Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Getting Started

Setting up a project

This software works on tools. Depending on the analysis you want to perform, you will need to add the appropriate tools to your workbook and then perform the analysis. The list of available tools is shown in the figure below.
Note that not every tool is required for every project. Use the tools that make sense for your project. When you add a tool to your workbook, it is added as a new worksheet. You can add new worksheets, perform the required analysis and delete those worksheets that don't add value to your analysis.

Note that both the data and the analysis are stored in each workbook. This way, if you share a specific workbook with others, they will have your raw data as well if they want to recreate your analysis results. Each workbook is a self-contained unit. It contains your data, your analysis settings, your session window, and your graphs. If you just share your workbook with other users, they have sufficient information to recreate your entire analysis.

An example project file is shown below. A project file typically contains a summary tab which contains a summary of all the analysis tabs in your workbook. A data tab that stores all the data required by the project and a list of tabs for all the analyses you would have run for your project.
It is recommended that for each project you work on, you save the work in a different Excel file. The advantage of this is that you can find all the analysis you have done on a project in a single file and you don't need to look for multiple files to look for all your analysis. You can look for the different analyses by looking at the various tabs within your workbook.

Data Entry

For each tool, you need to understand what data is needed and then format the data accordingly. For example, if the data is available to you in rows and the tool requires the data in columns, then you would have to transpose the data before you can paste it into the tool. In general, most of the tools use data in column format.

You can use the Data Editor to load your data into the software in Table format. Once you have loaded all the data you are interested in, you can then use any data columns for analysis. The following figure shows an example of data entry from the list of available columns for Basic Stats. Note that on the left you see a list of available columns - these are all the data available in tables in your current workbook. You will need to drag and drop these columns on the right to perform the analysis.
For this software to work properly, you must not add or delete any rows or columns in the worksheet. The software is expecting data in certain locations; if you add or delete rows, then the software will not be able to find the data, and the software may no longer work. If you feel that you may have inadvertently corrupted the worksheet, just delete the worksheet and add a new worksheet and work with it. The places where the software expects user data entry is shown in white cells, and other areas are shown in a different color (gray or blue).

Setting Options

Some generic settings that are used in all worksheets are stored under options. You can change these options once so that all new worksheets you create in the future would use these as the default values. However, for each tool you add to your workbook, you would need to specify the options specific for that analysis. Click on Analysis Setup to open the options for that analysis. An example screenshot is shown below. Once you specify all the required options and any data for analysis you can click on the OK button to generate analysis results.

Computing Results

Once all the data has been entered in the analysis setup dialog box and/or the worksheet, click on Compute Outputs to generate analysis results. The Sigma Magic software will compute the outputs and update the Outputs area. Typically, most analyses will output the text results in the Notes area and the charts in the graph area. Any conclusions from the analysis are listed in the Conclusion box within the Notes section.