Installing the XDD Program
To install the XDD program for use with Ramp or for your own use install the Ramp Pattern Recognition Program at www.Nebadawn.com.  When you select Xenith as your data source in Step 1 of the Ramp Program, Ramp will install and start running the XDD program for you.  You can do this in the Ramp Free trial mode and you do not need to be a Ramp subscriber.

What does the flashing colored box mean near the top left of the form?
This box will be white when the XDD program is off and not yet requesting data.  The box will be yellow when a request for a small data update is sent to the Xenith server.  This is a request for very few records to update or (top off) the current real time data file on your hard drive.  If for some reason your local data file needs to be replaced and a complete file of over 1000 bars needs to be created the XDD program will make the larger data request and the box will be blue, telling you that a large data request has been sent.  When the local data has been successfully updated the box will turn green.

What is the text to the right of the flashing color box?
In the example image above, I have requested real time data files for the Dow 30 stocks in 10 timeframes, one minute through weekly bars.  That is 30 stocks x 10 timeframes or 300 data sets.  To speed up the updates and lesson the burden on the Xenith server, only 4 of the 10 data sets for each symbol will be downloaded.  The other 6 timeframes can be constructed from the basic 4. The basic 4 are the 1 min, 5 min, 30 min and the daily bars.  As an example the 10 minute bars and the 15 minute bars are created from the 5 minute bar data.  The example text tells you that you are downloading data set number 55 of 120 required.  The 120 total is the Dow 30 symbols x the 4 basic timeframes.  The L1 in the example says that you are in loop 1.  As soon as all data has been updated the updates will start over again with the symbol AA and the L1 will read L2.  The last of the text tells you that the current data request is for INTC 30 min bars.

The Symbol List
In the example above the symbol list was created by the Ramp Program.  In Ramp, I simply asked for data on the Dow 30 for all 10 timeframes and selected the Xenith data source.  Ramp created the symbol list file and passed it to the XDD Program.  You can create your own symbol list file outside of Ramp.  See the bottom of this page for more details on using the XDD Program without Ramp.

Shift Timezone
If you would like to shift the data file time any number of hours back or forward to match your local time zone you can do it here.  In the example I am receiving raw data in Eastern Standard Time.  I have entered a -3 to display the data to in the Pacific time zone.

Default Exchange Code
Here you can enter a default exchange code to be appended to every symbol.  For US stocks, if you leave it blank the NYSE code (.N) will be appended to all 3 character or less symbols and the Nasdaq Exchange code (.O) will be appended to all symbols with more than 3 characters.  You can also include the exchange code in a symbol if you like. An example would be AA.N for Alcoa on the NYSE or CSCO.O for Cisco on the Nasdaq exchange.  Leave this entry blank for the Forex market.

Loop Checkbox
The XDD program will continuously update your local data files if you check the Loop Checkbox.  This is typically checked.

Auto Start Checkbox
If this is checked the XDD program will start downloading data automatically every time you start the program.  Typically you would want it checked.

Auto Exit Checkbox
This is to tell the data XDD program to end as soon as all data has been updated.  If you have this checked you would not check on Loop.

Currency Symbol Reference Button
You can use this button to look up Xenith Forex symbols.  Also note that the XDD program will accept Forex symbols such as $$CADUSD.  This example is US dollars per Canadian dollar.

Exchange Reference Button
Use this button to look up the exchange codes you will need for non US markets.

Data Folder Button
This button will open your local data folder.  For more information on the folder location for XDD see the info under Non Ramp Installations below.

Help Button
The Help button will bring up this web page.

Start Button
Use the Start Button to start collecting data if you have not checked the Auto Start checkbox.  If you check Auto Start you will not need the Start Button.

Stop Button
The Stop button will stop the program from collecting data.  It will not end the program.  After clicking on Stop you can restart again with the Start button.

Exit Button
The Exit button will save your settings and end the program.


Notes for Non Ramp Installations:

Dot Net Framework 4.0
The XDD program requires that the Dot Net Framework 4.0 be installed on your computer.  Newer computers come with it installed.  If you are running an older machine you may need to Google "Install Dot Net 4.0" to get the download.  Just be sure that it comes directly from Microsoft.

Install the XDD Program
The easiest way to install the XDD Program is to go to www.nebadawn.com and install the Ramp Program.  When you select Xenith as your data source, Ramp will download the required files for you.  After you have done this, you can uninstall Ramp if you like.

Where can I find the XDD program files after the download?
Look for the XDD.exe file in you Ramp application folder or simply search your hard drive for "XDD.exe".  The location is usually C:\users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Ramp8\.  In Ramp, you can go to Help in the main menu bar and select "Local Application Folder" to bring it up in Windows Explorer.

What files do I need?
Each file you will need can be found in the above folder and is described below.  There are 11 total. You can save all of these files as a group anyplace you like.  Just keep them all in the same folder.

XDD.exe  This is the XDD program itself.

XDD-Settings.txt  This is a simple text file to save your XDD settings so that they are sticky.  The XDD program will create this file to save your settings when you click on Exit.  XDD will create this file.  You do not need to find it.

RTSymbols.txt  This is the list of symbol/timeframes  that the XDD program will collect data for.  Note the required symbol format in the example below.  You can create this file or have Ramp create it for you.  This example requests all 10 available timeframes for 2 symbols.

AA_1 MIN
AA_5 MIN
AA_10 MIN
AA_15 MIN
AA_30 MIN
AA_60 MIN
AA_120 MIN
AA_240 MIN
AA_1 DAY
AA_1 WEEK
AXP_1 MIN
AXP_5 MIN
AXP_10 MIN
AXP_15 MIN
AXP_30 MIN
AXP_60 MIN
AXP_120 MIN
AXP_240 MIN
AXP_1 DAY
AXP_1 WEEK

The files below are from MetaStock Xenith and must be in the folder with the XDD.exe program.  You will find them with XDD.exe in the Ramp8 folder.

log4net.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.Common.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.log4net.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.XenithServices.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.XenithServices.Pixl51.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.XenithServices.Pixl52.dll
MetaStock.DataAPI.xml

There are a total of 11 files.  If you have a MetaStock Xenith subscription and have these 11 files in an application folder you can run the data collector.  The data will be placed in a subfolder named \Xenith-Data\.

XDD.exe arguments
When you programmatically run the XDD.exe program you can use an argument to pass the folder path to where you want the XDD application folder to be. An example might be "XDD.exe C:\users\your use name\MyXDD\".  When your program runs XDD it uses this argument to tell XDD exactly where to find the files detailed above and where to store the new data.