The “recipe” component of an experiment in Uncountable is considered to be any inputs that define the material, sample, or product that you will be testing. Typically a recipe may include formulation composition, process parameters, and/or metadata.
Adding ingredients to a recipe
To add new ingredients to the table, select Add Ingredient. You can then either type into the dropdown menu to search for the ingredient that you want to add or select “More” for additional options.
In the following modal, there are a number of options available to select what you’d like to add to the recipe.
- To add ingredients, select + Add next the ingredient name and a list of the selected ingredients will form on the right side of the window where you can also set an ingredient lot (Article: Ingredient Lots).
- You can also search for ingredients by name or category, or filter based on an attribute such as specific gravity, cost, etc.
- If your ingredient does not show up in the ingredient list, you can create a new ingredient as well. (Article: Creating/Editing Ingredient Information)
- In addition to adding individual ingredients, you can also search for and select specific ingredient lots, existing recipes as components for your formulation, or add an input group (Article: Input Groups).
Entering formulation information
Once the ingredients have been listed in the table, you can enter values into the cells as you would in Excel. See below for other features of the system that support formulation entry.
Mix Order: If you typically record your data in specific groupings such as step 1, step 2, step 3, or Part A / B, you can select Ingredient to convert the formulation to a custom format. (Article: Experiment Types)
Copy/Paste: If your data is already stored in an excel format, you can simply copy and paste the data into the table in Uncountable (Article: Copy and Paste from Excel).
Normalize: To automatically normalize your ingredient values to 100, select normalize. You can also choose to lock specific ingredients or ingredient categories at a fixed value, and normalize all other components to 100.
Sorting: To rearrange the order of the categories or ingredients in the table, select the branch icon and drag the categories/ingredients to different locations in the list.
Adding process parameters
Similarly to adding ingredients, to include process parameters select Add Parameter. You can then either type into the dropdown menu to search for the parameter that you want to add or select “More” for additional options.
In the following modal, there are a number of options available to select what you’d like to add to the recipe.
- To add parameters, select + Add next the ingredient name and a list of the selected ingredients will form on the right side of the window.
- If your parameter does not show up in the parameter list, you can create a new parameter as well. (Article: Creating/Editing Process Parameters)
- In addition to adding individual ingredients, you can also also add an input group to pull in a predefined set of inputs into your recipe (Article: Inputs Groups).