What is a Minitab Portable Worksheet file is?

Question

I am hoping someone help me understand what a .mtp file is.  I know JMP can import .mtp files but what type of file is it exactly?

If a Minitab user wants to import a Minitab file into JMP, would they first save/export their Minitab data set/project as a .mtp file so that they could then import it into JMP?

Context:  We are trying to win business from a customer that currently does not have JMP (currently Minitab users).  They recently had 40+ employees attend custom reliability training from Professor Meeker that was 2 full days.  The employees downloaded 30-day trials of JMP and are still not sold on going with JMP due to our single-user license model.  We are doing a demo (7/7/2021) to show them the full value of JMP (all the other goodies beyond Reliability) and want to be able to speak to the Minitab compatibility topic because it is more likely than not that if they buy JMP, it would co-exist with Minitab.

Sidebar: Do you happen to have any .mtp files or know where I can get one?

briancorcoran · Answer

MTP files are indeed the "portable" or transport format for Minitab.  Think .xpt for SAS.  MTW formats, at least before this latest version of Minitab, can be opened in JMP IF Minitab is installed in the same system.  It may be that the latest Minitab install is preempting this.

The way JMP used to work is that it would use an automation interface within Minitab to have Minitab open the file invisibly and export it as something like a CSV for JMP to open.  So, by performing the operation Kevin describes you are essentially doing the same thing but in a visible way.  Not as nice.

Audrey Shull warned me some months ago that Minitab files will no longer open in JMP with the latest version.  But, this is not something where we can just say "Oh, we'll put this in right away".  Deciphering the latest format and figuring out how to best open it usually ends up being a long, tedious process.

Brian

Potcner · Answer

Minitab portable file format (.mtp) was used back in the 80’s and early 90’s to share files that were created across multiple operating systems (DOS, Unix, mainframe versions of Minitab).

Minitab doesn’t support that file format anymore and I highly doubt a recent version of Minitab would even be able to open it. Surprised someone would still have this file type around.

The Minitab file formats you'll see out there are project files (.mpj and .mpx in recent version). Project files contain everything done in a project (multiple worksheet, analyses, graphs, history, etc.) similar to our version of a project file.

JMP can't open a Minitab project file, but definitely something I think we should develop - perhaps opening into a jmp project file since it will most likely contain more than one data table.

So if a customer asks how to get all the worksheets that are in a minitab project file into JMP, they'd first need to save out all the individual worksheets (best to recommend .csv or .xls). There is a minitab worksheet file format (.mtw and .mwx in recent version). These are just individual data tables . But since you can't attached any analysis work to worksheet files, project files are really the way people work with Minitab and you'll most likely not see many of these.

BUT... I tried to open a Minitab worksheet file in JMP. Wasn't an option in Mac (file greyed out). In windows, we do have the 'minitab worksheet files (*.mtw) in the file format list, but when I selected it, it actually launched Minitab instead and opened up the file in that.

Jeff_Perkinson · Answer

@wendytseng wrote:I am hoping someone help me understand what a .mtp file is.  I know JMP can import .mtp files but what type of file is it exactly?

If a Minitab user wants to import a Minitab file into JMP, would they first save/export their Minitab data set/project as a .mtp file so that they could then import it into JMP?

Context:  We are trying to win business from a customer that currently does not have JMP (currently Minitab users).  They recently had 40+ employees attend custom reliability training from Professor Meeker that was 2 full days.  The employees downloaded 30-day trials of JMP and are still not sold on going with JMP due to our single-user license model.  We are doing a demo (7/7/2021) to show them the full value of JMP (all the other goodies beyond Reliability) and want to be able to speak to the Minitab compatibility topic because it is more likely than not that if they buy JMP, it would co-exist with Minitab.

Sidebar: Do you happen to have any .mtp files or know where I can get one?

@Potcner probably has information to share here.