 | Adding a Type Library Reference |
A Nimbus driver can use data types defined in other type libraries installed on the Nimbus development machine. One common case in which this is needed is referencing the type library that houses the definitions of VISA-COM interfaces. Exposing the VISA interfaces directly from a Nimbus driver can be useful because it allows the end user to communicate directly with the underlying VISA I/O layer -- completely bypassing the driver logic.
For any data type defined in an external type library to be used in a Nimbus driver, a reference to the type library must be explicitly added to the Nimbus project. This allows Nimbus to add the appropriate importlib statement to the generated IDL source code for the driver.
 Important |
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Adding a type library reference will not update the driver installer to deploy the type library with the driver. The end user system must have the type library installed in order to use the driver. |
To add a reference to a type library
From Solution Explorer, double-click the Driver Designer node under the Nimbus node.
The Driver Designer opens as a tabbed document window. Select the IVI-COM tab.
From the tree view expand the type library node for the instrument-specific hierarchy. This node is named "<driverName>Lib".
Right-click on the type library node and choose Add Type Library....
The Add Type Library Reference Dialog appears and begins to scan your system registry for all registered COM type libraries. This process may take a few moments.
Select the desired type library from the list of type libraries presented in the dialog and click OK.
Nimbus adds a type library node to the IVI-COM Designer tree views for browsing the contents of the type library. The interfaces and enums in the type library may now be used as parameter types and property types in your Nimbus IVI-COM driver.
NoteThe contents of an external type library can only be viewed in the Nimbus flat tree view, not in the hierarchical tree view. This is because, unlike IVI-COM drivers, type libraries generally do not represent a hierarchy of items. Rather, they are simply a flat list of interfaces and other data types.