Simcenter Testing Solutions Simcenter Testlab Neo: Reporting

Direct YouTube link: https://youtu.be/B_ecY0xSy2A


Create custom, multi-page reports with the click of a button!

The report functionality in Simcenter Testlab Neo can automatically generate reports and autofill plots with data.

This article will discuss the different options for creating a report in Simcenter Testlab Neo.  This article is based on Simcenter Testlab Neo 2021.1 and higher.

Index:
1. Printing Settings
     1.1 Report
     1.2 Printing
     1.3 Print Options
2. Single Picture Reporting
     2.1 Base Default Printing
     2.2 Single Picture Reporting with Print Format
3. Multi-Page Report
     3.1 Basic and Format Based Multi-Page Printing 
     3.2 Report with Automatic Preview Display

1. Printing Settings

The “Print” ribbon tab in the Testlab Neo toolbar contains three distinct groups. These groups contain the settings which control how the report is generated and how the pictures are formatted.

Figure 1: The Printing Ribbon Contains All of the Settings for Creating a Simcenter Testlab Report.

The ribbon has three main sections:

• Report (Red, Left): This is where a new report can be started, or a previous report opened. A Simcenter Testlab report is a group of pictures. An example of a report is shown below in Figure 2:

Figure 2: The User Pictures Rainflow Matrices, Damage, and AutoPower are all part of “Report 1”.

• Printing (Green, Middle): This group contains settings for what will be printed, how it will be printed, and where it will be printed. A single picture or a report can be printed, using the default print format or a user created one.

• Print Options (Blue, Right): This group contains settings to further control how the report is created. The report can be created in Word or PowerPoint, the settings from the pictures can be taken directly from Testlab or the print format template, and the pictures can be reported as Testlab active pictures or as static images.

2. Single Picture Reporting

The most basic printing action is to print a single user picture to either Word or PowerPoint. In the example below we will walk through the steps required to print the waterfall and colormap display shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Report to be create from this single picture of a colormap and order cut.

To print this single picture to PowerPoint the following settings are selected in the Print Toolbar as shown in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: The settings shown will create a single picture/page report.

The settings do the following:

• The “Print the” dropdown is set to “Picture”. This will print the selected picture in the Testlab Display area.

• The “With” dropdown is set to “Automatic”. This will print the selected picture using the default print format.

• The “To” dropdown is set to file. When the print button is selected the user will be prompted to choose a directory to save the report. 

After pressing the Print icon, the user will be prompted for a name and directory in which to store the PowerPoint file as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: After pressing "Print", user is prompted for directory and name to store the PowerPoint file.

After pressing the Save button, a PowerPoint file is created.  Opening the Powerpoint, there is a single page with the colormap and order cut picture as shown in Figure 6.

Figure  6: Single page PowerPoint created by print operation.

Using the "Automatic" setting gives no control over the format of the resulting PowerPoint.  It is also possible to control the format as described in the next section.

2.2 Single Picture Reporting with Print Format

A print format can be used to customize the report. The print format can include things like a company logo, additional metadata associated with the user picture, text, additional plots, etc. 

To create a print format, first select the user picture in the display area for which a format should be created.  Then select the “New Print Format” button in the “Print” ribbon as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: After selecting the appropriate picture in the display area, press the "New Plot Format" button in the ribbon.

PowerPoint will be launched and the format can be configured.  See the knowledge article "Simcenter Testlab: Format Based Printing with PowerPoint" for how to add logos, custom text, etc to the plot. Save the configured PowerPoint template when finished.

The same picture as before can now be printed using the newly created print format template. In the “Printing” toolbar select the dropdown box next to “With” and select “Select a Print Format...”. Browse to the desired print format. (Figure 8)

Figure 8: In the "With" selection of the Print ribbon, choose "Select a Print Format".

Choose the format that was created previously.  An example with a template called "Simple Format" is shown below in Figure 9.

Figure 9: After selecting the Print Format, the name is shown in the Print ribbon.

After selecting the format, press the "Print" icon in the ribbon to make the report.  A PowerPoint file will be generated.

Figure 10: Report with custom logo, automatic annotation, improved axis visibility.

It is also possible to create a multi-page PowerPoint or Word report file with custom layout as described in the next section.

3. Multi-Page Report

It is possible to print multiple pictures at once into a PowerPoint report. This is done using a Simcenter Testlab Report.

3.1 Basic and Format Based Multi-Page Printing 

A Simcenter Testlab report is a series of user pictures that are grouped together. Figure 11 below shows a Simcenter Testlab Report containing three user pictures.

Figure 11: Report group with three pictures. The Pictures “Rainflow Matrices, Damage, and Autopower” are part of “Report 1”.

The three user pictures (Rainflow Matrices, Damage, AutoPower) can be printed to a single PowerPoint document (one active picture per slide) by using the following printing settings shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Change the "Print the" setting from "Picture" to "Report" to generate a multi-page report.

Use the following settings in the "Print" section of the ribbon:

• The “Print the” dropdown is set to “Report”. This will print the selected report to Word/PowerPoint.
• The “With” dropdown is set to “Print Format Template”. This will print the selected report using the default print format.
• The “To” dropdown is set to file. When the print button is selected the user will be prompted to choose a directory to save the report.

Press the Print button. A three-slide report is created as shown in Figure 13:

Figure 13: Printing a Report with three pictures results in a three page PowerPoint.

Each slide contains a Testlab Active picture as specified by the "Picture Format" setting.  The report can also be printed without active pictures.

It is also possible to print a multi-page report with a custom report template instead of the standard format.  In the "Print" ribbon, choose the custom format (see earlier section on how to create) before printing.  In Figure 14, an example of a custom format called "Durability Report" is being used.

Figure 14: Print ribbon settings for a multi-page report with custom display layout.

The report based multi-page method produces as many pages as there are pictures in the display area.

It is also possible to print a multi-page report which produces a report proportional to the amount of data blocks selected.  This method, based on the Preview display, is described in the next section.

3.2 Report with Automatic Preview Display

The automatic preview display can be used to quickly print multiple plots to a PowerPoint file. 

Change the “Print the” dropdown box to “Preview Picture with all data” as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Print Preview

This will print the preview picture as well as any other data of the same format that is in the data list. With the Preview picture active, select the first piece of data in a list as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16: The preview option will print the entire relevant data list. 

An example of the report that would be generated is displayed below in Figure 17.

Figure 17: It is possible to batch report mode shapes.

Enjoy the ease of reporting graphics using both standard printing and format-based reporting!

Questions? Email charles.rice@siemens.com or contact Siemens Support Center.

Related Links:

Simcenter Testlab Neo