OPERATING AND USER MANUAL QUARTZ series CXP
18
Structure of camera control
5.2
The practical way to control the camera is closely dependant on the Frame grabber manufacturers’
software implementation and SDK.
Most frame grabber manufacturers’ software provides a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is
automatically generated from the XML file.
This manual focuses on the camera functionality. The specific commands and their effect on the
camera operation are described in detail.
Of each GenAPI parameter its name, interface, access, range, default and unit are listed.
Parameter name
5.2.1.
Each parameter is identified by a unique name.
Most names are part of the Standard Features Naming Convention SFNC. For some Quartz
functionalities no SFNC equivalent was available, so a name outside SFNC had to be introduced.
Parameter interface
5.2.2.
The parameter interface indicates the type of the parameter. This is mainly used in the frame grabbers’
GUI to assign a display type to the Parameter.
INTERFACE
DISPLAY
IInteger
slider with value, min, max and increment
IFloat
slider with value, min, max and physical unit
IString
edit box showing a string
IEnumeration
drop down box
ICommand
command button
IBoolean
check box
ICategory
entry in a tree structuring the cameras features.
in the XML file, are categorized the parameters are grouped according
to ICategories.
overview of parameter interfaces
Table 5.1:
Parameter access
5.2.3.
The parameter access indicates if a user can Read, Write or Read/Write the parameter.
Parameter visibility
5.2.4.
Each parameter has a visibility level assigned to it: Beginner, Expert and Guru (increasing in
complexity).
The visibility does not affect the functionality of the features but is merely used by the frame grabber
manufacturers’ GUI to decide which features to display based on the current user level. The purpose
is mainly to insure that the GUI is not cluttered with information that is not intended at the current user
level.
