Lottery Software Support -- Lottery Director

Tip 21: How to Import a Lotto Wheel

This Tip shows you how to import a Lotto Wheel file into Lottery Director.

This Tip assumes you are familiar with using Windows folders. If you are not familiar with using Windows folders, see your Windows Help or guidebook.

Why Would I Want to Import a Lotto Wheel?

You might have a favorite wheel that you made, or you might have one that you downloaded from a Web site that has free wheels. If your wheel file is compatible, you can import it into Lottery Director.

When you import your wheel into Lottery Director, you will be able to wheel your numbers directly from your Lottery Director game tracking. Your wheel will be listed in Lottery Director's Wheels Directory, and you can select it at any time for your games.

You will also be able to use Lottery Director's wheeling filters -- to control your wheeled combinations and reduce your wheeling cost.

Here is what you will find on this page:

What is a Compatible Wheel?

The Steps.

Helpful Information.

What is a Compatible Wheel?

A wheel file is compatible for importing into Lottery Director if it meets all of these criteria:

Text: The file must be in plain 'text' only.

Contents: The file must contain combinations only -- one combination per line -- no other text in the file.

Size: Maximum of 5,000 combinations per file -- if a file is larger than this, split it into separate files.

Format: Lottery Director reads any of these 'numeric' or 'alphabetic' wheel file formats:

1 2 3 4 5 6
1,2,3,4,5,6
1-2-3-4-5-6
01 02 03 04 05 06
01-02-03-04-05-06
ABCDEF

Examples: You can find examples of compatible files on the Featured Wheels page at this Web site.

The Steps:

To do these steps, you should be familiar with using Windows folders.

If you are not familiar with using Windows folders, see your Windows Help or guidebook.

Put the Wheel File into the C:\Ldir\Wheels Folder.

All wheels must reside in this folder. The folder is: C:\Ldir\Wheels.

Prepare the Wheel File.

The importing will not work unless your wheel file is compatible.

Look at your wheel file. Use your Lottery Director Files Editor or any standard text editor.

Remove all "non-combination" text from the wheel file.

Remove all descriptive text, headers, line counts, blank lines, etc.

The wheel must contain only the combinations -- one combination per line.

Name the Wheel File Properly.

Lottery Director requires the wheel file to have a certain kind of file name.

The import process will not work unless you give the wheel file a standard Lottery Director Wheel name. Examples of how wheels are named are shown below on this page.

Fast example (Pick-6): A typical Pick-6 wheel name is: LDW60501.TXT.

Fast example (Pick-5): A typical Pick-5 wheel name is: LDW50501.TXT.

Import the Wheel.

Now you are ready to import the wheel.

Use your Lottery Director Professional Wheeling's Import a Lotto Wheel selection.

Start Lottery Director, and select Professional Wheeling. Then select Import a Lotto Wheel.

Follow the instructions on your screen.

The software will ask you to enter the wheel name. Example: LDW60501 or LDW50501.

Then it will ask you to assign "Wheel Parameters" -- for example:

... Abbreviated
... Match 5
... Win 4
... 100%.

If you are not sure about the wheel's description, call it a Custom wheel. Describe it as Match 1 and Win 1.

Done.

When you do the above steps, the wheel will now be in your Lotto Wheels Directory, ready to use. You can start your Lottery Director Lotto software, select your game, and wheel your numbers.

Helpful Information:

1. Where to Put the Wheel File

Your Wheels Folder: The folder for storing all Lottery Director wheel files is: C:\Ldir\Wheels.

All wheel files go into this folder.

Only wheel files go into this folder. If you have other kinds of files (not wheel files), do not put them in this folder.

Here are some suggestions:

First, find your C:\Ldir folder. It will look similar to this: .

Next, click on the C:\Ldir folder to open it. This will show the folders it contains.

Your C:\Ldir folder contains a folder called C:\Ldir\Wheels. Find this folder, and click on it to open it.

Here examples of how the folders look:

Make sure you are selecting your C:\Ldir\Wheels folder as the destination for your wheel file.

2. Preparing Your Wheel File for Importing

You must prepare your wheel file for importing into Lottery Director.

Have a 'Clean' Wheel File.

Use your Lottery Director Files Editor or any standard text editor.

Strip any "non-combination" text out of the wheel. For example, remove all descriptive text, headers, line counts, blank lines, etc.

The wheel must contain only the combinations -- one combination per line.

3. Naming Your Wheel File

You must give the proper kind of file name to your wheel file.

Give it a 'Lottery Director Wheel' Name.

You need to give your wheel file a name that will be recognized by Lottery Director.

This is important, because Lottery Director uses the wheel file's name to associate your wheel with the games.

You can use your Lottery Director Professional Wheeling software, or your Lottery Director Files Editor, or your Windows Explorer to rename the wheel file.

Example: Here is how Lottery Director wheels are named:

Pick-6 Example: LDW60501.TXT

LDW    The first three characters are always the letters "LDW".

6    The next character is always a "Pick" number, showing the amount of numbers in each combination. It will range from 2 to 9. In the example above, the wheel is identified as a "Pick-6" wheel.

0501    The next four characters are always a Wheel number, between 0401 and 0800. You can give your wheel any number in this range.

In the example above, the wheel is identified as "Wheel Number 0501".

.TXT    The last four characters are always ".TXT".

That's simply: (dot)TXT   -- it identifies the wheel as a plain "Text" wheel.

Pick-5 Example: An example of a Pick-5 wheel would be: LDW50501.TXT .

Use your Professional Wheeling User's Guide (Green color) for the full details, with examples.

4. Importing Your Wheel

Before Importing:

Do You Know Your Wheel?: Before you import your wheel, do you know how it is supposed to work?

All wheels have some kind of design for covering your numbers. Did you get this information when you obtained the wheel?

When you import the wheel file, you are going to tell Lottery Director how the wheel is supposed to work. You will need to enter this information, called "Wheel Parameters", into the program.

Standard Wheels: If you are importing a standard wheel -- such as a Full, Abbreviated, Key, or Pairs wheel -- you will already know the wheel's parameters or "guarantee". It was probably described at the Web site where you found the wheel. Just enter this information into your menus in your Import a Lotto Wheel selection in Professional Wheeling.

If the wheel fits one of Lottery Director's standard wheel types, identify the wheel in your menu. Each wheel type is described in your Lottery Director Lotto User's Guide and in your Professional Wheeling User's Guide. Lottery Director supports these wheel types:
Abbreviated
Expanded
Full
Key One
Key Two
Key Three
Key Four
Compound One
Compound Two
Compound Three
Skip Four
Skip Nine
Pairs
Pool
Zone 1-3
Zone 1-6
Zone 1-9
Zone 2-3
Zone 2-6
Zone 2-9
Custom
Non-Standard Wheels: If you are importing a unique or unusual wheel design that does not seem to fit any "standard" category -- such as a partial cover, or experimental wheel -- choose the "Custom" wheel category in your Import a Lotto Wheel selection. Give the wheel some conservative parameters.

An example would be to give the wheel a low "guarantee" of 1 percent or even 0 percent. You can always re-import the wheel later, and give it a different description when you are more familiar with the wheel.

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