After you've entered your entire sieve test you can save the list of sieves that you've entered as a sieve nest: Before entering another test that uses the same set of sieves, if you select your saved sieve nest from the dropdown Sieve nest box you can avoid entering the test's sieve sizes because LabSuite will fill them in for you.
To save a test's list of sieves as a sieve nest:
- Enter all of your sieve test data (if you've split your sample, enter the split test(s) as well).
- Click on the Save Nest button.
- Enter a name into the Sieve nest name field. There are no restrictions on what you can use as a name, but the program will display a warning message if you try to use a name that's already used by another sieve nest.
- After you've entered a name for the list of sieves, click the Save button.
- If you find that there's already a name entered into the Sieve nest name field, it means that LabSuite has found a sieve nest that exactly matches the one that you're trying to save -- since the exact same sieve nest is already entered into the program's list, you may not want to save it a second time.
- You can delete and modify saved sieve nests through the program's Setup dialog: Select Options > Program Setup then click on Sieve Nests in the left-hand navigation panel.
Once you've added your sieve nest to the program's sieve nest database, when you begin data entry for a new sieve test, start by selecting your sieve nest from the drop-down Sieve nest list in the toolbar at the top of the screen: LabSuite will fill in the test's Sieve Opening Size column with your saved sieve sizes, meaning that you can skip entering the size of each sieve. As an example, the following screenshot shows the sieve test data entry screen after the built-in ASTM D422 Uniform-Spacing Set sieve nest was selected:
Sieve Test Data Entry Screen After Sieve Nest Selection
If you were entering data for this test, you'd be asked to enter only the weight retained on the 3 inch sieve. The Sieve Opening Size column is automatically skipped because it has already been filled in for you. When you press Enter after entering the weight retained on the 3 inch sieve, you'll be asked for the weight retained on the 1.5 inch sieve — the 1.5 inch Sieve Opening Size column is skipped.
- If you need to enter data for a sieve not listed in the sieve nest that you selected: When you reach the sieve test grid row for the first sieve smaller than the missing sieve, select Edit > Insert Data Row.
- If your selected sieve nest that has sieves you didn't use in your actual test, you can delete the extra as follows: In the sieve test grid, click on the unneeded sieve entry, then select Edit > Delete Data Row.
You can also ignore the blank row, as LabSuite simply skips over them when doing calculations.