Traces, Channels, and Windows on the Analyzer

It is critical to understand the meaning of the following terms as they are used on the analyzer.

Traces

Traces are a series of measured data points. There is no theoretical limit to the number of traces. However, the practical limit is the maximum number of windows times the maximum number of traces per window (24).

In addition, one memory trace can be stored and displayed for every data trace. Learn more about Math / Memory traces.

Trace settings affect the presentation and mathematical operations of the measured data.

The following are Trace settings:

Managing Traces

How to Select a trace
How to Delete a trace
How to Move a trace
How to Maximize a trace
How to perform Trace Hold (Max or Min)
How to Create a new trace
How to Change the trace parameter
How to display a custom trace title (separate topic)
How to display a wide active trace (separate topic)

How to Select a Trace A trace must be selected (active) before its trace settings can be changed. How to know which trace is Active?
Using front-panel hardkey [softkey] buttons	Using Menus
For Traces 1-4, press the corresponding Hard Key For other trace numbers, press traces then [Select Traces] Select a trace number in the Entry toolbar.	Click the Trace Status label or trace.

How to Delete a Trace
Using front-panel hardkey [softkey] buttons	Using Menus
For Traces 1-4, press the corresponding Hard Key For other trace numbers, press traces then [Select Traces] Select a trace number in the Entry toolbar.	Right-click the Trace Status label, then click Delete.

How to Move a trace to a different window

You can DRAG a trace from one window to another, or...

Using front-panel
hardkey [softkey] buttons

Using Menus

Select the trace to move.
Press traces
then [Move Trace]
Select a window number in the following dialog.

Right-click the Trace Status label, then click Move Trace.

Select, Delete, Move Traces dialog box help

This dialog is launched by clicking Trace/Chan, then Trace, then Delete Trace

The Select Trace dialog is launched by clicking Trace/Chan, then Trace, then Select Trace

Both the Select Trace and Delete Trace dialogs work the same.

Select a trace, then click OK.

Only ONE trace can be Selected or Deleted.

Note:

To EASILY select a trace, click the Trace Status label.

To EASILY delete a trace, right-click the Trace Status label, then click Delete.

Trace Max

Makes the active trace the ONLY trace on the display. All other traces are hidden.

How to do Trace Max

Select Trace, then Trace Max.
With Trace Max ON, select a different trace from the Traces softkeys to make that trace visible.
To make all traces visible again select Trace Max OFF

Trace Hold

With Trace Hold (Max or Min) enabled, each data point is updated ONLY when the current data point measurement exceeds the highest (for Max) or lowest (for Min) currently-stored data point.

How to hold the active trace at the maximum or minimum points.

Using front-panel
hardkey [softkey] buttons

Press Trace
Then Trace Hold
Restart resets the trace.

Using Menus

Not available

Maximum/Minimum trace hold can be applied with several conditions:

Feature is applicable to any data trace, but NOT to memory traces.
When the stimulus or any data post processing setting is changed, the trace hold data will be reset. These settings include: Smoothing, Gating, Time Domain Transform, Conversion, Data Math, Equation Editor, Parameter change, Formatting change.
Minimum/maximum comparison is done with formatted data. For Smith and Polar formats, absolute data is used and not phase.
Trace hold data can be recalled.
Data save files formats
- SnP does NOT save trace hold data
- Citifile, CSV, MDF, PRN DOES save trace hold data

Channels

Channels contain traces. The analyzer can have up to 200 independent channels.

Channel settings determine how the trace data is measured . All traces that are assigned to a channel share the same channel settings. A channel must be selected (active) to modify its settings. To select a channel, click the Trace Status button of a Trace in that channel. The following are channel settings:

Managing Channels

How to Select a Channel

A channel must be selected (active) before its settings can be changed.

To make a channel active, select a trace in that channel.

How to Turn ON or OFF a Channel

Click Trace/Chan, then Channel, then Turn On / Off Channel.

Turn ON | OFF Channel dialog box help

Both the Turn ON and Turn OFF dialogs work the same.

Select a channel, then click OK. Only ONE channel can be selected

When turning ON a channel, the new channel is always the Standard Measurement Class with an S11 trace.

Note: To create more than one trace in a new channel, click Trace, then New Trace

Windows

Windows are used for viewing traces.

The analyzer can show between 1 and 160 windows on the screen with the following limitations:
- The COM property MaximumNumberOfWindows returns 1000 ('unlimited' is not a number).
- The SCPI status register can track the status of up to 576 traces.
Each window can contain up to 24 traces.
Windows are completely independent of channels.
Learn to create and manage windows.
See Customize the analyzer screen to learn how to make other window settings.

The following is a window containing two traces. Both traces use the same channel 1 settings as indicated by the annotation at the bottom of the window.

The window number shows in the lower-left corner of the window. The following shows window 5.

Managing Windows

How to make various window settings New, Close, Tile, Cascade, Minimize, Maximize
Using front-panel hardkey [softkey] buttons	Using Menus
Press Response then [Display] then [Windows]	Click Response then Display then Windows

Close Window dialog box help

Select a window, then click OK. The remaining windows are tiled.

Only ONE window can be selected.

Traces contained in a closed window are deleted.

Note: To EASILY close a window, right-click in the window (away from a trace) then select Close Window.

See Customize the analyzer screen to learn how to make other window settings.