Excel Worksheet Import Configuration dialog for importing GNSS Receiver data

This dialog appears when you do the following:

1. Start the Trimble 4D Control Server UI with Windows administrator rights.
2. From the File menu, select the Import Excel command for importing GNSS receiver data. A Windows file importer dialog opens.
3. Select and open an Excel file containing receiver information in data formats which Trimble 4D Control Server supports.

Use the Excel Worksheet Import Configuration dialog to select a worksheet from the import file, to assign Excel column headers to Trimble 4D Control Server properties, and to start the import of receiver data. The receiver data will either update existing GNSS Receiver modules with current information. If for a receiver a GNSS Receiver module does not yet exist, a new GNSS Receiver module will be created and automatically added to the parent that is specified in the Excel data.

Tip - Imported GNSS Receiver modules will be available throughout the Trimble 4D Control Server system, independently of the currently active system configuration.

Warning - If previously any Excel file was not closed correctly and has to be recovered, the import might not function at once. First make sure that Excel is working as designed to.

Requirements for a valid Excel worksheet for GNSS receiver data to be recognized and imported

• Receiver data must follow each other in rows.
• Receivers have to be identified by a unique configuration name, and by a valid station ID and station name of an existing station.
• That means, for each receiver definition a unique station definition must already exist in the global station list and must be identical to the entry in the import file. This station definition must not be in use by a different GNSS Receiver module, even if this module is not loaded in the current system configuration.
• Each GNSS Receiver module must be created as a child of a parent module. Since a Trimble 4D Control Server setup may consist of several parent modules, the type and name of the parent module to which this GNSS Receiver module is to be added must exist in the import file.
• The parent module must be loaded in the current system configuration.
• Receiver properties must be given in columns.
• Column headers may be arbitrary. As long as the content of a column matches a GNSS Receiver module-property, the column headers are not important. In this case, one assigns the columns of the Excel worksheet to the properties.
• However, all columns with headers that are identical to GNSS Receiver property names can be assigned to the respective properties in one step.
• The number of worksheet columns is arbitrary; the worksheet may contain more or less information than is needed for the GNSS Receiver module to be set up.
• Do not split up receiver information into several worksheets. One of the rationales for this recommendation is the fact that, for example, the importer sets the values for empty numeric fields to 0 (zero) and therefore, might overwrite properties that have been already set with a different value. If a data file contains less information than is required, edit the GNSS Receiver module properties.
• Trimble 4D Control Server must support the data formats and value ranges of the station properties given in the Excel file. If for a property the data format or the value does not conform to the Trimble 4D Control Server rules, the cell validation results in an error. Its contents will not be imported. Errors (and warnings) are output in a log file (see below).

List of valid parameters and settings for receiver data to be imported from an Excel worksheet

Examples

Selecting the worksheet to be imported

Use the Excel Worksheet selection field for selecting the matching worksheet, if an Excel file contains more than one worksheets. By default, the first worksheet of an Excel file is selected.

Assigning Worksheet columns to GNSS Receiver properties

The Excel Worksheet Import Configuration dialog displays two tables.

• The left-side table contains the single Excel Worksheet Column column displaying the header names of all columns in the selected worksheet.
• The right-side table is a list of all GNSS Receiver properties for which data import from an Excel worksheet is supported. An asterisk marks those properties, which are required to be available in the import file. When one first imports an Excel worksheet, the second column of that table, the Excel Column Assignment column, is empty.

For the importer to assign the data of the worksheet to the GNSS Receiver module, it must know which Excel worksheet columns match the GNSS Receiver module properties.

For assigning columns of the Excel worksheet to properties, do one of the following:

• If one, several, or all column headers of the Excel worksheet match one, several, or all property names, click Default All. This automatically fills the Excel Column Assignment column of the right table with the matching column headers.
• For assigning a single column to a single property, set the focus onto the column header name in the right table and drag it to the matching row in the left table. This fills the Excel Column Assignment column of the left table with the selected column header.
• For assigning several columns to several consecutive properties, use the default Windows selection methods, such as left-clicking in combination with the Ctrl and Shift keys, then drag the selected items to the first matching property row in the right table.

  Tip - When dragging several items, they are assigned to consecutive Property rows.

• For removing all assignments from the left table, click Empty All. For removing the assignments of selected properties, click Empty Selected.

If you later re-import data from an Excel worksheet whose column headers match those already assigned to properties, the Excel Column Assignment column of the right table will automatically be pre-filled with the matching column header.

Starting the import of GNSS Receiver data

For reading in the data of the selected worksheet and starting the assignment of worksheet columns to GNSS Receiver properties, accept the dialog. The following happens:

1. A progress window appears as long as the import is executed.
2. When the import has finished, your standard text editor opens with the <Excel file name>.import.Log file displayed. This log file resides in your <User name>/AppData/Roaming folder. It contains output messages of the INFO, WARN(ing), and ERRO(r) types.
3. Carefully read this log file, since it is your main information source on how well the import has succeeded.

Result of the data import

When the data import has finished the following has occurred:

• For each valid receiver entry a new module configuration is available
• The new GNSS Receiver modules are added to the parent configuration as specified in the Excel file. The connection to the receiver is built up.
• The new GNSS Receiver modules are loaded in an arbitrary Container.

  Tip - For distributing GNSS Receiver module onto selected Containers, go to the Tree view, make sure its Container view mode is selected, set the focus onto (a selection of) the GNSS Receiver module(s) and drag the module(s) to the Container where it/they should reside in.

• If a parent configuration is not available in the currently loaded system configuration, a Warning is output in the log file. For these parents, no new modules will be created.
• If a station definition needed to identify the receiver is missing, incomplete, or is already in use, an Error is output in the log file. For this receiver, a module cannot be configured.