Control Enable/Disable

The Enable command allows macros to disable certain controls, dialogs, and menus, and to enable them later. This can be used to prevent inadvertent activation of controls that might be incompatible with an ongoing macro procedure. For example, a macro that depends on the current input and/or output pointer positions needs to prevent Generator or Input changes which would reset the pointers. Or a test procedure may require specific parameters that must not be changed if the results are to be valid.

Enable can control access to any of the main toolbar options, as well as certain sub-options such as sample rate.

A disabled control is shown in grey. A disabled button may be in an active (depressed) or inactive state, and a disabled edit control will retain its current value. Disabling simply means that the user can't change the state or value.

Enable is always followed by '#' plus one or two characters to indicate the controls to be affected. The general format is Enable#A=0 to disable the Averager (as indicated by the '#A'), and Enable#A=1 to enable it again.

Note that Enable commands only affect manual control by the user; macros can still change control settings as needed. In a typical scenario, an unskilled user could select from a list of macros that run various tests with specific settings, without being allowed independent access to the controls themselves.

In order of the toolbar buttons from left to right, here are the relevant Enable commands. The disable form (right side =0) is described; setting the right side =1 re-enables:

Enable#A=0 disables the Averager start/toggle toolbar button, and also closes any active Waveform or Spectrum Averager dialog and disables it from being opened via the thin unmarked button below Averager, the Averager Controls (...) item in the Edit menu, or the CTRL+A accelerator "hot-key".

Enable#O=0 disables the DD/Open button and the corresponding Open Existing Data File and Open Recent items in the File menu.

Enable#D=0 disables the Direct-to-Disk (DDisk) toggle button, which replaces the default DD/Open button whenever the Generator or Input is active. The DDisk control dialog is also closed and the thin unmarked button below DDisk is disabled. Likewise, the corresponding Direct-to-Disk (DDisk) Toggle and DDisk Controls... selections in the File menu are disabled as well.

Enable#G=0 disables the Generator toolbar button, and closes and disables the Generator control dialog. The Generator Controls (...) item in the Edit menu and the CTRL+G accelerator "hot-key" are also disabled.

Enable#I=0 disables the Input toolbar button, and closes and disables the Input control dialog. The Input Controls (...) item in the Edit menu and the CTRL+I accelerator "hot-key" are also disabled.

Enable#IG=0 is a special multi-purpose command that not only disables both the Input and Generator buttons, dialogs, Edit options, and accelerators as above, but also disables the Sample Rate controls in the X-Axis dialog and the main File and Calibration menus.

This command is used by the Auto_Recorder sound-activated recorder mini-app to prevent changes that would affect the Posn?I and Posn?O input and output pointers it is using. Unlike the other Enable commands, this one automatically re-enables these controls if the macro is aborted for any reason.

Enable#M=0 disables the Spectrogram / Pitch Track (Sgram/PT) toolbar button, and closes and disables the Spectrogram / Pitch Track controls button below it. The corresponding item in the Edit menu and the CTRL+M accelerator "hot-key" are also disabled.

Enable#S=0 disables the Spectrum toolbar button, and closes and disables the Spectrum controls dialog and button below it. The Spectrum Controls (...) item in the Edit menu is disabled, as is the CTRL+S accelerator "hot-key".

Enable#T=0 disables the Trigger toolbar button, closes the Trigger controls dialog if open, and disables its button. It also disables the Trigger Controls (...) item in the Edit menu, along with the CTRL+T accelerator "hot-key".

Enable#X=0 disables the X-Axis toolbar button which toggles X-Axis eXpand, closes the X-Axis control dialog if open and disables its button. It disables the X-Axis Controls (...) item in the Edit menu, plus the CTRL+X accelerator "hot-key". In addition, it prevents using the mouse to drag the X axis to activate or adjust its expansion.

Enable#XE=0 disables all of the controls in the X-Axis control dialog except eXpand Max and Min, namely the X-log Spect toggle (and its duplicate in the Spectrum controls dialog), the CPM Spect toggle, the Sample Rate Select dialog and associated Sample Rate Adjust control, all of the Slow (Decimate) controls, and the Trace Update Interval control. It does not disable the X-Axis eXpand toolbar button, the thin unmarked X-Axis dialog button, the related Edit button, or the CTRL+X accelerator.

Enable#Xc=0 disables only the X-log Spect toggle in the X-Axis controls dialog and its functional duplicate in the Spectrum controls dialog, plus the CPM Spect toggle.

Enable#Xs=0 disables only the Sample Rate Select dialog and associated Sample Rate Adjust control in the X-Axis controls dialog.

Enable#Xd=0 disables all of the Slow (Decimate) controls X-Axis controls dialog.

Enable#Xr=0 disables all the Sample Rate and Decimate controls, effectively the same as giving Enable#Xs=0 and Enable#Xd=0 together.

Enable#Xu=0 disables only the Trace Update Interval control in the X-Axis controls dialog.

Enable#Z=0 disables the Zero toolbar button along with the thin unmarked dialog button below it, closing the dialog if open. It also disables the Zero Mode Control (...) item in the Edit menu, plus the CTRL+Z accelerator "hot-key".

Enable#Zd=0 disables only the Data Zero control group in the Zero Mode controls dialog, namely the Data Zero Average, Peak, and Manual buttons plus DManual Null buttons and Manual Adjust controls. It does not affect the Screen Zero control group, nor the ability to open the dialog.

Enable#F=0 disables the entire File menu.

Enable#E=0 disables the entire Edit menu.

Enable#C=0 disables the entire Calibration menu.

Enable#V=0 disables the small {\b Vol / dB} button in the Generator controls dialog, as well as the individual Volume or dB Slider dialogs opened via the F9 function key. (These are selected via Use Vol Steps or dB in the Attenuator Options dialog if the system has been Auto-Calibrated to determine dB values.)

See also Macro Overview