In a message dated 3/26/2006 3:00:41 PM Central Standard Time, dmcduke@comcast.net writes: A much easier way, is by using Dean McGee's Y-DNA Comparison Utility... http://www.mymcgee.com/tools/yutility.html . You'll still need to have your haplotype data in a spreadsheet format in order to load it into the utility but it does the conversion to the *.ych format for you. Dean McGee's Y-DNA Comparison Utility substitutes a zero for any marker value that is blank, because of lack of data. I initially converted a 23 person, 48 marker spreadsheet with a lot of blank spaces using his utility, then ran Fluxus. The program turned itself off. I then tried a simple case with one zero for a marker that was 22 for other subjects and it drew 22 mutations. So make sure all your cells have data. Also, McGee's program converts FTDNA DYS389i and DYS389ii data as it stands and doesn't convert to DYS389i and DYS389B. So Fluxus thinks there are two mutations between a 12, 29 set and a 13, 30 set instead of one. I imagine it would have problems with the DYS464 data also. Bruce Baird

Bruce, Yes, missing markers are a problem for making cladograms with the Y-Utility. The instructions indicate that the "haplotype data for all sets of results have the same number of markers". If you have a suggestion for a better way of handling missing markers, please let me know. Is there a format accepted by the Fluxus software that accounts for missing markers? The Y-Utility has been upgraded with the capability of enabling each marker. So, you can disable the markers which exist for only part of the set of results. Then the .ych file will only contain the values for enabled markers. Regarding DYS389i and DYS389ii, these are handled properly. The Y-Utility for your example would convert DYS389ii to the value of 17 and leave the values of 12 and 13 for DYS389i, so there would only be one mutation. The colors in the displayed tables also handle this marker properly, although the displayed value of DYS389ii is not changed. I would be interested in any suggestions for a better way to handle DYS464. Please let me know if the Y-Utility is not working properly in any way. -Dean McGee > -----Original Message----- > From: Bbairdsr@aol.com [mailto:Bbairdsr@aol.com] > > In a message dated 3/26/2006 3:00:41 PM Central Standard Time, > dmcduke@comcast.net writes: > A much easier way, is by using Dean McGee's Y-DNA Comparison > Utility... > http://www.mymcgee.com/tools/yutility.html . You'll still > need to have your > haplotype data in a spreadsheet format in order to load it > into the utility > but it does the conversion to the *.ych format for you. > Dean McGee's Y-DNA Comparison Utility substitutes a zero for > any marker value > that is blank, because of lack of data. I initially > converted a 23 person, > 48 marker spreadsheet with a lot of blank spaces using his > utility, then ran > Fluxus. The program turned itself off. I then tried a > simple case with one > zero for a marker that was 22 for other subjects and it drew > 22 mutations. So > make sure all your cells have data. Also, McGee's program > converts FTDNA > DYS389i and DYS389ii data as it stands and doesn't convert to > DYS389i and DYS389B. > So Fluxus thinks there are two mutations between a 12, 29 set > and a 13, 30 set > instead of one. I imagine it would have problems with the > DYS464 data also. > > Bruce Baird