Commands

A command is a user-defined statement calling an attached procedure or I/O table. The command statement is used in a test or procedure within a Program, System, or Driver module. Commands offer several advantages:

●        Once defined, commands appear in cascading menus on the ATEasy Menu bar allowing you to insert them into the code by selecting them from the menu. The cascading menus organize them into logical groups, such as setup, measurement and more. This allows you to locate them faster and eliminates the syntax errors that can appear if you enter commands manually.

●        They simplify programming because you can substitute easy-to-understand, English statements for cryptic procedure names and parameters making the test code more readable and eliminate additional documentation.

●        Commands can be device-independent. If you code using commands, you can change the driver without having to re-code or rewrite your code.

Command examples are shown below:

DMM Set Function VAC

MUX Connect BusA (1)

Delay(100)

DMM Measure (TestResult)

Commands can be defined under the Program, System or Driver Commands submodules. The Commands submodule contains the programming statements you designed and created.

System module commands are used to operate the system instruments and reflect the system's wiring and switching networks. These commands can be called from the project's programs tests or from the system procedures. In the example below, the command measures volts DC using a DMM (Digital Multimeter) between the unit under test (UUT) points P1 and P13:

System Measure VDC P1_P13 (d)

This System command can be associated with a System procedure using more than one system instrument (DMM and a SWITCH) as shown here:

SWITCH Close (13)

DMM Set Function VDC

DMM Measure (dResult)

SWITCH Open (13)

As described, a single System command statement replaced four driver commands resulting in a simpler, modular program in the test using that command.