The Tool Palette'sInstrument Controls tab contains components (controls) that are used to design an Altium Designer Custom Instrument panel GUI. These controls are specifically for use with the Custom Instrument.
While instrument controls are available for use in Altium Designer's scripting environment, note that support of FPGA designs within which signals can be monitored and controlled with custom instruments are not supported in Altium Designer starting from version 18.0.
To view the associated Properties and Events for an Instrument Control component placed on a script Form, use the Properties or Events tab in the Object Inspector panel (View » Panels » Object Inspector).
To find a particular Method (or Property) for an Instrument Control, use the Code Completion feature (see Script Editor Tools). For example, by typing TInstrumentCheckBox.get the Code Completion window will show a suitably filtered list of methods and properties for TInstrumentCheckBox component. Use Ctrl+Space to manually instigate the Code Completion window.
Use the Code Completion (Ctrl+Space) feature to see the available Methods or Properties for a component.
Inheritance
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The majority of Instrument Control classes inherit their Methods (and Properties and Events) from the Delphi VCL TGraphicControl or TCustomControl base classes. Therefore the Instrument Control methods covered here are in addition to one of those base classes, as noted in each entry reference.
By way of example, the descending inheritance for the TInstrumentCheckBox control is as follows:
The Altium Instrument Control components are based on core classes from the Embarcadero Visual Component Library (VCL). Each Instrument Control inherits the methods, properties and events from its VCL source, and most offer additional custom methods. For example, both the TInstrumentCheckBox component and the standard TCheckBox component offer the Click method, whereas the TInstrumentCheckBox component also provides the Changed method.
Use the following list to navigate to information on the methods available for each component in the Instrument Controls category:
TInstrumentBackgroundPanel inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl, TXPCustomExtPanel and TCustomInstrumentBackgroundPanel classes provide the following additional methods:
TXPCustomControl:
ProcedureUpdateSmoothDraw;
FunctionGetModified : Boolean;
ProcedureClearModified;
TXPCustomExtPanel:
FunctionGetDrawingMode : TXPDrawingMode;
FunctionUseRegion : Boolean;
FunctionDoCreateRegion : HRGN;
ProcedureBeginUpdate;
ProcedureEndUpdate;
TCustomInstrumentBackgroundPanel:
ProcedureUpdateBackgroundImage;
ProcedureUpdateChildControls;
TInstrumentBackground
TInstrumentBackground inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground and TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentButton inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl, TXPCustomTransparentControl, TXPBaseCustomSpeedButton,TXPCustomSpeedButton and TCustomInstrumentButton classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentCheckBox inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomInstrumentCheckBox class provides the following additional method:
TCustomInstrumentCheckBox:
ProcedureChanged;
TInstrumentEdit
TInstrumentEdit inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl and TCustomXPEdit classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentGauge inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithNoise and TCustomInstrumentGauge classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentGlyphButton inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl, TXPCustomTransparentControl, TXPBaseCustomSpeedButton,TXPCustomSpeedButton, TCustomInstrumentButton and TCustomInstrumentGlyphButton classes provide the following additional methods:
ProcedureGetGlyphInfo (Out GlyphToDraw : TGraphic; Out NumGlyphsToDraw : Integer);
FunctionGetImageState : Integer;
TCustomInstrumentButton:
FunctionGetCaptionFontColor(ADown, AOn : Boolean) : TColor;
FunctionGetDrawFlags (ADown, AOn : Boolean) : TDrawInstrumentButtonFlags;
FunctionGetDrawCaptionStyle(ADown, AOn : Boolean) : TDrawInstrumentButtonCaptionStyle;
FunctionGetGlowIntensity : TGlowIntensity;
ProcedureBackgroundChanged(Sender : TObject);
ProcedureUpdateBitmaps;
TCustomInstrumentGlyphButton:
ProcedureLEDChanged;
TInstrumentGraph
TCustomInstrumentGraph inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior and TCustomInstrumentGraph classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentKnob inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl and TCustomInstrumentSlider classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentLEDDigits inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior, TCustomInstrumentDigitsPanel and TCustomInstrumentLEDDigits classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentLEDsPanel inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior, TCustomInstrumentDigitsPanel and TCustomInstrumentLEDsPanel classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentMultiGraph inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior and TCustomInstrumentGraph classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentNumericPanel inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithInterior, TCustomInstrumentDigitsPanel and TCustomInstrumentNumericPanel classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentPanel inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl and TCustomInstrumentPanel classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentProgressBar inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithBackground, TCustomGraphicInstrumentWithNoise and TCustomInstrumentProgressBar classes provide the following additional methods:
ProcedurePaintControlBackground(ABitmap : TBitmap; X, Y : Integer);
ProcedurePaintControlForeground(ABitmap : TBitmap; X, Y : Integer);
TCustomInstrumentProgressBar:
ProcedureSetMax(ConstValue : TProgressValue);
ProcedureSetMin(ConstValue : TProgressValue);
TInstrumentRadioButton
TInstrumentRadioButton inherits its methods from the base TGraphicControl class. The TCustomInstrumentCheckBox and TCustomInstrumentRadioButton classes provide the following additional methods:
TCustomInstrumentCheckBox:
ProcedureChanged;
TCustomInstrumentRadioButton:
ProcedureTurnSiblingsOff;
TInstrumentRadioGroup
TInstrumentRadioGroup inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl and TCustomInstrumentPanel classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentScrollbar inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl, TCustomXPScrollBar and TCustomInstrumentScrollBar classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentShape inherits its methods from the base TShape component class.
TInstrumentSilkScreen
TInstrumentSilkScreen inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl class provides the following additional methods:
TXPCustomControl:
ProcedureUpdateSmoothDraw;
FunctionGetModified : Boolean;
ProcedureClearModified;
TInstrumentTerminal
TInstrumentTerminal inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl, TCustomInstrumentPanel and TCustomInstrumentTerminal classes provide the following additional methods:
TInstrumentTrackBar inherits its methods from the base TCustomControl class. The TXPCustomControl and TCustomInstrumentSlider classes provide the following additional methods:
