GC/MS Chemstation- Changing order of TICs in overlay?

[West Chemist]

Hi knowledgable Chromatographers out there!

I have been doing some searching and surprisingly haven't come up with a good answer to my question.

I am seeking a way of altering the order that the TICs are ordered when composing an offset overlay in chemstation. I am using version E.02.02.1431, though some of our systems have former versions. I use a data file naming convention of date then incremented numbers.

For example:

01101301
01101302
01101303

Now when stacking they are ordered by the data file. So say my blank is file ...01 and 02 and 03 are samples they will be ordered bottom to top - Blank, Sample1, Sample 2.. in the order of the data file name (and order of injection as it turns out).

Anyone know how chemstation decides on how to order the files in the overlay? By injection? By data file name (alpha-numerically)? When overlaying from other runs (from other dates) it appears it does order numerically for the way I name files.

Is there actually a way within chemstation to alter the order the TICs are in the overlay when offsetting?

Additionally how do folks deal with presenting overlays from chemstation? We compose reports in which we make our overlay, copy to clipboard, then paste into word 2010 (saved as docx file type). I resize it a bit, then select "Edit Picture" which serves to make the chromatogram overlay more refined in its look. Then a little more resizing.

Sometimes get issues with the blank (bottom TIC) sinking into the axis, or text boxes cutting off characters then need to be resized individually. RTs can looks very bad due to font size. Then font size will vary greatly from overlay to overlay depending on the size of the picture when "Edit Picture" is selected. Differences happen in font sizes when the number of runs stacked differs.

How can one get nice usuable uniform overlays out of chemstation for reporting? Other than fashioning a complex macro program to do so I suppose I should say.

Thank you for any help anyone can offer and I surely appreciate it!

[Consumer Products Guy]

I'm more familiar with the older versions which one used the Command Line to exchange the individual TIC R0 into a different register. Then exchange into register Y and X, then type MERGE and hit the enter button which merges into the X register, with the Y TIC on top. Then I would exchange one of the other saved R0 into the now-vacant Y-register, and type MERGE, enter, again to get three into the X-register. These merged TICs are all the same scale, and can be zoomed as well. And can be separated and overlaid as you desire.

I haven't done as much overlaying on the newer software, think it has more options, and some here like it. But the old way still works; use the Stack function to help keep clear what's in what register.

As to copying the chromatogram into a Word document, the ChemStation copy feature on GCMS never worked too well, not as good as on the A revision software on the GC-HPLC ChemStations. The modern ChemStations also do this function poorly, at least as I've done so far in the last year. Copying into Wordpad or into Paint then inserting into Word is not as clear as it used to be, I'd like help there as well. Right now our best bet is to print, then use a scanner and copy into Word from there, not efficient.

[West Chemist]

Hey Consumer Products Guy, thanks for the response! I really appreciate it!

Honestly what you described was beyond my macro/command ability. It however prompted me to teach myself more of chemstation macro and command language and figured out how to do what you described! Thanks!

A few questions on that. Do you know the command to clear a variable? Or just redefine I suppose works. The way to approach it, is to load file define it. Load next file define it. Merge, load next and define it. Or can one say use statement x= TIC: (Data file)? I know the TIC isn't liked by the statement I make. But is there a way to directly tell chemstation what file you want there rather than loading it and defining it? Know what I mean?

OK, now I was able to do just what you said. From having everything defined, you are then using the draw command I assume? Doing that gives me what you describe, in my case of testing three stacked chromatograms each on their own x, y axis, able to be zoomed in any which way together which is great and very useful! However not quite what I'm looking for in that when bringing this type of stack into our report by copying there tends to not be enough detail shown as room is taken by the separate axes. What I'm looking for I suspect is the command that will take the definitions like we made and instead of draw, say an overlay command (I know it's not overlay, tried that. ^_^). I want to build what chemstation builds when you access from the menu Tools--> Overlay Chromatograms. This places the chromatograms stacked with one another on the same x, y axis. Then Tools--> Set Overlay Parameters can be used to disable offset or tweak how much each offsets from one another. When using the menu selections you choose the data files from like a "to do list" type of window and then hey are overlaid. Now beyond placing the currently selected data file at the bottom the others are ordered according to injection order it seems. And have not been able to find anyway of changing that within chemstation, but maybe there is hope with defining then giving the proper command to draw the overlay that I want.

While watching the variable stack window, when you access the selection for "Overlay Chromatograms" it sets x, y, and r0 to the last selected data file. So clears what would be defined.

Anything you know of this? Possibly the command I would want to replace draw with?

Thanks for all of your help Consumer Products Guy! Much appreciated!

[Consumer Products Guy]

I think you're way over my head. But once one merges the chromatograms the way I described, they are in the X register. So I type in "DR 2" to get into Window 2 or DR 1 to get into Window 1. Or something similar, can't remember, had wine tonight....