Reporting options in Maxsurf Stability are described in the 7 page pdf offered above.
This describes the following in more detail and with screenshots:
Introduction
In Maxsurf stability, each time you run an analysis the resulting tables and graphs relevant to that analysis as well as analysis parameters are automatically sent to the report.
Reporting options
Use the Reporting options dialog to specify where to send the report:
Internal Report Window
The internal Report window is a very simple RTF editor which is recommended only if you do not have Microsoft Word installed.
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word can be used as the reporting engine and this offers better formatting of tables and other
features.
Real time streaming of results to Microsoft Word
Results Database
As well as sending results to a document, the results can also be stored in a SQLite database. This means that the results are stored and can be reloaded from the database into Maxsurf stability. You can also create a
report from the database by selecting which results sets and in which order they should appear in the report.
As we shall see later, one big advantage of having the results in the database is that you can recreate the report (with different formatting options) at any time.
Viewing the results in the database through the Maxsurf Stability interface and using a third-party database tool such as DB Browser for SQLite
Text only report
Results can also be sent to a text file. This is for output only and the results cannot be read back in to Maxsurf Stability; graphs are not included:
Text reporting to a plain-text file
Automation
Maxsurf stability has a comprehensive automation interface (API) which can be accessed from a range of programming and macro languages such as Python, VBScript and VBA. Automation allows you to run Maxsurf Stability from a script and all the reporting functions are accessible via the API in the Application object.
Direct Reporting
Direct reporting is simply sending the results of each analysis to the report immediately after the analysis had completed. You can use the button on the Results toolbar to toggle sending the results to the report if
needed.
Indirect Reporting
If you have results stored in the results SQLite database these can be sent to a report at any time.
The table and graph format settings may be changed to produce the report in the desired format.
Report Templates
When reporting to Microsoft Word it is possible to set up a Microsoft Word document template which specifies which data tables and graphs should be included for each type of analysis. Essentially a set of tags
are used to determine which objects should be included in the report.
Please refer to the Maxsurf Stability manual, “Reporting Tags” section on page 251 for full details.
Select the Microsoft Word template document to be used in the Reporting Options dialog
Automated Reporting
Using the Maxsurf Stability automation API in a script offers the most control over report production and formatting. Python has been found to be a convenient language because it offers libraries for creating both
Microsoft Word and Excel documents, for example “xlsxwriter”. Using the automation API, analyses can be set up and performed in Maxsurf Stability under the control of the Python script and the results then sent to
Microsoft Word and Excel as desired.
There are some automation samples shipped with Maxsurf which can be useful for getting started.
Also see under Tips