VG Avantage Files

The VG Avantage binary files must be converted via an Avantage utility program (DataSpace_BatchDump.exe) to ASCII equivalent files. These ASCII files are created with the file extension .avg and can be converted to ISO 14976 (VAMAS) format using the Convert to VAMAS dialog window:

1. Using the VG utility program DataSpace_BatchDump.exe, convert all the .vgd binary files for an experiment to .avg ASCII files.
2. Select the Convert to VAMAS dialog window in CasaXPS either using the toolbar button or via the Convert menu item on the File menu.
3. Move to the directory containing the .avg ASCII files; the DataSpace_BatchDump.exe program offers the user the choice of where the ASCII files should be created.
4. Enter a name for the new VAMAS file using the file extension .avg and press the Open button. For example, if you wish to call your new file sample001.vms, then you should enter sample001.avg into the file name field on the Convert to VAMAS file dialog window. Each .avg file found in the current directory will be read and entered into the new VAMAS file named sample001.vms.

Merging Sets of Experiments

The acquisition regions for each experiment are exported into separate ASCII files with the .avg extension, thus an experiment is typically recorded, once exported, as a set of ASCII files in a directory. If an experiment is one in a sequence of experiments, all of which might reasonably be processed as a unit, then a further import option allows a set of such data directories to be converted to a single ISO 14976 VAMAS file.

Given a set of directories each containing exported Avantage data, a new VAMAS file is created by moving to the directory (using the Convert to VAMAS File Dialog) containing these data sub-directories and entering the new filename with an extension of .mvg. A VAMAS file with the extension .vms is created at the leave of the directory containing the data sub-directories. The .avg files found in the sub-directories are converted and entered into the new VAMAS file with the experimental variable set to a Data Set index number; the index assigned to the experimental variable is dependent on the order of the sub-directories when read. In addition to the Data Set index, the rows are also assigned labels based on the names given to the sub-directories, which can be view using the Edit Mode toolbar button.