Jackson Labs PHASE STATION 53100A, User Manual

Page: 75 / 225

PhaseStation 53100A User’s Manual V1.04 25-Apr-2022 75
File menu
The File menu helps you work with data files and images. Supported actions include opening, saving,
closing, and deleting plots stored in .TIM files, saving image files, printing or copying the currently
displayed window contents, and importing and exporting raw measurement data. Various “user
preference” toggles are also provided on this menu.
Load .TIM file ( l )
Loads a saved .TIM file. .TIM files are ASCII text files that contain all measurement data
acquired or imported by TimeLab, together with any applicable metadata. Specific fields
and tables within each .TIM file may vary depending on the measurement type(s) saved
in the file.
For frequency stability measurements made with counters or timing analyzers, the .TIM
file contains the phase record obtained from the instrument during acquisition. The
phase record may have been derived from a series of frequency readings or other raw
data stream formats. It may also have been decimated to conform to a specified
measurement rate or bandwidth.
For phase noise and AM noise measurements, the .TIM file contains the FFT bin
contents needed to render the applicable graphs.
Save image or .TIM file ( s )
This command can either save the selected plot as a .TIM file, or save the current
contents of the TimeLab window as an image file in .PNG, .GIF, .TGA, .PCX, or .BMP
format.
By default, .TIM files will be saved. To save an image file, simply add one of the suffixes
above when you enter the filename.
Keep in mind that image files do not preserve your
original measurement data, and cannot be reloaded into TimeLab. If a trace caption was
either provided at acquisition time or added with Edit→Trace properties ( e ) , it will be
used as the default filename.
Generally, the .PNG format is best for saving images from TimeLab for email attachment
or inclusion in other documents. .GIF and .PCX files will discard some color information,
while .TGA and .BMP files are unnecessarily large.
When saving an image, all visible status and error messages, notifications, prompts, and
mouse-cursor query values are removed. The black-triangle cursor associated with the
currently selected plot will also be omitted from saved images.