Stanford Research Systems RGA100, Operating Manual And Programming Reference

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Overview 5-3
SRS Residual Gas Analyzer
Overview
Program Structure
The RGA program is a fully interactive Windows program capable of managing several
RGA Heads simultaneously. Fully interactive means that you can double-click on any
graph object and the program responds by executing a specific command such as editing
the color of a data line. There are also various shortcut menu buttons to access specific
commands in the Toolbar. The function of each button is explained in the Status bar,
which is at the bottom of the program window.
RGA was designed to handle data acquisition from multiple heads simultaneously by
assigning one head for each window and by making all the windows independent from
each other. Each window can be thought of as a separate RGA Head control & display
file. This file, called an RGA file, stores all the information regarding the graph
parameters, scan parameters, some head parameters, what port the head was connected
to, etc.
It is not necessary for an RGA file window to be connected to a specific head at all
times. You could, for example, open a file just to browse through a few dozen scans
that were done overnight. You can also copy the graph to the clipboard so you can
paste it into a word processor.
Once an RGA window is connected to a Head, you can start scanning (acquiring data) in
any of the display modes available. When you are done scanning, you can either close
the file which will automatically disconnect you from the head, or you can issue a
disconnect command and keep the file open for further data analysis. You can even
connect the same window to a different head on another RS232 port.
RGA Files
The RGA program is capable of saving files in a variety of formats. This section
describes all the file formats and their different uses.
RGA files (.rga)
RGA files are the main files used in the RGA program. They are binary files that
contain scan data with all the information on the graph parameters, scan parameters, scan
schedule parameters, etc. When the RGA file is saved, it saves the last scan data along
with all the setup parameters of that window. When the file is open again, it creates a
window that has the same parameters as when it was saved including the data from the
last scan.
RGA Scan log files (.ana .txt)
RGA scan log files are binary files that contain mostly raw data from multiple scans
acquired over a period of time. These files do not have any of the RGA file setup
parameters in them in order to save disk space. They contain the time and date for each
scan and the minimum scan setup information to reconstruct the scan data graph. These
log files are available for the Analog, Histogram, and Table modes.