Starting the program: The main window
First ensure your camera is connected to the USB port.
Although PARD Capture can be started by ‘double-clicking’ the executable on many
systems, it is preferable to start the software from a terminal window by typing ‘pardcap’
(or ‘./pardcap’ if it is not on your PATH) at the command prompt. This is because PARD
Capture outputs information to stdout (to the console window) as it runs which gives
useful updates and diagnostic data, warnings and error message details. All this
information will not be visible to you if you start the program by simply ‘double-clicking’
it. The command line options are:
./pardcap [option] [argument]
The possibilities for [option] [argument] are currently:
-v
-h
-l <logfile_name>
The -v option prints the program version number and must have no argument after it.
The -h option prints a help message and must have no argument after it.
The -l option must be followed by a file name (without spaces in the file name) which
the user has permissions to create for writing and appending. This file will be created
(so over-writing any existing file with that name) and all output messages will be
recorded in this log file as a plain text file (so you may want to give it a .txt extension
but that is not mandatory). If the user does not have access permissions to the chosen
file then a pop up error message will alert the user that logging can’t be done but the
program will then continue as usual. The start up screen (main window) is shown in
figure 6.1.
The
camera status
line is a line of plane text above the preview window that tells you
the current state of the camera. This may be opened or closed, initialised and
streaming. Only when the camera is streaming can images be detected by the program
for live preview and capture. Once a camera device is opened it remains opened (you
cannot close it with this software unless you quit the program via the normal route by
clicking on the ‘X’ of the main window and select to ‘Quit’ – only then will the camera
device be closed by the software as part of its ‘Tidy up’ exit routine). Likewise once a
camera is initialised it cannot be uninitialised manually via the GUI controls (although
on occasion the software will uninitialise and re-initialise the camera internally as part of
its various functions). The camera will be uninitialised when you quit the program by the
normal route.
OptArc AF51 Camera Page 62 of 99 User Guide v1.02
