Can I transfer a captured trace from v7 / v7 Di into v8 / Di v2?

Created by Casey Guli, Modified on Tue, 13 Jun 2023 at 01:32 PM by Casey Guli

Can I transfer a captured trace from v7 / v7 Di into v8 / Di v2?


Yes, however...


Traces captured within Smaart v7 won't automatically transfer to Smaart v8. The two programs have separate directories and act as independent programs. The main issue, however, is that traces saved in v7 are actually written to temporary files in a private location upon capture and are automatically reloaded into memory each time you open the program. Therefore, the v7 trace will have to be saved permanently before it can be imported into Smaart v8.


To save a trace to your hard drive from within Smaart v7, right-click the trace from the Data Bar and select Save. This will open the Finder (MacOS) or File Explorer (Windows) window to choose where to save the trace to and what to name it. More information on how to manage saved traces within Smaart v7 can be found starting at the bottom of Page 31 of the Smaart v7 User Guide.


Once the trace has been saved, it can be imported it into Smaart v8 by opening the program and navigating to File > Import > Trace Data File. Smaart v8 will accept .srf (Spectrum traces) and .trf (Transfer Function traces) as well as the .ref file format from older versions of Smaart, Smaart Pro or SmaartLive (which will be reformatted into an .srf or .trf accordingly). Importing should automatically put the traces in the proper location, stored directly on the hard drive in the following location:
 

Windows -  C:\Users\<your_username>\Documents\Smaart v8\Traces
MacOS - (MachintoshHD)\Users\<your_username>\Documents\Smaart v8\Traces

 

More information on how to work with captured traces in Smaart v8 can be found starting at the bottom of Page 76 of the Smaart v8 User Guide.
 

Unfortunately, the .rgp (reference group) file format from older versions of Smaart Pro or SmaartLive is no longer supported.

 

There is also the option to export a trace as ASCII in Smaart v7 then import it into Smaart v8, however there are a few caveats to this:

  • When importing back into Smaart (v8.4.0 or newer) the trace has to be either a .txt (text) or .tsv (tab-separated values) file. As of October 2019, we removed the ability to import or export in .csv (comma-separated values) file format in order to add support for certain localizations that use commas as decimals.
     
  • When exporting a saved trace to ASCII, it will retain any banding or smoothing information set at the time of export, not at the time of capture. Spectrum measurements export with their banding applied; Transfer Function measurements export with their smoothing applied.
     
  • When exporting a transfer function as ASCII within Smaart v8, the "Squared Coherence" option (Options > Transfer Function) will not be exported because it is a display-only function and can be applied to all traces regardless of when they were captured in relation to when the feature was added. This was done to maximize compatibility with any/all data imported into Smaart and minimize implementation complexity. "Export to ASCII" always exports the trace exactly as it is displayed in the plot, so when you import the ASCII trace again it will be re-smoothed, re-banded, or have the coherence squared again.
     

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