The following procedure will cause SIMION “Data Recording” results to be saved to an ASCII text file (or comma-separated-value, CSV, file) rather than just to the screen. These files are suitable for external analysis. For example, a CSV file is suitable for import into Excel, and ASCII text files can be opened in a regular text editor such as Windows Notepad. To set this up:

• Ensure that the Data Recording option is enabled (in SIMION 7: View | Def | Record) (in SIMION 8: View | Particles | Record data).
• Specify the name of the file to output (in SIMION 7: View | Def | To/Dev File) (in SIMION 8: View | Particles | Data Recording... | Output file). Typically, give the file name an extension “.txt” or “.csv” (e.g. “results.txt” or “results.csv”). The default value of “NUL” means not to output any file.
• If outputting a CSV file, ensure that “delimited” (not “verbose”) format is selected (in SIMION 7: View | Def | Define | Delimited) (in SIMION 8: View | Particles | Data Recording... | Format=Delimited). If verbose is selected, the output will be in a more verbose format with data labels.

When ions fly, SIMION will store this output file (e.g. results.csv) in the same directory as the other files in your SIMION workbench.

See also Particle Initial Conditions for information on importing/exporting initial ion positions (e.g. ION files).