Author Topic: Adding New Plots to Excel Plot Report  (Read 4018 times)

elroy

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Adding New Plots to Excel Plot Report
« on: September 11, 2016, 11:43:43 AM »
I've thought about this one for years.  At present, the plots in the Excel Plot file are somewhat fixed (with adding new ones not easily done).

It would be nice if there was a way for users to somewhat easily add new plots, possibly adding a new tab for them.  Here is an idea I have:
  • There is currently an EMG sub-folder used for various EMG setup.  Have a similar sub-folder for motion plot setup, possibly named "Motion".
  • In this "Motion" folder, there'd be an Excel file.  This Excel file would have tabs (with plots) that would be added to the standard Excel Plot file upon creation.  It might be named "Additional Excel Plots.xlsx".
  • Creating these new plots is not entirely trivial.  And the actual plot information would need to already be in the main Excel Plot file when it was created.
  • In addition to the new tab and new plots, there'd need to be information about the patient's data column, the name of the plot, and other details.
  • When the database creates a new Excel Plot file.  It adds any new tabs found in the "Additional Excel Plots.xlsx" file, possibly based on the additional plot information found.
  • The database would then adjust these plots to read all the information needed to make them a "live" plot.

To summarize, so long as data is in the standard Excel Plot file, these procedures would make it possible to plot this data, possibly making reorganized plot pages for printing.

Also, some of these routines could ease the work necessary when new plots are added to the standard Excel Plot file.  Currently, it's a bit of a tedious job to individually create these new plots.

Regards,
Elroy

Adam Graf

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Re: Adding New Plots to Excel Plot Report
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2016, 11:50:34 AM »
I'm not sure I completely follow this, but if this would be a way to customize the plots shown and make available the knee varus/valgus moments plot, then I would be for it. I think the customization of the pages becomes more valuable when more users are involved.

elroy

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Re: Adding New Plots to Excel Plot Report
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2016, 01:47:44 PM »
Hi Adam,

Yes, this was really a note to me more than anything.  It's never completely trivial to produce new plots (and some of what's in that first post is notes-to-self).

However, it could be easier to add plots than it currently is.  The first criteria is that the data would need to be placed into the Excel plot file.  But there's already several columns of data in these files that are not being plotted. 

What this is about is allowing you (the user) a mechanism to have additional plots in the Excel files when they're produced by the Patients & Services program.  Again, we'd need to make sure the Kinematic, Kinetic, etc. data is in the file, but producing additional plot tabs should be easier than it currently is.

Elroy