SLIMS has several built in default plate readers. SLIMS default plate format is as follows

rows, cols
barcode
filename
<CSV matrix data>

here is an example of a 4x4 well plate

4	4
NINDSMALL
c:\Projects\data\NINDSSMALL.csv
1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16

The text in the file will look as follows:

4,4
NINDSSMALL
c:\Projects\data\NINDSSMALL.csv
1,2,3,4
5,6,7,8
9,10,11,12
13,14,15,16

If you can coerce your data into this format, SLIMS will be able to read it without trouble. However, many plate readers have different data formats. SLIMS provides a plate reader wizard for creating new formats. To make a plate formatter, either click on Make Plate Reader from the add experiments wizard or click on the Make Plate Reader command from the plate format inventory item.

You will see the following screen:

The first step is to select a plate size for the resulting plates. Select a 384 Wel Plate:

The next step is to load a test file from which you are going create the reader. We will select the 08132R1.csv file from the Indoprofen Analogue Plates tutorial dataset.

This plate type does not contain a barcode in the file itself, it is derived from the filename. SLIMS reads barcodes from filenames as follows:

<barcode>.csv
<barcode>_<number>.csv

The barcode is optionally followed by an underscore "_" and a number. Click on Barcode in Filename. If the barcode is read from the filename, SLIMS can only read one plate from a file. Alternatively you can click on the cell that contains the barcode and click on Set Barcode. SLIMS will highlight the well with the term "barcode" to ensure that you are reading the barcode from the correct place in the file.

The next step is to highlight the data in the file is the first plates data. Simply select the row, column or matrix that constitutes this data:

Then click on the Set Plate Data Button. You will see where SLIMS thinks the rows and columns are going to be read from:

You may wish to change the Data in rows or Data in columns option depending on how the data is laid out in the file. If you are satisfied, click on the View Plates button. This will allow you to browse the plates in the file.

Finally, if there are multiple plates in the file, simply click on the start of the next plates data (the numeric data for the first well) and click on Set Next Plate Data. SLIMS will then highlight where it is reading the next plates in the file. If some of the file doesn't contain numeric data, SLIMS will not read plates from those locations.

Once you are happy with your reader, click on Save Plate Format and give the format a descriptive name. That's it.

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