Symptom
Most customers set up automatic reporting to print a report as they complete a set of parts. The number of parts in a set can vary from customer to customer, so let's take the example of 10. An automatic report (Statistics Summary, for example) is set to trigger every 10 parts received and report on the last 10 parts worth of data. This runs just fine until you have a set that is less than 10 parts. In this case, our incomplete set has only 7 parts instead of 10.
If we start measuring the next set, then the automatic report will launch after the 3rd part is measured and will include the previous set's 7 parts along with the new set's first 3 parts. This will offset the sets and mix the parts which is probably not what you want.
Resolution
To solve this issue, use the Report > Print Automatic Report Now menu in QC-CALC Real-Time when you have an incomplete set. In this case, once you realize you will only measure 7 parts rather than 10, choose this menu after the 7th part.
The automatic report will print and the counter for automatic reporting will be reset to 0. Your report will print on only the last 7 records even though you chose to run it on the last 10 records above.
This will allow you to preserve the integrity of your sets and keep the automatic reporting counter synchronized even though some of the sets may be incomplete.
More Information
If you have not collected any data since the last automatic report was run, you will receive a message at the bottom of the screen indicating "There is no data to report." Furthermore, if you run an automatic report every 1 part, this menu will not be available since there are no partial sets when printing after every part is received.
There is often a misconception that the Print Automatic Report Now menu can be used to test the setup of an automatic report. Prolink recommends running a manual report with the same settings if you want to test the automatic reporting. The automatic and manual reports run identically, except that automatic reports are scheduled.