SpecWin™ is a Windows application designed for the easy and convenient viewing of PIMA-generated spectral data files (either the conventional .dsp format or the newer .fos format).

SpecWin is available free of charge to all interested users.  Download SpecWin™

Plotting PIMA™ spectra in SpecWin

SpecWin provides these user-friendly features:

  • created with the look and feel of standard Microsoft applications, with menu bars and tool buttons
  • easy-to-use, flexible presentation of one or more data traces
  • easy creation of plotted output
  • zooming capability on single or multiple-trace displays
  • display of absorption positions and intensities
  • mathematical operations applicable to all traces or individually by trace
  • creation of artificial mineral mixtures for comparison with unknowns
  • online help in a brief, concise document, plus tips
  • comprehensive documentation provided in a series of tutorials that quickly familiarize users with the application

Plotting methods include:

  • quick plot of screen image using "Print" toolbutton
  • transfer of plots through the clipboard to page layout applications for direct inclusion of plots into reports
  • creation of PostScript output files for high-resolution plots

Trace viewing methods include:

  • single-trace mode (click on a trace name to display the plot)
  • overplot mode (click on trace names, plot one atop another in different colors for comparison)
  • overplot with offset (click on a sequence of trace names, cause them to be plotted one above another so that they don't overlap, with colors and lineweight selectable by trace)
  • reference plotting (put up a trace; each other trace plotted is overplotted on the first, or "reference", trace; in this way compare an unknown trace with a sequence of standards or other known traces.)
  • stack plotting mode (push a single button; every file which has been selected is plotted at once, up to 1,000 traces in a stack, plotted one above another)

Creating simulated mixtures with SpecWin

Mathematical functions include:

  • smoothing with 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 point triangle window
  • continuum removal by subtraction
  • continuum removal by division
  • creation of linear mixtures of 2 to 4 minerals
  • first differences

File Conversion with SpecWin

The SpecWin application supports seamlessly the use of pima.dsp files or poma.fos files. When file conversion is needed, this application also provides support for the conversion of pima.dsp files to ASCII text, of general ASCII text files to .dsp, and of the newer pima.fos format into .dsp. The user selects a button that causes one of the applications DSP2ASCI, ASCI2DSP, or FOS2DSP to launch. Each of these applications can be used quickly and conveniently to convert entire directories of files of one type into files of another type. The files written are of the same name, but with one of ".dsp" or ".txt" as the file extension. They are written in the originating directory, where they appear alongside the files from which they were converted.

For example, DSP2ASCI allows exportation of .dsp files, collected on the PIMA specrometer, to ASCII text files which can be imported into ENVI [TM] or into an Excel spreadsheet. These applications have the look and feel of standard Windows applications, allowing file selection for conversion by a mouse drag operation as in the standard Windows Explorer program.