Below are the details of changes made for Igor Pro® 6.2 since the last revision of Igor 6.1 (6.12A).

Guide To Igor Pro 6.2 Improvements

(See Changes Since Igor 6.20 for a detailed bug list of changes and improvements; here we list aguably "major" improvements introduced in Igor 6.2.)

Igor starts up faster.

On Windows it is much simpler to start another instance of Igor; just double-click the Igor.exe icon or choose it from the Start menu.

XLLoadWave supports .xlsx files.

The Data→Packages menu has a new XY Pair to Waveform Panel making conversion from X/Y data to Igor's waveform format much easier.

You can now customize the appearance of single points on a trace in a graph for bar, marker, dot and lines-to-zero modes.

Legend symbols can now show the conditions at a specific point on a trace by appending the point number in brackets to the trace name.

Added magnification (expand) setting to Modify Graph dialog.

Greatly improved the Gizmo (3D visualization) procedures, adding new Append Annotation, Append Image, and Zoom panels. Improved the Axis Range panel.

Added automatic checking for Updates to Igor. The automatic checks can be disabled.

Improved FTP support and new HTTP functionality.

Out of range wave index values can now be treated as errors with #pragma rtGlobals=3.

Added several speed optimizations to compiled user function code especially in regard to reading and writing a wave value such as w[2] or w[var].

Added pre-defined global symbols, #define MACINTOSH or #define WINDOWS. Added #if defined( symbolName ).

Added two new hook functions: BeforeDebuggerOpensHook and AfterCompiledHook.

On Macintosh Igor uses Intel's MKL library's implementation of LAPACK instead of Apple's Accelerate framework. This results in better threading and reliability.

Added Poly_XOffset built-in curve fit function to help fit data with X values far from the origin.

Line curve fits now output the value of the Multiple Correlation Coefficient, R ² into V_r2.

Curve fits done with /ODR=1 or /ODR=2 can now generate confidence bands and prediction bands.

Better support for multi-threaded external operations and functions (requires recompilation with XOP Toolkit 6).

Added log colors to trace f(z) color, image plots, and contour line colors:

ModifyGraph logZColor(traceInstanceName)=1
ModifyImage imageInstanceName log=1
ModifyContour contourInstanceName logLines=1

Date/time axes in graphs can now be reversed.

New built-in functions and operations:

DataFolderRefsEqual
FetchURL
FTPCreateDirectory
FTPDelete
FuncRefinfo
IndependentModuleList
ReorderImages
ThreadGroupGetDFR
UnPadString
URLDecode
URLEncode
WaveRefsEqual

Version Compatibility

Igor Pro 6.2 can read files created by all earlier versions of Igor.

If you don't use features new in Igor Pro 6.2, then experiment files that it writes are readable by earlier versions.

Once you use features added in Igor Pro 6.2 and save an experiment file, that file may cause errors if you try to read it in an earlier version of Igor. Just in case you need to go back to an earlier version of Igor, it is a good idea to make backup copies of all your Igor files now.

Features Removed From Igor Pro 6.2

The undocumented WinIsExterior function has been removed. Use GetWindow, instead.

Bug Fixes

See Changes Since Igor 6.20 for a detailed bug fix list.