The Fixed Format Hourly Data... dialog is displayed when you attempt to open a fixed format ASCII weather data file in the Weather Tool. Fixed format weather data refers to files in which particular parts of the data occupy specific columns in each line. Such formats are common where the Fortran programming language has been used to generate the data. In these files, the data can be considered to form a 2 dimensional grid, with the columns referring to characters running horizontally along each line and each field is always starting at the same column and being of fixed length.
This dialog box is displayed whenever a Fixed Format ASCII data file is loaded using the File » Open menu item in the main application menu. Such files are commonly associated with Fortran applications as the data runs in fixed columns within the text.
File View
This area shows a scrollable listing of the first few lines of the ASCII file. Use this to check and/or set the column format of the data. When you select an hourly value in the grid below, the column and span are displayed in this list.
You can click and drag in this area to highlight your own column and span. To assign it to a value in the grid below, click the « Assign button.
Hourly Data Component
This grid displays the current settings for each of the hourly data values used in WeaTool. Check the boxes along the left to read each specific item. If unchecked, you can right-click in the Multiplier column to choose whether to reset or ignore the item. The Multiplier column is simply a value that the read item is to be multiplied by to give the correct units. For example, Weather Tool stores hourly wind speed as km/h, whereas many formats give it in metres per second. Thus a multiplier of 0.36 would need to be entered. The Column and Span values specify the beginning and end ordinal character in each line that will be read in and converted to the specified component.
« Assign
Use this button to assign a column and span value to the currently selected hourly data component. You can select columns by clicking and dragging in the File View immediately above. The selected column and span are shown in the panels immediately to the right.
Selected Column
Displays the first ordinal character of the currently selected column in the File View immediately above.
Selected Span
Displays the number of characters in each line currently selected in the File View immediately above.
Load…
Loads in a previously saved Custom Weather Format (CWF) file. This contains settings for file formats not automatically recognised by the Weather Tool. If you have such a file and have used this dialog to read it, you should save these settings to such a file in case you need to use then again.
Save…
Saves the current settings in this dialog box for use later as a Custom Weather Data (CWF) file.
Format Selector
The Weather Tool recognises a wide range of file formats. In most cases, the format should be automatically detected. However, if the selected file is not recognised, Custom Format will be displayed. In this case, you will need to use the Hourly Data Component grid and the File View to correctly interpret it.
Generate Monthly Summary
When checked, hourly data is used to generate monthly summary data in the MONTHLY DATA panel. This will overwrite whatever is currently there. If you have entered or edited this data manually, uncheck this box.
A simple Tuturial
The operation of this dialog box is best explained by example. Thus, you should use the Importing Fixed Format Weather Data tutorial to step you through the process of importing this type of data.