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K-Cube NanoTrak Auto-Alignment Controller
Aside
ActiveX®, a Windows®-based, language-independent technology, allows a user to quickly develop custom applications
that automate the control of APT system hardware units. Development environments supported by ActiveX® technology
include Visual Basic®, LabView™, Borland C++ Builder, Visual C++, Delphi™, and many others. ActiveX® technology is
also supported by.NET development environments such as Visual Basic.NET and Visual C#.NET.
ActiveX controls are a specific form of ActiveX technology that provide both a user interface and a programming interface.
An ActiveX control is supplied for each type of APT hardware unit to provide specific controller functionality to the software
developer. See Section 1.3.4. for further details.
1.3.2 APTUser Utility
The APTUser application allows the user to interact with a number of APT hardware control units connected to the host PC.
This program displays multiple graphical instrument panels to allow multiple APT units to be controlled simultaneously.
All basic operating parameters can be altered and, similarly, all operations (such as setting the scan circle size) can be initiated.
Settings and parameter changes can be saved and loaded to allow multiple operating configurations to be created and easily
applied.
For many users, the APTUser application provides all of the functionality necessary to operate the APT hardware without the
need to develop any further custom software. For those who do need to further customize and automate usage of the controller
(e.g. to implement a positioning algorithm), this application illustrates how the rich functionality provided by the APT ActiveX
server is exposed by a client application.
Use of the APT User utility is covered in the PC tutorial (Chapter 5) and in the APTUser online help file, accessed via the F1
key when using the APTUser utility.
Summary of Contents for NanoTrak KNA-IR
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