Saving and Exporting Plots

Plots that have been uploaded in the Plot Manager can be saved for use later in the Plot Manager, or to send to Delta for technical support. Plots can also be exported to various file formats for use by other programs, such as Microsoft Excel, Word, etc. as described in the Exporting Plots section below.

Plots are not saved in an RMCTools project. To save plots, you must explicitly save them. If you forgot to save the plots before closing RMCTools, you can retrieve a backup copy that RMCTools automatically saves to an internal location on the PC as described in the Auto-Saved Plots section below.

To Save Plots

In the Plot Manager, the History tab shows the uploaded plots, and any other open plot files. To save one or more plots in this list:

On the Plot Manager toolbar, click Save Plot(s).

Or, on the Plot History pane, right-click a plot in the list and choose Save Plot(s).

Or, in the plot window, right-click the currently displayed plot and choose Save Plot(s).
In the Select Plot to Save dialog, choose the plots to include, then click Save.
Browse to the desired folder and click Save.

To Open a Saved Plot File

In the Plot Manager toolbar, click the Open Plot File button. In the Open dialog, browse to the desired plot file, select it, and click Open. In the Open dialog, you can use the Ctrl or Shift key to select and open multiple files. You can open .rmcplotx and .rmcplots file types.

Auto-Saved Plots

RMCTools automatically saves a backup copy of every uploaded plot to an internal folder on the PC. This is intended for preventing data loss if the user forgets to save plots before closing RMCTools, and is not intended to replace saving plots manually to the location and filename of the user's choosing.

Note: This feature does not automatically upload plots from the RMC. It only automatically saves a backup of each plot that you manually upload from the RMC in the Plot Manager.

Once the size of the auto-saved plots exceeds the defined storage size limit, the oldest plots are automatically deleted. The size limit can be adjusted as described below in Auto-Save Settings.

Retrieving Auto-Saved Plots

In the Plot Manager, on the History tab, expand Auto-Saved Plots, then click View Auto-Saved Plots.
Choose the plot files you wish to retrieve. You can select multiple files by holding the Shift or Ctrl keys while clicking the files.

Each file contains one plot and the filename describes the plot as:

ProjectName_ControllerName_PlotTemplateName_PlotTemplateNumber_CaptureDate_CaptureTime.rmcplotx,

where

CaptureDate is in yyyymmdd format (year, month, day)

CaptureTime is in hhmmssxxx format (hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds)

Click Open.
Save the retrieved auto-save plot to a location and filename of your choice. Without saving the file, the auto-saved plot will remain in the internal auto-save folder and will eventually be replaced by newer plots.

Auto-Save Settings

To change the size limit of the auto-stored plots storage area or to enable or disable the auto-saving:

In the Plot Manager, on the History tab, expand Auto-Saved Plots, then click Auto-Save Settings.
In the Plot Auto-Save section, check or uncheck the Automatically Save Uploaded Plot file to your PC box to enable or disable the feature.
In the Plot Auto-Save section, enter the Plot Auto-Save Size Limit, then click OK. The size limit can be adjusted between 1 and 2048 MB.

Storage Location

The auto-saved plots are saved within the user's AppData folder, which is a hidden folder. The location is typically C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Delta Motion\RMCTools\AutoSavedPlots. Since this is a hidden folder, it is easiest to access it as described in Retrieving Auto-Saved Plots above.

Exporting Plots

The data from an RMC plot can be exported to a file for use in other programs, such as Excel. The Plot Manager can export the data to three different file types, all of which can be opened by a text editor:

Comma Delimited (.csv)
Tab Delimited (.txt)
XML Spreadsheet (.xml)
XML Data (.xml)

Tip:
If you will be opening the exported file in Microsoft Excel, choose XML Spreadsheet. It will provide a very clean spreadsheet.

To Export a Plot:

In the Plot Manager, on the History tab, right-click a plot and choose Export.
In the Filename box, enter a filename.
In the Save as Type box, choose the file type, and click Save.
The plots will be saved in the file with the extension you chose. Notice that only the plot you selected will be exported to the file.

Plot File Types

RMCTools plots can be saved and opened in two formats:

RMCTools Plots - Compressed (*.rmcplotx)
Compressed file containing one or more plots. Typically, this file size is 10% of the .rmcplots file size. The compressed (.rmcplotx) format is supported in RMCTools 4.09.0 and newer. The uncompressed (.rmcplots) format must be used if plots need to be opened in earlier versions of RMCTools.
RMCTools Plots (*.rmcplots)
Uncompressed file containing one or more plots. This uncompressed XML file is easily readable in a text editor.

Default File Type When Saving

When saving plots, the default file type is RMCTools Plots - Compressed (*.rmcplotx). To change the default:

On the Tools menu, choose Options.
On the Environment page, in the Plot File Format section, choose the desired default format.

Compression Type

The .rmcplotx file is an .rmcplots file compressed with the gzip algorithm, with the addition of some header information. An .rmcplotx file can be uncompressed into an .rmcplots file by changing the file extension from .rmcplotx to .gzip, then unzipping with file compression software such as 7-Zip.

A .rmcplots file can also be made into an .rmcplotx file by compressing it with the gzip algorithm via a file compression software such as 7-Zip. Rename the compressed file to .rmcplotx, and RMCTools should be able to open it.