Exporting NMR data to Text

There are two commands available for exporting NMR data as ASCII text that can then be imported into spreadsheets or other software (Excel, Origin, Matlab, etc).

  • The Topspin build in command totxt will export in the JCAMP-DX standard format,
  • A customized au program toxy that I wrote will yield simpe x,y data..

JCAMP-DX

The Topspin command totxt is available natively in Topspin and can be run on any computer.  You can invoke it from the command line by typing “totxt” or from the File menu (top left) selecting [Save As]

and then selecting “Save data of currently displayed region in a text file”

You will be prompted a dialog with filename (default dataset_name.txt), directory (default is home directory, and there is no option to browse), Archive Type (use default) and weather to include imaginary data (RSPECT+ISPECT).   If you save several experiment numbers of the same data set, you need to include the number in your file name.  On the Spectrometer or the NMR lab workstations, I recommend saving in your Document directory (/home/user/Documents) as files in that directory can be downloaded from the website.

The result will be a file with a header listing left and right limit (taken as displayed on screen) and number of exported points, followed by a column of intensity values.  It will not generate a column of corresponding ppm values.  If you need the data as xy pairs (ppm and intensity), you need to either generate the ppm values in your spreadsheet using the header information or use my customized au program toxy (below).

X,Y Text file

The customized au program toxy is executed by typing toxy from the command line.   You will  be prompted for a filename, the default is datasetname_expno.  The program will first call the Bruker totxt command, and then convert the output file into a file filename.xy.txt with ppm,intensity pairs.  As the conversion part utilizes a unix based script, that command will only work on the 500 spectrometer or the workstations in B-10.  It will output the file into your Documents directory, which is a network directory that is available for download off the website.

Holger