1.12 Apps in Origin

GSB-apps

Besides the tools and capabilities pre-shipped and included in Origin, you are able to install the free Apps to extend graphing and analysis functionality of Origin.
In this lesson, we will show you how to search an App, install and use it to plot a tangent curve at specified point of a line+Scatter plot.

1. Continue with the project file saved from the previous lesson. Create a new folder in Project Explorer and rename it as Apps. Open the empty folder.
2. Select the F10 key to open the App Center dialog.
   Note: You can as well open the App Center dialog by selecting Add Apps in the Apps Gallery Window.
   
3. Select the Search tab and input Tangent into the search engine and select the Search icon in order to search for the app. Click the download and install icon. Once the App is installed, the download and install icon will change to a green check-mark (Up-to-date Version icon).
   
   

   Besides installing apps from App Gallery, you can also go to the OriginLab File Exchange to download the app you desired, drag and drop the opx file into Origin workspace to install it. You can see the details here.

4. Close App Center. An icon named Tangent will appear in the Apps Gallery window docked to the right end of the workspace.
   
5. Here, we are allowed to add new tabs in App Gallery to manage the installed apps. Right-click in an empty portion of the Gallery and choose New Tab, then double-click on the default tab name and enter "Graphing" as the tab name.
   
6. Go back to the tab All, right-click on the icon of Tangent app we just installed, select Tab Views: Graphing. This app will show in the Graphing tab.
   
   
7. Now import the file <Origin EXE Path>\Samples\Curve Fitting\Exponential Decay.dat into a new workbook.
8. Highlight col(A) and col(B) to select Plot > Basic 2D : Line + Symbol from the main menu to plot a scatter plot.
9. Click the Tangent button in the Apps Gallery to open the Tangent: addtool_tangent dialog.

App operations may be window-specific, If the App is dimmed (grayed out), the active window cannot be operated on by the App. Check the required window type (hover on the dimmed App icon in the Apps Gallery). If the Origin window type (worksheet, graph, etc.) is matched to the App, you can launch the App by clicking on it in the Apps Gallery.

10. Keep the default setting and click OK. A red vertical line and a blue tangent line are added to the plot. The value of slope is shown at the top. The tangent point is intersected point of the two lines.
    
11. You can move the red anchor to a position, click the triangle button at the top right corner of the layer to select New Output(O) to output the results. You can also select Preferences... from this context menu to open the Tangent Preferences dialog to do more settings such modifying the Smooth method.

    You can always access to the document of an App by right-clicking App icon and selecting: Open App Webpage to open this App's OriginLab File Exchange web page for the detailed document. Open App Tutorial Webpage to read or request a tutorial of how to use this App.