Accessing Function Panels

You can access a function panel for an instrument driver from the Instrument menu or the Instruments folder or for a library from the Library Tree or the Library menu. After you select an instrument or library name, choose a function panel by making a selection from the Select Function Panel dialog box or from the Library Tree.

Functions are organized in a multi-level structure called a function tree. The function tree groups functions into various classes according to the operation they perform. When the Select Function Panel dialog box contains class names, you can select a class name to view the next level of the function tree until you reach a list of Function Panel windows.

You also can move through the list of functions without using the tree structure. Use the Flatten or Flatten Libraries option to replace the function class hierarchy with a list of all function panels in the library. Once you select a function panel, the function panel commands Previous Function Panel Window, Next Function Panel Window, First Function Panel Window, and Last Panel give you access to function panels in this linear manner.

You can access function panels in other ways as well. For instance, you might want to return to a panel you recently used or recall a panel from the text of a function call in a Source window. The commands that give you access to panels in these and other ways are in the View menu of the Source window. A similar set of commands exist in the View menu of the Function Panel window.

The following figure shows the Configure Channel Function Panel window for a the Ivi Scope Class Driver. The figure contains a function panel that corresponds to the IviScope_ConfigureChannel function. You can use controls on function panels to specify parameters for the functions. The generated code box at the bottom of the window displays the function calls these function panels generate.