Do I really need twelve interface files and twelve camera files?

[Sam Mason]

I'm designing software to run a ccd test camera.
The camera is designed to run 3 different ccd's, each in 4 different modes.
Naturally each mode and each device has different acquisition window parameters.
I can programatically change interface files using imaq setup, but not the camera files, so at the moment I have twelve interface files and twelve camera files. I know I can programatically change the acquisition window variables with a property node but that is rather limited if we add further devices to the camera.
Is there a better way to do this?

[BruceAmmons]

If only a few parameters change from file to file, it seems it would be simpler to use a single camera file and just change the parameters using property nodes. You could set up a routine that takes care of it for you, so you don't have to repeat all the commands every time you change settings.

If this is a digital camera, you could set up the different modes in the ICD file for the camera, and just select a different mode.

If it is an analog camera and a lot of parameters change for each mode, it might be simpler to keep it as separate files. There aren't really very many parameters that change for analog cameras, though.

Bruce

[zio]

I had a similar problem: I have to let the user modify the acquisition window, without having to learn MAX interface. Luckily .icd files are just simple text files, that you can read and write and change as you like. Just to make sure that I am not writing crap values, I do a setup and acquisition with the new values and check the error before writing to file.