The first step in getting the names into Universe was to export the current data to a text file.

I exported the sector from Universe to a .sec file using a custom filter (called an .IEL file) so that my .sec file was how I wanted it in terms of field order and widths. The resulting .sec file contained all of the systems I had added, with the hex number as the name, the hex number itself, and no UWP or other data.

Next, I opened the file up in Excel as fixed width, and with my images of each subsector on my other monitor, just began doing data entry of the names for each system. Data entry was less tedious than the pen and paper method I had employed at first, since I was at least eliminating one step by going directly to my spreadsheet, but I still had to look up a lot of the stars to find out the names from the catalogues I preferred.

The SIMBAD lookup proved slow to use, but by accident I discovered that I could make batch requests with a script. Duh. Once I had figured that out, I just did the data entry for whatever display name was given for a system, regardless of catalogue, and then copied the data to a text file. I then wrote a script to give me the names I wanted:

format  object f1 "%IDLIST(SA( - );*|HR|HD|HIP|1)" +
"                                 %SP(S)" +
"\n"
format display f1

The list of names immediately proceeded the script and SIMBAD gave me back a decently formatted list of names with each star’s stellar classification.

* iot Eri                                 K0III
HD 12264                                 G5V
* alf Psc                                 A2

I then imported that into Excel and did some quick Excel magic to get the data into proper columns, and held onto for later.

Now it was time to generate all the UWP and Base data randomly.