Match! Update Page

Latest Update

The current version is 1.9c. If you are still using an earlier version (which can be checked by selecting "About Match!" from the "Help" menu), we strongly recommend to update to the current version. This can easily be achieved either by selecting the "Online update" command from the "Help" menu, or by performing the following steps:

1. If Match! is running, please save any open documents and close the program.
2. Download the compressed update file by clicking on the link below.
3. Make sure that you have administrator privileges on multi-user systems, then double-click on the file you have just downloaded. The update will be installed automatically.
4. Restart Match!.
5. Match! will display a message that is has been udpated successfully. You can also check whether the update was successful by selecting "About Match!" from the "Help" menu. The Match! version displayed in the first line should be "1.9c".

Download Match!_update_19c.exe   (Apr 23, 2009 - 16.6 MB)

Note that the update (or online update) does not install any reference database! If you would like to install one of the free-of-charge reference pattern databases, you have to download and install them separately after you have installed the update to the new Match! version!

Enhancements in version 1.9c

• Import of Ital Structures raw data files (*.esg)
• Modified default settings for automatic raw data processing: K-alpha2 stripping, background subtraction and raw data smoothing are by default no longer carried out automatically if conventional peak searching is used
• Several severe bugs have been fixed
  • When importing 2-column peak data, the file format sometimes was interpreted as 2-column profile data. On the other hand, 2-column profile data sometimes were not recognized as such at all (resulting in error message "unknown file format")
  • Sometimes even large peaks were not detected in peak searching run
• Several minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.9b

• Import of Sietronics XRD scan data (*.cpi)
• Several severe bugs have been fixed
  • Command "Pattern/Radiation..." did not work properly if diffraction data were imported as I(2theta) values
  • Resizing of data sheet
• Several minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.9a

• Import of the most recent PDF release 2008 databases is now possible
• Import of "*.pro"-files (2theta-start, 2theta-step, intensities)
• New search-match option "Automatic adjustment of peak correlation window" uses peak correlation window based on FWHM (active by default)
• New search-match option "Minimum number of correlated peaks"
• Default maximum number of entries resulting from search-match has been reduced from 3000 to 200, in order to allow faster loading/displaying of answer set
• Several severe bugs have been fixed
  • Export of pattern graphics as (vector graphics) Windows enhanced metafiles (*.emf) did not work properly (export of wmf-files is no longer supported)
  • Bug in the Match! document writing code
  • Bug leading to strange results when deleting entries from the Results list
  • Bug in dialog "Experimental Details for Diffraction Data": The last but one entry in the combobox "Radiation wavelength" was "0.000000 A"
  • Little/no entries resulting if strong deviations in 2theta are present
  • Bug in "3 strongest peaks" checking code
  • Bug occuring when currently selected PDF database has become invalid
• Several minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.9

• Once you have selected one or more entries as "matching", these entries are now kept in the Results list throughout the phase identification session, even if you run a new search-match or restrainting operation.
• Restrainting: A simplified version of the "Usage of Resulting Entries" dialog covers the most common selections for combining entries resulting from restrainting with the previous results. The previous full version of the dialog is of course still available as so-called "advanced" layout.
• If an entry is loaded manually into the Results list by giving its entry number, the entry is now marked automatically after it has been loaded, so that its diffraction pattern is displayed right away.
• Automatic selection of "restrict calculation to experimental range" option
• A "Quickstart" is now available, which quickly introduces you to the basic usage of the software.
• New "Pattern" option: Toggle display of peaks
• New "Pattern" option: Restrict pattern view to range of experimental pattern
• New "Automatic" option: "Mark first resulting entry after search-match"
• You can now jump back to the beginning of the Results list by pressing the "Home" button on your keyboard.
• New keyboard shortcuts and for "select entry"
• Tooltips (hints) that are normally displayed close to the mouse cursor if it is placed e.g. on some toolbar button are now also displayed in the status bar at the bottom. The text in the status bar stays there until you move the mouse, so you have more time to read long hints.
• Several severe bugs have been fixed
  • Import filter for Scintag raw files
  • Calculation/optimization of the intensity scale factors
  • FoM-calculation for reference patterns with few (< 4) peaks within the 2theta range of the experimental pattern
  • Bug in peak searching code that affected the peak detection when two successive raw data points had the same intensity/counts
  • Bug in the code for reading Match! document files (resulting in a program crash in some cases when a mtd-file was read)
  • The status of the pattern graphics options was not read correctly from the Match! document. This bug also affected the Undo/Redo function.
  • Colors which have been defined by the user are now stored in the Match! document.
• Several minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.8b

• If a XRDML-file contains more than a single diffraction pattern, the user can now select which pattern shall be imported.
• Several bugs have been fixed
  • When opening/importing certain ASCII raw data files that contained more than two columns, Match! imported it as a peak data file, leading to thousands of individual peaks.
  • Various problems after loading a Match! document file (*.mtd) originally created with an earlier version of Match!
  • When importing XRDML-files, the wavelength was not identified correctly.
  • Modification of the "Restrict FoM calculation to range of unknown pattern" option on the "Search-Match" page of the "Tools/Options" dialog had no effect

Enhancements in version 1.8a

• Import of PANalytical XRDML Scan raw data files
• Import of JEOL ASCII Export raw data files
• Default directory for index files can be modified
• Several bugs have been fixed
  • "Floating point error" when importing Bruker dif-files
  • CIF-Import: Error message "Error in datablock/entry starting at line X: Illegal symmetry operation given." if "_symmetry_equiv_pos_site_id" was given in addition to "_symmetry_equiv_pos_as_xyz"
  • Two-column profile data files that contain ',' characters in the data lines were not recognized/imported
  • Import of 2-column profile data: Strong deviations of the d-value steps result in an error message
  • If in the dialog "Create User Database" the Button "..." to the right of "Directory in which index files shall be created" was pressed a second time ("Automatic" not checked), an error message without text was displayed.
  • If in the dialog "Create User Database" the Button "..." to the right of "Directory in which index files shall be created" was pressed and a directory selected, the backslash character at the end of the path was missing.
  • When the command "Search/Clear Answer set" was executed, the peaks were still present in the diffraction pattern, however, the peak list was empty.

Enhancements in version 1.8

• ICSD/Retrieve can be used as reference database (if you have a valid licence for it)
• Automatic recognition of diffraction data file format
• Diffraction data file name can be used as "command line parameter" when starting Match! (diffraction pattern will be imported automatically, with optional further automatic processing)
• Neutron diffraction can be selected as radiation for diffraction pattern calculation, so reference databases for neutron diffraction can be created e.g. from ICSD or cif-files
• Faster search-match by checking of strongest peaks' presence before running full match (only works for reference databases created with Match! version 1.8 (or later)!)
• Minor improvements
  • "DEL" key may now be used to delete marked entries or peaks
  • If one or more peaks are marked in the diffraction pattern, the peak list is scrolled automatically so that the marked peaks are visible.
• Several bugs have been fixed
  • No message/response during copying of original IUCr/COD/AMCSD and/or Match! user database files during creation of new reference database
  • After reference database creation, a message "The new reference database has been selected automatically for being used." was displayed, although it was in fact NOT selected (due to a prior user selection of a reference database).
  • If a new reference database has been selected automatically, any entries that were present in the Results list before were not deleted.
  • The command "Fit profile" (and related commands) were disabled in many cases when loading a previously saved document, even if the document contained raw/profile data.
  • Profile fitting did not work properly for high-resolution diffraction patterns.

Enhancements in version 1.7b

• A bug preventing the creation of a user reference database without using a PDF database at the same time has been corrected.

Enhancements in version 1.7a

• The following severe bugs have been resolved:
  • If a user database was present when the update to version 1.7 was initiated, the program crashed when the new version 1.7 was run.
  • The update program did not give an error message if it was executed directly in the Match! program directory, resulting in the removal of several files required for the program execution.
  • On Windows 98 and ME systems, the raw data profile was not displayed in the diffraction pattern if it contained more than appr. 16,000 data points.
• Minor improvements in selection of "old format" PDF-2 database file

Enhancements in version 1.7

• Free-of-charge reference pattern data calculated from crystal structure collections available on the internet can now be used for phase identification
• The handling of reference databases (incl. user databases) has been significantly improved ("Reference Database Library"). It is now possible to easily switch between different reference databases without the necessity to perform a new database indexation (new menu command "Tools/Reference Database..." replaces "Tools/Update PDF" etc.))
• Usage of individual reference databases on multi-user systems has been simplified
• CIF-import has been significantly improved (e.g. faster calculation of powder pattern)
• Entry data can be exported to CIF files
• Atomic coordinates available e.g. in the ICDD PDF-4+ are now displayed in the data sheets and are included in the CIF exports (e.g. for Rietveld analysis)
• Demoversion signature has been modified (so that even customers whose demoversion has expired earlier can test the new version)
• Several bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.6d

• Bug fix: On some PCs, a bug causing error messages like "Bronze is not an integer value" stopped the indexation of the PDF-4+ or PDF-2 reference database.

Enhancements in version 1.6c

• Modifications required for importing the upcoming ICDD PDF 2008 Release databases have been implemented
• A bug preventing the usage of the demonstration version (which has been previously installed by an administrator user) by a standard user has been fixed
• Several minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.6b

• A bug in the PDF database conversion code affecting the remarks/comments has been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.6a

• New import filter for Shimadzu raw data files (V3.0)
• Bruker peak data (DIF) import filter has been extended to DIF1.0 files
• Several bugs have been fixed:
  • Bug causing error message when the Data sheet or the Report shall be displayed
  • Bug causing Match! printing an empty "Report" when it is called from the "Finished" dialog
  • Some minor bugs have also been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.6

• New menu/command "File/Print..." (along with corresponding toolbar button and keyboard shortcut ) for printing Report, Data sheet, Results list, Peak list and pattern graphics
• New menu/commands "File/Export/..." for exporting the Results list and the Peak list to a tabular ASCII (*.csv) file which can be read by most spreadsheet or word processing programs
• The FoM (figure-of-merit) calculation now checks if three strongest peaks could have been correlated as minimum criterion
• The keyboard shortcut for peak searching has been modified from Ctrl+P to Ctrl+K
• Two severe bugs have been fixed:
  • Bug in demoversion which prohibited execution on Windows Vista system
  • Bug in Bruker peak data (*.dif) import filter

Enhancements in version 1.5c

• Entry coloring has been changed: The entry color stays the same while scrolling down the answer set; a unique colour is assigned only when an entry is selected.
• Space groups containing 'e' glide planes (e.g. Cmce) are now recognized in the calculation of diffraction patterns from imported crystal structure data (user database)
• Scintag import filter for .raw files has been completely rewritten due to probems with the old version
• Scintag import filter for .rd files has been modified to account for problems in reading the wave length
• New command "Search/Clear Answer set" for completely erasing the Results List
• Display of reference pattern graphics and peak lists has been limited to a maximum of 10 patterns/entries
• Optimization of peak search (or profile fitting) sensitivity is now activated in the default (factory) settings
• Several bugs have been fixed:
  • Bug causing peaks outside the exp. peak range being colored "blue" (i.e. as "outside experimental range") although it is inside the range of exp. raw data
  • If the "2theta accuracy" slider was decreased, less peaks became associated and vice versa. The opposite direction was correct, of course.
  • Bug causing "Access violation" when peaks have been defined/added manually using the mouse.
  • FoM values were not updated when function "Restore factory settings" was executed.
  • Some minor bugs have been fixed.

Enhancements in version 1.5b

• A bug in color setting of experimental diffraction pattern has been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.5a

• Some bugs in Bruker RAW4 import filter have been resolved

Enhancements in version 1.5

• Import of new Bruker RAW4 diffraction data files
• Stripping of alpha2 contribution is now also available for Mo radiation
• Color of calculated profile data (green up to now) can now be modified
• Import of CIF files into user database has been improved:
  • Characters '~', '(', ')' and '_' in Hermann-Mauguin symbols are accepted (skipped)
  • Atomic coordinates given as fractions (e.g. "1/2" or "3/4") are now accepted (automatic conversion to the corresponding floating point values)
  • More than a single CIF-file at a time can be selected for import
• Some minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.4d

• New import filter for Rigaku raw data (*.raw) files
• Bug in ICDD-PDF-RDB access code which may have caused problems after PDF database update has been resolved
• Bug in user database manager has been resolved: duplicate entry numbers were used after deleting and successive import of entries

Enhancements in version 1.4c

• Three bugs have been fixed which affected the following functions:
  • Bruker raw data import filter
  • User database manager (calculation of diffraction pattern)
  • Update of Report after diffraction pattern graphics has changed, e.g. due to zoom or resizing

Enhancements in version 1.4b

• Bug leading to error when opening Match! document file (*.mtd) has been fixed
• Bug "invalid floating point operation" sometimes occuring (e.g. when importing diffraction data) has been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.4a

• Support for two more diffraction data file formats:
  • Old Siemens RAW (autom. detected; select "Bruker/Siemens raw data (*.raw)")
  • Inel raw data (*.dat)
• Internal changes due to upcoming changes in ICDD PDF database table structure
• Some minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.4

• Square-root scaling of intensity axis (in addition to linear and log. scaling)
• Entry colors can be modified by user (double-click on color cell in Results List)
• Entry colors are now retained after an entry has been marked for the first time
• Legend options: filename and/or sample ID can be displayed in diffraction pattern
• Export of reference pattern data in Stoe pks file format (in addition to *.dif format)
• Design of "Usage of Entries resulting from Restraints" dialog modified for clarity
• Phrase "questbox" (Restraints dialog) has been replaced by "list selection box"
• New icon for button "list selection box" (formerly "questbox")
• File format has been slightly modified (required for entry color storing)
• Bug in FoM-calculation (leading to reduced values) has been fixed
• Some minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.3c

• Import of Jade/MDI/SCINTAG raw data files (*.mdi)
• Some minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.3b

• Import of SCINTAG raw data files (*.raw, *.rd)
• Export peak list file of selected reference pattern from PDF or user database
• Sample name (if present) is displayed in diffraction pattern in addition to file name
• Some minor bugs have been fixed

Enhancements in version 1.3a

This version is basically a maintenance release in which some bugs have been fixed:

• Four severe bugs (typing errors) in the parameter table for the atomic form factor calculation (which are used to calculate diffraction patterns from given crystal structure data in the user database manager) have been resolved.
  The following elements were affected: H, Sc3+, Ru4+, Bi5+
• Some minor bugs have been fixed.

Enhancements in version 1.3

The main enhancement is an option to fit parameters of all (or selected) peaks (2theta, I, FWHM) to the experimental profile data. This increases the accuracy of peak data compared to the normal peak searching function (which is nevertheless still present).

Here is a list of all major changes in version 1.3:

• Profile fitting
  • submenu "Pattern/Profile Fitting"
  • F5: Fit current/marked peaks to profile data
  • F6: Toggle fitting of 2theta values
  • F7: Toggle fitting of intensities
  • F8: Toggle fitting of FWHM values
• Configurable automatic raw data processing: This new dialog can be opened by Ctrl+Alt+A or from the submenu "Pattern/Autom. raw data proc."
• Peak searching: new function "optimize peak search sensitivity" (menu "Pattern/Peak searching)
• • F2: Increase peak searching sensitivity
  • F3: Reduce peak seaching sensitivity
  • F4: Optimize peak searching sensitivity
• New command "Peaks/Scale peak intensities" (replaces previous automatic scaling after closing the "Add peak" dialog)
• New command "Delete All Peaks" (Shift+Del)
• File format has changed; if are using an earlier version of Match! and encounter difficulties in opening document files created with the new version, please update your earlier version to the current version first.
• Range of the "single/multiple phase(s)" parameter has been extended to 0-1 (0=multiple, 1=single).
• Match! will now display "What's new" after it has been updated successfully. This list of enhancements in the current version can also be viewed later on by selecting the "What's new" command from the "Help" menu.
• Current version is now displayed in the splash screen at program start.
• Various bugs have been fixed.