight fraction is calculated and the special user defined properties are factored according their respective formulas. These values are formulation properties. The BWM multiplied by the formulation weight yields batch properties. Consequently, fabrication weights are used to calculate the properties of the fabricated material. ______________________________________________________ Reports & Documents: The Reports Generator can be accessed from the Formulation Database Table or from the "Formulation Analysis Screen". The report generator can generate a structured ASCII or text document from eight (8) different report templates. This document can also be unstructured, i.e. no word processing attributes like headers & footers. The Lab-Trac System Setup from the Lab-Trac main menu will allow you to set these system defaults. The "Report Generator" screen displays the current formulation at the top of the screen. The eight reports are listed. Next to each report is an inclusion box. Placing a check in this box will include this template in the report document. Lab-Trac decides which inclusion box to check when you start the Report Generator. For example, if there are no fabrication weights specified for the formulation, Lab-Trac selects the Manufacturing Work Sheet. Once the formulation is fabricated, fabrication weights are input to Lab-Trac, Lab-Trac will no longer automatically select the Manufacturing Work Sheet. You will notice this logical selection for the Process Documentation and for the BWM. If the Batch Weight Multiplier or BWM is equal to 1.0, all reports relative to a "Batch" are not relevant. Lab-Trac will not report Batch data for a BWM = 1.0, only Formula data will be documented. You may select or deselect any report template. Selecting Report Formats: To select a report template, place the menu button bar over SELECT and press the ENTER key. The cursor will be displayed in the first inclusion box. Press any alphanumeric key to select this report. The SPACE BAR will deselect a selected report and the ENTER key will skip over the box and move to the next. Generating a Report: After selecting the report templates, place the menu button bar over GENERATE and press the ENTER key. The report generation process creates the report, which is named from the formula and specimen number and places this document in the \LABTRAC\DOCS subdirectory. This process can take a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the speed of your computer and the numbers of report templates selected. Report Status: After a report is generated, the Report Status is set to current. Any time you change a material parameter or access the fabrication page, Lab-Trac assumes you changed data and sets the status flag to NOT CURRENT. Once you generate a report is it saved to the disk and can be Printed, Deleted or viewed. Viewing a Report: The VIEW menu selection allows you to preview the report on the screen. A report will give you much more information than the Formulation Analysis screen. This capability gives you on line access to all the report information for a specific formulation. Deleting a Report: The DELETE button executes a DOS deletion of the report file and clears all Lab-Trac flags for its existence. If you inadvertently delete a report you can easily re-generate it or use a DOS undelete program to recover it. There is not a capability built into Lab-Trac for the editing of a report file. This is intentional because each time a report is generated it overwrites the previous report and any information you added would be lost. Master Document: Lab-Trac does have a solution for user optimized reports, the Master document. The Master document sub-menu is accessed from the MASTER menu button. This type of document can contain whatever information you like. When you CREATE a Master Document, the current report file is automatically imported into the Master Document. This sub-menu now contains an EDIT button. This button calls your default word processor. This word processor is set in the system defaults from the System Setup screen, from the main menu. The automatic importation of the report document will only occur during the initial creation of a Master Document. To import a revision of the report document, you must use the file load or import capability of your word processor. Once a Master document is created the CREATE key becomes deactivated until the Master Document is deleted. The Master document sub-menu and Process sub-menu allow you to port to the DOS operating system. This convenience feature is available for examining the reports directory or running auxiliary programs. To return to Lab-Trac from a DOS session, type EXIT and ENTER at the DOS prompt. Process Document: The PROCESS menu button allows you to divide up your user defined documents into separate files. This Process document is created from Lab-Trac and edited using the default word processor. However, this document can be directly imported into the report document each time the report is generated. You must select the process document template for this capability and save your process document in ASCII or DOS text format. The process menu button operates in the same manner as the Master document sub-menu buttons. Be very cautious using the DELETE menu button as these file can be deleted for the DOCS subdirectory and can only be undeleted using a DOS undelete program. DOS 5.0 and DOS 6.0 are distributed with these utilities. Engineering Labor Costs: Lab-Trac monitors the time you spend working on a particular formulation. This time is used to calculate the engineering labor costs for a particular formulation. Report Summary: The following summarizes the reports which can be generated using the Report Generator. A example report is presented in the print copy of the users manual. Reviewing this report can be helpful in understanding the report template options. Lab-Trac Reports - Formulation Analysis - Manufacturing Work Sheet - Process Documentation - Manufacturing Analysis - Material Properties, User Defined - Formulated Properties, User Defined - Fabricated Properties, User Defined - Fabrication vs. Formulation, Variance Analysis - Lab-Trac Calculator & Stopwatch Logs Formulation Analysis Report - Project Information - Component Weights & Volumes - Solids Weights & Volumes - Batch Weights & Volumes - Material Properties - Component Analysis - Solids Weight Percent - Solids Volume Percent Manufacturing Work Sheet - Material Components - Batch Weight Multiplier - Batch Weights Shown - Entry Space For Fabrication - Technician's Notes - Managerial & Quality Approvals Process Documentation - Import ASCII Documents - Use Your Word Processor - Use Lab-Trac's Word Processor - Manage Process Documents With Formulations - Automatic Report Update From ASCII Process Documents Manufacturing Analysis - Formulation Weights By Component - Fabricated Weights - Total Solids, Volatiles And Predicted Densities - Weight Variance Analysis - Fabricated Weight Percent - Fabricated Volume Percent - Fabricated Solids & Volatiles Analysis Material Properties, User Defined - Material Components - User Defined Property #1 i.e. Cost/Gram - User Defined Property #2 i.e. Dielectric Constant - Totals & Averages Formulated Properties, User Defined - Based On Formulated & Batch Weights - Calculations By; Component Weight, Volume, Weight Fraction Or Volume Fraction - User Defined Property #1 By Component i.e. Cost/Gram - User Defined Property #2 By Component i.e. Dielectric Constant - Totals, Averages & Normalization By Weight & Volume Fabricated Properties, User Defined - Based On Fabricated Weights - Calculations By; Component Weight, Volume, Weight Fraction Or Volume Fraction - User Defined Property #1 By Fabricated Component i.e. Cost/Gram - User Defined Property #2 By Fabricated Component i.e. Dielectric Constant - Totals, Averages & Normalization By Weight & Volume Variance Analysis, Fabricated vs. Formulated, User Defined Properties - Based on Fabricated & Formulated Weights - Calculations By; Component Weight, Volume, Weight Fraction or Volume Fraction - User Defined Property #1 By Fabricated & Formulated Component i.e. Cost/Gram - User Defined Property #2 By Fabricated & Formulated Component i.e. Dielectric Constant Lab-Trac Logs - Calculator Activity Log Calculation Tape Conversions Statistics - Stopwatch Log Event Description 10 Split Times 0.00 Second Accuracy ______________________________________________________ System Setup & Information: CPU Speed: System information is tested and displayed for your convenience. This information is also useful for trouble shooting your computer's configuration. CPU speeds faster than 2.0 yield reasonable performance in Lab-Trac. Memory: If your available memory is less than 10,000 bytes, examine your CONFIG.SYS file for unused device drivers or TSR, terminate stay resident programs. Lab-Trac uses an overlay structure to fit into the 640 K memory constraint of DOS. Lab-Trac will use up to 64 K of LIM 4.0 Expanded memory if available. Users with at least a 80386 computer may want to configure EMM386.EXE to provide 64 K of expanded memory. Printer Port: The printer port you specify in the SYSTEM SETUP is polled and the status is shown on the information screen. This status is important because Lab-Trac turns off printer menus when the printer port displays "Off Line". Registration: User registration is provided along with the program version and license data. This information is important to provide M Squared Technologies if technical support is requested. System Setup: You must configure Lab-Trac for optimum performance. Place the menu button bar over the SYSTEM SETUP selection and press the ENTER key. Lab-Trac is distributed with example defaults. The following describe each system option. Setting Defaults: The following sections specify the systems defaults for Lab-Trac User Defined Properties: You may specify up to two (2) user defined properties for the Materials database. Enter the name of the property and the units of measure in the associated data field. Enter the letter code for the type of calculation to be performed on each property. These calculations are displayed in the report document for the formulation. WT - By Weight; 1.20 $/g x 100 g = $120.00 VL - By Volume; 0.87 $/cc x 100 cc = $ 87.00 VF - By Volume Fraction; 1.23 Refractive Index x 0.10 Vü = 0.123 partial property WF - Weight Fraction; 22.0 Units x 0.50 Wü = 11.0 partial property Labor Rates: The labor rates you specify as a system default are used to calculate the labor costs for fabrication and formulation for each formula. This information is displayed on the report document. You may specify formulation specific values which override these parameters. User Defined Utility: The utility shown on the main menu, "Suppliers Database", is called a user defined utility. You may specify a DOS utility from this screen and its access will be from the main menu of Lab-Trac. The Suppliers Database utility is a free utility distributed with Lab-Trac. You may have a utility which is better suited for your company's requirements. Lab-Trac makes the choice of this utility your option. Enter the description of the program as you would like it to appear on the main menu. Next enter the name of the program and the program path where the program executable may be found. If these parameters are incorrect for DOS to run the program, they are also incorrect for Lab-Trac. Errors in running a user defined program are typically due to misspelled directives. User Defined Word Processor: Each computer user comes to love and hate their word processor. For that reason, you may specify your favorite DOS word processor. Lab-Trac comes with a free word processor called WEDIT.EXE. WEDIT is limited to a 32 Kilobyte or 32,000 byte text file. It probably will yield a "Not Enough Memory" error if you try to edit a Master File or a large Process document. There are many better programs from SHAREWARE and the commercial sector. We have distributed with Lab-Trac some SHAREWARE editors under their respective distribution licenses. Try them if you wish. UED.EXE works extremely well and it is well worth the $20.00 registration fee. All these editors save their output files in ASCII or DOS format. They work very well with the documentation management scheme invoked within Lab-Trac. ASCII Format: You are required to tell Lab-Trac whether you will save your files in ASCII format. These files are the MASTER and PROCESS documents. Specifying a "Y" for yes allows you to edit your documents from the Report Generator. An answer of "N" restricts Lab-Trac to exporting the Report in ASCII to the initial file. From that point forward it will be assumed that this document is in a proprietary format. Word Perfect for DOS works very well with Lab-Trac. WP.EXE automatically imports ASCII data. However to avoid the proprietary header of Word Perfect, always save your file as ASCII and specify a "Y" to the ASCII save default. Reports & Printer Control: You may specify page layout parameters for the Report Generator. The Top Margin for the report will help you center the report on the printed page. Reports are 60 lines per page when formatted and a line is 72 characters long. The printer margin or left margin can also be useful in centering the page. Eject the page is typically used with tractor feed printers where the page must be ejected to be torn off. The printer port may be a parallel or centronics interface connected to LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3 ports. Typically a computer uses LPT1. Some order printers only have a serial interface. These ports available for this type of connection are either COM1 or COM2. The last specifier in this section asks you whether you want formatted reports from the Report Generator. Experiment with both "Y" and "N" and see the difference. Lab-Trac implements two printing schemes. For database output and general data dumps from the manual, stopwatch and calculator, Lab-Trac prints directly from the database. This scheme allows you to interrupt the print job at any time with the escape Key. Lab-Trac's second print scheme handle the formulation reports. The reports are formatted into a text file and this text file is padded at the top of each page with the number of lines which were specified in the top margin default. Printing from the PRINT button on the reports menu screen is the recommended method for printing a report. If you print a report from the view screen, set the top margin to zero (0) to eliminate the creation of a double top margin. Formatted Reports: An unformatted report can be dumped into a standard company report through a word processor without all the Lab-Trac headers and footers. Note, that certain level of experimentation is required to properly position a document to your printer. Screen Snow: The snow check specifier determines whether you want Lab-Trac to write directly to the Video board or through the computers BIOS. Faster screen updates are achieved when specifying "N" in this data field. A "Y" answer routes all the video through the BIOS. This may be required on some older computer, LCD displays or non-100% IBM compatible computers. Significant Figures: The last specifier in the System Setup is the number of significant figures shown on the formulation analysis. A value of 3 to 5 is generally accepted as adequate for representing laboratory accuracy. The significant figure value specified for a specific formulation overrides this parameter. DOS Services: Selecting this menu button will save your Lab-Trac session to the hard disk and run a DOS shell. You may run any programs you like except for Lab-Trac and when you are through use the EXIT command followed by the ENTER key to resume Lab-Trac. Lab-Trac uses the DOS environment to return control to Lab-Trac. If you use many SET commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you may have to increase the amount of the DOS environment by using the DOS Shell command in the CONFIG.SYS file. The SHELL command is the preferred method of using COMMAND to increase the size of the environment. To increase the environment size to 512 bytes, add the following command to your CONFIG.SYS file: shell=command.com /e:512 /p shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos /e:512 /p Please consult your DOS manual for the exact use of your DOS version SHELL command. Re-Index Databases: If the data within a database table appears to be missing or peculiar, this is an indication of an out of date index or corrupted index file. The causes of this condition are traced to the improper exit of Lab-Trac. Select RE-INDEX to reconstruct the proper indices for each database. The data should now appear normal. Play Time: In need of a break from the everyday grind?. Lab-Trac offers a little challenging game called Lab-Tracker. This game is a little like Tetris. As you score more points the game speeds up. No one has ever scored better than 100. Let us know if you can break this mark. ______________________________________________________ Unit Conversions: This database utility will convert units of measure. There are over 400 single conversion, (Inch to Feet) or 800 dual conversions (Inch To Feet & Feet To Inch). You may enter your own unit conversions or change the factors in the distributed database. Active Keys: - Scroll the selection bar up & down <- -> - Scroll the menu selection bar Enter - Selects a menu item Pg Up/Dn - Pages one screen up or down HOME - Top of the database END - Bottom of database Space - Switches Between Conversions A - Z - Quick Search, Case Sensitive Cntrl U - Undeletes Records Cntrl I - Re-indexes Database Menu Selections: SELECT - Opens an input window for a user specified value. This value is then converted as you scroll the database. ADD - This option allows you to add your own unit conversion to the look up table. All unit conversions can be formulated into the following Example: New Unit=(Con.Unit)x(Factor 1)+(Factor 2) EDIT - Allows the modification of an existing unit conversion by the name and values. DELETE - Scroll the hi-light bar to the record to delete and press the enter key. If you accidently delete a record, [Control] [U] will un-delete your most recent delete activity. LOCATE - This selection will prompt you for an exact search string. Simply enter the string and the hi-light bar will be positioned at the record which matches the search criteria. General searches can be performed anytime by pressing an alphanumeric key and the hi- bar will be positioned to the first record which matches the character. PRINT - The print function will print to a line printer the tabulated values shown on your screen or the entire database. EXPORT - This function will export to an ASCII text file the contents of the database as shown on the screen. The file will also contain the entire contents of the database listed by individual record. This file can be imported into most word processors and spreadsheet programs. MANUAL - Activates the on-line manual which you are presently reading. You may navigate the text by pressing the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys. The ESCAPE key exits the on-line manual. EXIT - This selection will exit this utility and place you back into the program at the exact point you left. The ESCAPE key will always exit a function, utility or program. Status Bar - The status bar to the left of the database indicates your relative position in the database. ______________________________________________________ User Defined Program/Suppliers Database: Reference the System Setup section of this manual for installing your own user defined program. Lab-Trac comes with a free utility called PHONE.EXE. It is stored in the subdirectory \LABTRAC\PHONE. This program is a telephone directory database. It uses a filter condition to display many different subsets of the master phone database. Each record in the database can be associated with a 3x5 note card. The utility comes with its own help screens and example entries. The following functions can be used to create various subsets of data. Functions Keywords -------------------------------- Suppliers Machine Parts Chemicals Fillers Software Personal Experiment with the utility to learn its form and function. You will find the Browse capability useful. Future upgrades to Lab-Trac will most likely include the point and shoot capability implemented in Lab-Trac. ______________________________________________________ Periodic Table: Lab-Trac is equipped with a complete periodic table of the chemical elements. The database is implemented like all of the other Lab-Trac database tables, except for the graphical table interface. The TABLE menu selection displays the periodic chart. This chart implements a pointer to the current element. This element's properties are show in the top data windows. The elements can be scrolled using the left and right arrows and the data windows operate from the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys. State of matter are depicted by color codes. These may not show up to distinctly on a monochrome or LCD screen. The database table shows the material state in case the colors cannot be seen. Around the outside of the table are menu prompts to assist you in using the table. The view selection display each elements data in a tabular form. Place the highlight bar over the element of choice, place the menu button bar over VIEW and press the ENTER key. The Edit selection allows you to modify the data in the table to your specific requirements. However, we do not advise modifying these standards. ______________________________________________________ Word Processor, User Defined: This menu selection swaps the current Lab-Trac session from memory to disk and executes the word processor defined from the System Setup screen. This utility will help manage your process and test documents without exiting the Lab-Trac session. When you are finished with the word processor, exit the program through normal channels and Lab-Trac will be running right where you left off. You cannot run a Windows word processor, as you must first run Windows, and Windows should not be run from a DOS swapped environment. You may run Lab-Trac and your Windows word processor simultaneously from Windows in 386 enhanced mode. ______________________________________________________ Calendar & Time Service: …ÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕµ January 1993 ΔÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕª ∫ ∫ ∫ S M T W T F S ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ 1 ≥ 2 ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ 3 ≥ 4 ≥ 5 ≥ 6 ≥ 7 ≥ 8 ≥ 9 ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ 10 ≥ 11 ≥ 12 ≥ Ø13 ≥ 14 ≥ 15 ≥ 16 ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ 17 ≥ 18 ≥ 19 ≥ 20 ≥ 21 ≥ 22 ≥ 23 ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ 24 ≥ 25 ≥ 26 ≥ 27 ≥ 28 ≥ 29 ≥ 30 ∫ «ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒƒƒ∂ ∫ 31 ≥ ≥ [F2] - Menu 23:31:46 ∫ »ÕÕÕÕÕœÕÕÕÕÕœÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕ F1 - Manual ÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕº This utility displays the current month in a graphical calendar format. The current day is shown in red and the date marker is displayed as ">>". The left and right arrow keys can move the data marker around the month. This marker is used to set the current data. There are five hot keys within this utility. F1 - User Manual F2 - Utility Menu F3 - Set Date at the data mark F4 - Set time, in 24 hr. format F5 - Stopwatch The following keys move around the calendar. Up Arrow - Forward 1 Month Dn Arrow - Back 1 Month RT Arrow - Increases Date Mark LF Arrow - Decreases Date Mark Page Dn - Back 1 Year Page Up - Forward 1 year Home - Return to current date Escape - Return to Lab-Trac Main menu Stopwatch: A stopwatch with split timer can be accessed from the F5 key. The following tutorial will instruct the basic operations of the Stopwatch. Press F2 to access the Stopwatch menu. Press the INSERT key to open the Event data field. Enter the string "Test #1" and press ENTER. ⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ Stopwatch √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ∑ ≥ ∫ ≥ Timer (s) 17.58 ∫ ≥ ∫ ≥ ⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒø ∫ ≥ ≥ Split Elapsed Interval ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 1 5.55 5.55 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 2 7.47 1.92 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 3 9.18 1.71 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 4 9.51 0.33 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 5 13.41 3.90 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 6 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 7 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 8 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 9 ≥ ∫ ≥ ≥ 10 ≥ ∫ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ ∫ ≥ ≥ Event: Test #1 ≥ ∫ ≥ ¿ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒŸ ∫ ≥ ∫ ≥ Escape - Exit F2 - Menu ∫ ≥ ∫ ‘ÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕÕº Pressing the ENTER key again will start the Stopwatch. Pressing the SPACE BAR, while the Stopwatch is running, will form a split time. Press ENTER, then the SPACE BAR three or four times. The next press of the ENTER key stops the Stopwatch. The Stopwatch data is now in memory. To save this data press the F3 key to write the data from memory to the data log, STOPWATC.LOG. Press the F4 key to view the log. While viewing the log you may print the data or return to the Stopwatch to record more data. To record more data press the INSERT key again. To clear the log file press the F5 key and to clear the stopwatch press the DELETE key. The ESCAPE Key exits the stopwatch back to the Calendar. The ESCAPE KEY will then exit back to the main menu of Lab-Trac. ______________________________________________________ Scientific Calculator: ⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒø ≥ Stack Entry <ƒŸ 4: 4.0000 ≥ ≥ ⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒø5: 2.0000 ≥ ≥ ≥ S= ˚x ≥ Ln(x) ≥ _ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ ⁄ƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒ¬ƒƒƒø ≥ ≥ ≥ F= ‰x ≥ I=1/x ≥ ≥NUM≥ / ≥ * ≥ - ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ √ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ¥ ≥ ≥ ≥ N= e¸ ≥ triG¯ ≥ ≥ 7 ≥ 8 ≥ 9 ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ √ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ¥ + ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ W= x¸ ≥ Z= Òx ≥ ≥ 4 ≥ 5 ≥ 6 ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ √ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ¥ ≥ ≥ ≥ M R ≥ sTats ≥ ≥ 1 ≥ 2 ≥ 3 ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¥ √ƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒ≈ƒƒƒ¥<ƒŸ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ClEar ≥F2 Menu≥ ≥ 0 ≥ . ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ ¿ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒŸ ¿ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒ¡ƒƒƒŸ ≥ ¿ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ F1 - Manual ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒŸ Lab-Trac's Scientific Calculator can calculate up to 150 data entries from its internal stack. A number is entered on to the stack by keying in the number and pressing the ENTER key. Once the value is place on to the stack it can be modified by any of the functions shown on the example graphic. Note - Capital letters of menu items activate functions. Examples: y = ˚4 Type 4.0 using either the numeric key pad or the numbered keys. Press the ENTER key. The number pops on to the lowest line on the stack. This line is the operation line where all function take their input value. Press S for square root and the value 2.0000 appears on the stack line. y = 4 - 2 Enter 4 on to the stack Enter 2 on to the stack Press the - key The result 2.000 is shown on the operation line. y = 16 ˆ 4 Enter 16 on to the stack Enter 4 on to the stack Press the / key The result 4.0000 is show on the operation line. The lower line of the visible stack operates on the upper line of the visible stack. You may negotiate the stack using the up and down arrow keys. Enter the following numbers on to the stack Data Stack Results ------------------------------ 1.0 ==> 1: 1.0000 3.0 ==> 2: 3.0000 5.0 ==> 3: 5.0000 4.0 ==> 4: 4.0000 2.0 ==> 5: 2.0000 6.0 ==> 6: 6.0000 Press the up arrow once to display a stack condition which matches the calculator graphic shown above. Notice the arrow indicators. A single up arrow means there are values up the stack and that you are at the bottom of the stack. Conversely, a single down arrow means there are values down the stack and you are positioned at the top of the stack. Two arrow, as shown in the graphic, means that you are positioned somewhere in the middle of the stack. Press the Down Arrow to position the stack at the bottom. Pair wise operations, add, subtract, multiply and divide can be executed from the bottom of the stack. Single operations like square root, invert or change sign, can be executed on any value of the stack at any position. There are stack operations which yield a pick menu of various results. For example, G for triG yields the sine, cosine and tangent. You must pick either A, B or C. Value A is the default condition. Notice that the Capital letters of the words on the menu operate the functions. A secondary menu is illustrated below. The menu letter B operates a recording tape to the file CALC.LOG. This file maybe imported into the Lab-Trac report document. The repetitive pressing of B turns on then off the tape. When the Clear menu selection is chosen, the log file is cleared. Experiment with the function of each of the calculator's functions. The statistical calculations are extremely helpful and can be imported directly into a report document. ⁄ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ Calculator Menu ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒø ≥ Enter each value on to the stack ≥ ≥ with the [<ƒŸ] key. ≥ ≥ [Q] - Equation: Sqrt(x) Log(x) ≥ ≥ Exp(x) Abs(x) x**n ≥ ≥ [A] Abs ≥x≥ [O] Print I/O ≥ ≥ [B] Record I/O [P] Value of „ ≥ ≥ [C] Clear Stack [R] Recall Memory ≥ ≥ [D] Set Decimals [U] ¯F -> ¯C ≥ ≥ [E] Clear Entry [V] ¯C -> ¯F ≥ ≥ [J] Rad -> Deg [X] g/cc -> lb/cf ≥ ≥ [K] Deg -> Rad [Y] lb/cf -> g/cc ≥ ≥ [M] Store Memory [Escape] - Exit ≥ ≥ [F1] Manual [F2] Menu ≥ ≥ [F3] Constants [F4] Formulas ≥ ≥ [] Scroll Stack [F5] View log ≥ ¿ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ [F2] - Exit ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒŸ ______________________________________________________ Materials Database: The materials database is directly accessed from the Lab-Trac main menu. This database is linked into the formulation section of Lab-Trac. Any value you change in direct access of the materials database will have a global effect on all formulations which use that specific component. This feature is very powerful. For example, one of your user defined properties is Cost/Gram and the cost of Acme epoxy resin increases 15õ per gram. All you have to do is enter the Materials database and change this one value and all of the formulation costs will automatically change. The new costs will be reflected on each formulation report. This database uses the Lab-Trac database default database functions and key strokes for its operation. Reference the Lab-Trac Database section of this manual. Components: The component name is the key to the automatic look up capability of Lab-Trac. This look up is case sensitive so be mindful of the spelling of each component. Components are automatically arranged according to the index key, F10, SPACE BAR. Density: The density of a component is assumed to be in the neat or 100 percent solids condition. However, it is up to the user to decide how their material properties will be implemented within Lab-Trac. We advise that the user implement a standard scheme throughout the use of this program. Percent Solids: This property determines the actual weight used in the analytical calculations of the volume fraction for each component. The following describes the various methods Lab-Trac uses weight and percent solids in these calculations. Type Weight Used Percent Solids ------------------------------------------------------ Formula Solids & Volatile <= 100 Batch Solids & Volatiles x BWM <= 100 Lab-Trac Analysis Solids 100 Fabrication Analysis Solids 100 Where Volume = Weight x (1/Density) (cc) = (g) x (cc/g) UDF Material Properties: The user may specify two custom material properties. These properties can be calculated by partial formulation weight, volume, weight fraction or volume fraction. The System Setup section of this manual describes these calculations. Typical uses for these property fields are: Uses Units Calculation ------------------------------------------------------ Cost of Material $/g WT $/cc VL Index of Refraction VF Dielectric Constant VF Please drop us a line if you use these field in a unique manner. We would like to feature this information to our user base ______________________________________________________ Copyright Notice: The original copyright for this product is dated 1986. Version 2.0 of Lab-Trac was copyrighted in 1993. M Squared Technologies reserves all rights to this product. No portion of this product maybe reproduced or used beyond the scope of the license agreement. ______________________________________________________ License Agreement: The installation of this product, on to your hard drive, acknowledges your agreement to the product license contract. The product Lab-Trac is licensed to the original purchaser under the following conditions: The original purchaser may use Lab-Trac for an unlimited period of time. A single copy of Lab-Trac is licensed to one work station or computer. A single user copy of Lab-Trac may be installed on a LAN as long as copy protection exists to prevent piracy of the program. LAN administrators must submit a written request to M Squared Technologies for this special run time approval. You may create one back up copy of this program. Any illegal copies or software piracy will be prosecuted to the full extent of the Law. To transfer the software license, a written request must be submitted to M Squared Technologies prior to the transfer of ownership. Your serial number is your proof of purchase. Please use this number in any correspondence with M Squared Technologies. M Squared Technologies assumes no liability for the use or misuse of this program. It is your responsibility as a user to validate the results of Lab-Trac against your own known formulation or standard. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of Lab-Trac. ______________________________________________________ Warranty & Support: This product is guaranteed to be free of defects for year from the date of purchase. The product is backed by a 30 day money back guarantee. If the original purchaser is not completely satisfied, Lab-Trac may be returned for a full refund with a return authorization number from M Squared Technologies. The return of this product negates your license to use Lab-Trac and you are obligated to permanently destroy the hard drive installation of Lab-Trac and back up copy. Failure to destroy any copies of Lab-Trac, after it's return for refund, will constitute software piracy and be prosecuted under federal law. The original purchaser will be entitled to 90 days of free technical support. We asked that you document your questions or problems and FAX them to (407) 880- 2627. Documented support requests will have first priority with our support engineers. Please supply a return FAX or telephone number so that we may promptly respond. If you do not have a FAX, please call us at (407) 880-2627 and ask for technical assistance. M Squared Technologies is committed to providing high quality, easy to use software tools for engineers and industry. ______________________________________________________ Correspondence: We would like to feature your use of Lab-Trac in the next issue of our news letter. Drop us a short description of your uses and or cost savings. User comments have shaped the form of Lab-Trac over the years and we appreciate your view point on what you would like to see in the next revision. M˝ - End of Distributed Manual - M˝ ______________________________________________________ Appendix: User Notes: Edit this file on a word processor. Do not edit the main body of the manual. The right margin must not be larger than 55 columns wide. The word processor must generate ASCII text. Import your notations using the start script: C:\LABTRAC> labtrac build