CDS File Format

File Format

All data is loaded and saved as tab delimited text. These file can be opened and edited in any file editor such as Windows Notepad© or opened directly in Microsoft Excel©.

An example of a CDS data file opened in Notepad© and Microsoft Excel© are shown below. It is easier to discern data opened in Microsoft Excel©. The first row contains the following information

CDS version
Save Date
User information

The second and third rows indicate the contents of the CDS3 data spreadsheet file. The remaining rows contain the data and are in blocks separated by "$" wildcards. For example All Materials have a $Material wildcard preceding that block of data. The user can edit data in these files with their editor of choice as long as the overall format is not changed, for example addition of rows or tabs to the file.