Mass Frontier supports various data file formats for importing GC-MS and LC-MS files:

• Xcalibur® RAW files (MS and MSn)

• Finnigan LCQ™, GCQ™, ITS40 and Magnum

• Varian Saturn

• HP ChemStation

• JACAMP (DOS, Windows and UNIX)

These files can be imported to Chromatogram Processor but cannot be exported. Single scans can be saved in JACAMP or MSP format.

Mass Frontier supports centroid type data for mass spectra. Centroid mass spectra are displayed as a bar graph. Profile type data is not supported.

Due to various netCDF standard implementation some *.cdf files may not be readable in Mass Frontier.

Spectral Tree™ is a trademark of HighChem, Ltd., Slovak Republic

Xcalibur® is a registered trademark of Thermo Electron.

Finnigan LCQ™, GCQ™ are trademarks of Thermo Electron.

To load a GC-MS or LC-MS file to a Chromatogram Processor window:

1. Press the Chromatogram Processor button on the speed bar or choose the File | Open | GC/LC/MS menu item.

2. After an Open GC/LC/MS File window appears, select the appropriate file type and the extension in the Files of type combo box.

3. Choose the file you want to open and click the Open button.

Mass Frontier allows you to open chromatograms with up to 30 000 scans. If you open a file that contains more than 30 000 scans the chromatogram will be displayed up to the retention time corresponding to scan No. 30 000. The rest will be ignored and will not be displayed. The program does not allow the opening of GC/LC/MS files from CD-ROM. If you have files on a CD-ROM, you need to copy these files to the hard drive in order to make them accessible for importing. In addition the file attribute “Read Only” must be disabled.

To change the file attribute:

• Select all the files whose attributes you wish to change In Windows Explorer

• Click the selected files with the RIGHT mouse button and a pop-up menu will appear

• Select Properties in the pop-up menu

• Check out the Read Only attribute check box that is located at the bottom of the Properties dialog window

Mass Frontier comes with a GC/MS and an Xcalibur® MS demonstration files, which are located in the ../HighChem/Mass Frontier 50/Chromatograms directory.

Xcalibur® is a registered trademark of Thermo Electron.

Total Ion Current (TIC) chromatograms are displayed in the TIC tab in the Chromatogram Processor. Both the retention time and the intensity axis can be zoomed, by holding down the left mouse button and dragging a rectangle around the region you want to rescale. To unzoom the TIC, press the Zoom Out button in the top right corner.

To select a scan from the TIC, click anywhere in the chromatogram pane and the scan corresponding to the selected retention time will be displayed in the Scan tab. The active scan is indicated by a vertical line, which is purple by default. To move the scan point to the next or previous scan, click one of the two arrow buttons, depending on the direction you want to move the scan point. Retention times (tR) scan numbers and scan filters of active scans are displayed in the status bar.