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Special Features for SCPI Commands

Many instruments today follow the SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) standard supported command set. Nimbus offers special convenience features for SCPI-based instruments. By checking the SCPI compliant check box on the I/O Page of the Driver Settings Editor, you are telling Nimbus that the instrument commands associated with functions and attributes are SCPI compliant.

When a driver project is SCPI-compliant, Nimbus automatically strips the optional characters from the SCPI command string. This allows the developer to enter the full verbose form of the SCPI command in the Function General Editor (as well as the Attribute General Editor and the Enum Member Editor) and have the full text appear in the help page for the function. However, the Nimbus-generated code that sends the command to the instrument will use the minimal form of the command.

Consider the SCPI command below:

[SENSe:]FREQuency[:VOLTage]:RANGe[:UPPer]

If this command is associated with a function or attribute via the item editor, the command that will ultimately be sent to the instrument as follows:

FREQ:RANG

Note that all of the optional characters enclosed in square brackets have been removed, as have all of the lowercase characters.

Tip Tip

It is best to always enter the full SCPI command when associating instrument commands with functions and attributes so that the full text shows up in the driver help file. Nimbus automatically adds the instrument commands to the driver help file index and builds a special page that maps instrument commands to driver functions and attributes. Most users will expect to see the full form of the SCPI command in such contexts.

See Also

Download a complete CHM version of this documentation here.