#### Importing a Generic Excel Format

An Excel format is an .xls or .xlsm file from Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet application. Many third party tools export measurement data as an .xls file. The Generic Excel option allows you to import those data files into your database.

The file you are to import should contain, at a minimum, the following pieces of data:

- A part name

- A measured date

- A measured time

- Feature IDs

- Measured values for each axis

- Upper Tolerance Values

- Lower Tolerance Values

1. Once you have an .xls or .xlsm file, on the Choose a data file screen of the wizard, choose the xlsm option.

2. Click Browse .An Open dialog box appears. Select the xls or xlsm file. By default, the software filters to only show the xlsm files. Type *.xls in the File Name box if you want to select an *.xls file type.

3. Click Next. The software begins the import process and then displays the Customize the data 1 screen.

4. Use this screen to define general information, such as the part name and transaction date and time.

- On the Customize the data 1 screen map the Part name field to the cell in the xls file containing your part name. For example, using something like =B1 will pull in the value from the B1 cell.

- Do the same for the Measured date and Measured time fields. Alternately, you can select %CurrentDate% and %CurrentTime% from the drop-down list to use the current date and time from the system.

3. Click Next. The software displays the Customize the data 2 screen.

4. Use this screen to add and map trace field data.

- Click New to add a new trace field. It will appear in the Traces area.

- Type the name for the trace field in the in the Trace Name column.

- Use the Trace Value Map column to map the appropriate information from the .xls file.

5. Click Next. The software displays the Customize the data 3 screen.

6. Use this screen to define your feature variables.

- By default, a sample CIR1 with three variables (X, Y, and D) appears in the Variables list.

- You can click Edit to modify these existing variables, or you can click Delete on each one and then click New to recreate your own.

- Once the right-side of the screen is in edit mode (either from clicking Edit or from clicking New), specify the values for the Feature Name, Dimension Name, Axis, Nominal, Upper Tolerance and Lower Tolerance fields. You can either type these values into each field directly or map them to their respective cells in the Excel sheet. If you map the values, the mapped value appears to the right of the field.

- In the Samples area, use the fields in the Cell Map column and map the cells from the Excel sheet that contain measured values for the selected feature variable.

7. Click Finish to import the data.

8. The Performing Operation... screen shows details of the import process. Click Cancel to close the wizard. Once the dialog box closes, the imported data will be available for selection from within Datapage+.