Monitor Window

Monitor window should be used to display and control data stream recorded by external TCP/IP - based application (see data acquisition overview for more information about measurement automation applications). Another main function of Monitor is to maintain data windows that are used to accumulate incoming data. Window control commands may be also used in simple automation - enabled data acquisition applications, although it's recommended to implement customized window management. Monitor actions may be divided into three groups (see picture below):

• Acquisition control. These actions allow you to control data acquisition application: start and stop measurements, measure single data point, turn on/off scanning and reverse scanning direction. For TCP/IP - based applications, they send special commands to the server (see svrdemo.dpr Delphi example application included in the samples.zip archive). For automation - enabled applications, these actions invoke IDMApplication.OnCommand() event with appropriate command parameter (see impdemo.dpr example for more details how to handle DM2000 events).
  
  
• Connection. Before you start communication between DM2000 and TCP/IP - based application, you must establish connection between DM2000 (client) and data acquisition application (server). When connection successfully established, DM2000 displays monitor sign in the status line of the main window, otherwise you will see error message. Connection parameters are specified in the Application properties dialog box. See svrdemo.dpr Delphi example application for more information about TCP/IP - based applications.
  
  
• Window control. These actions allow you to control data accumulation and visualization. For automation - enabled data acquisition applications, you will typically have two items: New file - create new data window and start accumulate incoming data in this window, and New serie - display data stream as a new curve. For TCP/IP - based applications, you have to control this process manually. Fortunately, this is extremely simple. Because DM2000 is MDI environment, you should mark selected data window as "recording" (click appropriate button, and active window will show special frame to indicate its "recording" state). Then you should select plot serie for displaying recorded data. Plot series with activated recording attribute are marked with special icon in the Serie Manager and dynamically updated every time when new data point arrives.

How to use Monitor window to record data stream generated by TCP/IP - based application (or automation - enabled application if it uses IDMApplication.RecordPoint() method instead of IDMDocument properties and methods)? Really it takes a few clicks:

1. Run both applications and connect DM2000 to the TCP/IP server;
2. Create new data window (File|New menu item) and mark it as "recording";
3. Start measurement and record at least two points into this data window;
4. Set X and Y columns in the worksheet (see keyboard shortcuts how) and plot data (View|Plot Lines).

When you plot worksheet lines in the window marked as "recording", current serie also will be automatically set for displaying new points. However, you can configure any serie independently. In addition, you may easily start display new curve with special command.

Notice that you may easily configure toolbar of the main window to display actions from the Monitor: open Customize Toolbars dialog box (View|Toolbars|Customize), select Actions tab, select Monitor Form action list, then drag actions onto the toolbar of the main window.