WaveWin Alternative: Web Based COMTRADE Fault Record Analysis

Most engineers who go looking for a WaveWin alternative are not looking for a better file manager. WaveWin is good at being a file manager. They are looking because a record came out of it and something downstream did not add up, or because the person who needs to see the record does not have WaveWin installed.

This page sets out what WaveWin does according to its own manual, the two export defaults that quietly change what a record contains, where Detego covers the same ground, and the cases where you should keep using WaveWin. Every WaveWin statement here comes from the Softstuf WaveWin manual. Softstuf ships updates to it, so read each claim as a statement about what the manual documents rather than a claim about what the current build does or does not do.

The short version

WaveWin is a Windows application built around bulk file handling: browse a directory of records, convert proprietary vendor formats to COMTRADE, merge records, and script all of that from the command line. Detego is a browser workspace that reads COMTRADE, covers the analysis views, and reads the record and writes the finding rather than only drawing it. If your job is processing a station archive on a Windows machine, WaveWin is doing something Detego does not do. If your job is understanding one fault and telling other people what happened, Detego is worth a look.

Two export settings that change what your record contains

These are not defects. They are documented behaviours and documented defaults, and they are worth knowing because neither one raises an error when it bites.

Save As COMTRADE writes the visible channels

The manual states that saving to COMTRADE saves the visible analog and digital channels. Channels you did not mark, or that the active template is hiding, do not reach the file. The output is a perfectly valid COMTRADE record, just a smaller one than the source, and nothing in the file records that anything was left out.

This matters most when the record is going somewhere else. A neutral current channel or a breaker status that was hidden while you were looking at the phase currents is simply absent for the next person, and the first sign of trouble is a colleague asking why the residual does not reconcile.

RMS to peak conversion is a setting, not a default

The Properties dialog has a Comtrade tab carrying a Convert RMS Calibrated Data to Peak Data option. If the source record carries RMS calibrated samples and that option is left off, the exported file contains RMS magnitudes in channels that declare instantaneous values.

This is the sharper of the two, because the result does not look broken. It looks like a plausible fault with magnitudes low by a factor of about 1.41, and it stays plausible through every tool that opens it afterwards. It survives into phasor plots, into impedance calculations, and into whatever conclusion gets written from them. The check is quick: compare one phase current against the relay's own fault report before trusting an exported record you did not create yourself.

Merging records: what the manual says gets dropped

Merging a line end against a bus record, or a local record against a remote one, is routine work, and WaveWin does it two ways. Both discard data by design.

• In the application. The manual states that the data bar with the least number of samples at the beginning determines the number of samples truncated from the beginning of all other open files, and that the open file with the least number of samples determines the length of the merged file. The shortest record sets the window and everything outside it is gone from the merged output.
• From the command line. The merge command forces files of differing sampling frequencies to the highest frequency present, and always writes ASCII 1999 output. Errors are written to a log file that you have to go and open, which is easy to miss in a batch run.

There is also a Restore Original Data command, and the manual is explicit that duplicate cycle, change frequency and truncate cycle edits will be lost when you use it. That is the right behaviour for an undo, and it is worth knowing before you rely on an edited record.

Detego aligns multiple records on their timestamps and keeps the union of the time span rather than the intersection, so a shorter record does not truncate a longer one. Records at different sample rates are handled without forcing everything up to the highest rate.

Capability by capability

What WaveWin does that Detego does not

This section matters more than the one above it. If it is wrong, nothing else on this page deserves to be believed.

• It converts formats Detego cannot open. The manual documents conversion of proprietary vendor records through vendor supplied libraries, ERLPhase Tesla records among them. Detego reads COMTRADE only. If your records do not arrive as COMTRADE, you need something that makes them COMTRADE, and this is that thing.
• It automates. Conversion and merge run from the command line with switches for the output format and the naming convention, so a station archive can be processed as a scripted job. There is no Detego equivalent.
• It watches folders. Auto conversion monitors a source path, writes COMTRADE to a destination path and archives the original. That is a background pipeline, which is a different product category from an analysis workspace.
• It is a real file manager. Browsing, marking and operating on hundreds of records in a directory is what it is built for, and it is mature software that is still being maintained.

What Detego adds

Once a record is open, WaveWin shows you the waveform. Detego covers the waveform and the derived views, and then Detego AI reads the record itself and writes the finding: what type of fault, on which phases, when it started and when it cleared, whether the current transformers saturated, whether the directional decision was consistent with the impedance, and what in the record supports each statement.

It is not a chat window bolted onto a chart. The analysis calls the same calculation modules that draw the tabs, so the numbers it reasons over are the numbers on screen, and it can consult the manufacturer manual for the relay that made the record when a setting or an element name needs checking. The output is a report you edit and send, and the record can be shared as a live link rather than a screenshot.

For what that method looks like done by hand, see how to read a fault record.

Who should switch, and who should not

Consider Detego if: your records already arrive as COMTRADE; the people who need to see a record do not all have WaveWin installed, which covers contractors, commissioning engineers on site and colleagues at other companies; you work from a machine you do not control, or from more than one; you want the analysis written up rather than only displayed; or you are merging records of unequal length and cannot afford the truncation.

Stay with WaveWin if: your records arrive in proprietary vendor formats that need converting first; your work is scripted or scheduled batch processing; you rely on watched folder conversion and archiving; or you are managing a directory of hundreds of records rather than analysing one. A tool that fits the job is not a problem in search of a replacement.

Running both is the realistic outcome for a lot of teams: WaveWin as the converter and archive handler, Detego as the place the record gets analysed and shared.

Moving a record across

There is no migration project, because there is nothing to migrate. Fault records are files, not a database.

1. If the record is already COMTRADE, a CFG and DAT pair or a single CFF file, skip to step four.
2. If it is a proprietary vendor format, convert it in WaveWin. The manual documents COMTRADE output in the 1991, 1999 and 2013 revisions, and any of the three is readable.
3. Before exporting, make every channel you want visible, and check the Convert RMS Calibrated Data to Peak Data setting on the Comtrade tab if the source is RMS calibrated. Those are the two settings described above. Note that Save As expects a path and filename with no extension, because the extension is assigned for you.
4. Open the viewer in a browser and drop the files in. Channels, sample rate and timestamps are read from the CFG. Nothing is configured first.

The online COMTRADE viewer is the same workspace if you want to try it on one record before deciding anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is WaveWin?

A Windows fault record file manager and viewer from Softstuf, built around browsing directories of records, converting proprietary formats to COMTRADE, merging records, and scripting that work from the command line.

Why does a WaveWin COMTRADE export sometimes have channels missing?

Because the export writes the visible channels. Anything unmarked or hidden by the active template does not reach the file, and the result is a valid COMTRADE record with no indication that anything was omitted.

Why do my exported magnitudes look low by about 1.41?

RMS to peak conversion is an opt in setting on the Comtrade tab of the Properties dialog. With it off and an RMS calibrated source, RMS magnitudes are written into channels that declare instantaneous values. Compare one phase against the relay fault report to catch it.

Does Detego replace WaveWin?

For analysing and sharing COMTRADE records it covers that ground and adds the written analysis. For proprietary format conversion, command line batch work and watched folder automation it does not, and a team that depends on those should keep WaveWin.

What about SEL, ABB, GE and Siemens records?

Any relay that writes COMTRADE opens the same way. On the SEL side, which record you pull off the relay changes what you can conclude from it, and that is covered in the SEL event report format. For the Siemens toolchain specifically, see the SIGRA alternative page. For a wider survey of the tools in this space, see COMTRADE viewers compared.