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Product guide/The builder/Preview: the canvas

The builder

Preview: the canvas

The workflow itself. Every step in execution order, with the instrument that runs it, the actions it sends, and the limits its measurements must meet.

Preview is the source of truth for what will run. The Code pane is generated from it, the Executor runs it, and the Report is written against the columns it produces. If Preview is right, everything downstream is right.

Steps run top to bottom. A loop is a matched pair, and everything between the pair repeats.
A summary chip above the workflow reading: Workflow, 5 steps, 2 instruments, approximately 900 milliseconds of delays.
The summary chip above the canvas: step count, how many instruments the test touches, and the total settling time it will spend.

Reading a step

An instrument step on the canvas: a numbered badge, an instrument icon, the words Power Supply and Keithley 2230G-30-1, and three numbered actions, Select_Channel with arg1 equals CH1, Set_Current with arg1 equals 0.5, and Turn_On_CH1.1234
  1. 1Position in the sequence. Steps execute in this order, top to bottom.
  2. 2The instrument. Its type, and the exact manufacturer and model the actions were resolved against.
  3. 3The actions, in the order they are sent. All of one instrument’s consecutive actions live in a single step.
  4. 4The parameters for each action. A value here can be a literal or a loop variable.
One instrument step, in full. This is the unit you click, edit, and scope an agent turn to.

An instrument step shows its type, its manufacturer and model, and the actions it performs in order. One instrument's consecutive actions live in a single step, so “set voltage, set current limit, enable output” is one card with three actions, not three cards. The instrument reappears as a new step only when it comes back later in the flow.

Click a step to open its detail panel: the full action list with parameters, any limits attached to its measurements, and the option to scope an edit to it.

Canvas controls

Two stacked canvas control buttons at the left edge of the Preview pane: a fit-to-view icon and a padlock.
Bottom left of the canvas: fit to view, and the lock.
ControlWhat it doesWhy it is there
Locked (default)The canvas is fixed at a readable size and scrolls vertically.A procedure is read top to bottom. Locked mode makes the mouse wheel do the obvious thing.
UnlockedFree pan and zoom.For a long workflow you want to see all of at once.
FitFrames the whole workflow.The fast way back after zooming into a detail.
Click a stepOpens the detail panel.Where parameters and limits live.
Scope to thisAdds the step to the edit scope.See edit scope.

Editing by hand

Everything the agent can set, you can set. Change a set-point, a settle time, a loop range, or a limit directly in the step. Hand edits and agent edits go into the same structure, so the agent sees your change on its next turn and patches around it rather than over it.

What Preview does not show

  • The raw SCPI. Actions are named operations. The commands behind them are in the Code pane.
  • Measured values. Preview is intent. Values live in the Report.
  • The wiring. That is Schematic.
See also
Step referenceLimits and pass/fail