About Command Expert

Keysight's Command Expert software combines instrument commands, documentation, syntax checking, command execution, and code generation all in one simple interface. Command Expert works with instruments that use Standard Commands for Programmable Instrumentation (SCPI) or IVI-COM drivers.

Command Expert generates a SCPI.NET driver for each SCPI command set you install, for use in Visual Studio applications.

Command Expert Add-ons let you use Command Expert for easy instrument control in LabVIEW, MATLAB, VEE, SystemVue, Visual Studio and Excel®.

New Features and Changes In Command Expert 1.2 Update 1

  • Command Expert and its add-ons now support Microsoft Excel 2013, LabVIEW 2013, and MATLAB R2013b.
  • Several defects have been repaired, including the following:
    • Users with the Windows short date format set to "dd-MMM-yy" were not able to download command sets. This has been fixed.
    • LabVIEW 2010 French Version did not update sequence blocks in some cases. This has been fixed.
    • In some cases, Command Expert failed on startup on Czech Windows XP. This has been fixed.
    • Certain text boxes in Command Expert were limited to 512 characters, preventing entry of waveform data in those fields. This limitation has been removed.
    • Running a sequence containing an invalid Excel range caused Excel to stop responding. These sequences now cause an error message and will not run.
    • In some cases, the Excel Add-in would fail to clear a range overlap error message when the overlap was resolved. This has been fixed.
    • In some cases, the Excel Add-in did not behave correctly when On Error was set to Prompt User. This has been fixed.

New Features and Changes In Command Expert 1.2

  • Command Expert and its add-ons now support Microsoft Windows 8, Visual Studio 2012, MATLAB R2012b and R2013a, and Keysight SystemVue 2013.07 and above.
  • In the New Instrument dialog box, you can now easily add instruments that have already been configured in Keysight Connection Expert.
  • You can now run Command Expert sequences from C# and Visual Basic .NET applications.
  • Opening a Command Expert sequence no longer connects automatically to instruments. The connection is now made when the sequence is run.
  • You can now copy and paste steps between Command Expert sequences.
  • You can now change the order of Connect steps.
  • You can now retarget sequence steps to use a different instrument, for example if you are deleting the Connect step they were previously associated with.
  • You can now view and edit illegal commands in sequence steps, to repair them.
  • As you navigate command documentation, the selected command now remains in sync with the documentation you are viewing.
  • You can now use a Keysight IO Monitor log file as a data source for instrument simulation.
  • Local variables are now provided, allowing your sequences to use a command output value as input to another command.
    • Because of this addition, the Parameters pane is now called the Variables pane; it contains input parameters, output parameters, and local variables. The functionality of input and output parameters has not changed.
  • Variables and Connect steps now have an optional Description field. Descriptions are displayed by the Excel, MATLAB, LabVIEW, and VEE add-ons.
  • The Identify Instrument feature in the New Instrument dialog box will now identify PXI modules.
  • LabVIEW Sequence blocks now provide more input and output pins.
  • LabVIEW Sequence blocks can now use multiple instruments.
  • The LabVIEW Add-on is now automatically installed into all installed versions of LabVIEW.
  • More examples are now provided, using the most popular Keysight instruments.

Compatibility

  • Sequences created in Command Expert 1.2 cannot be opened in previous versions of Command Expert, due to changes in the sequence schema.
  • Sequences created in previous versions of Command Expert can be opened in Command Expert 1.2. When you save them, they will be saved in the Command Expert 1.2 format. If you want to maintain compatibility with earlier versions, keep a copy of your sequence that has never been opened in Command Expert 1.2.
  • LabVIEW Sequence blocks developed in Command Expert 1.2 cannot be run with previous versions of Command Expert. If you try to do this, you may see a "file not found" error message, rather than a descriptive error.
  • If you have applications that were developed in MATLAB, Excel, VEE, or LabVIEW with an earlier version of Command Expert, and that run sequences containing IVI-COM commands that use repeated capabilities, these applications may fail at run time unless you upgrade them. See Upgrading from Previous Versions to Command Expert 1.2 for instructions.
  • Command Expert 1.2 works only with SystemVue 2013.07 and above. Earlier versions of SystemVue require Command Expert 1.1 or 1.0.

Supported Instruments

To see which SCPI instruments are supported, use the Manage Command Sets dialog box in the Command Expert application, or visit Instruments Supported by Command Expert

Command Expert also lets you control instruments using IVI-COM drivers.

Known Issues

Issue Workaround/Notes
If Internet Explorer 6 or below is installed, documentation for some commands will not display correctly in Command Expert. Install Internet Explorer 7 or above
When you install Command Expert on a PC with Excel, the Excel Add-on will only be installed for the current user. None; only the current user at the time of the installation will be able to use the Excel Add-on.
While installing Command Expert on 64-bit Windows 7, Windows sometimes displays a dialog box that says "This program may not have installed correctly."

Click the Cancel button in the dialog box that says "This program may not have installed correctly". The Command Expert install will finish without issues.

You can download a Microsoft patch that may correct this issue. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978637
Command Expert LabVIEW Add-on: after a reboot of your PC, the first time you drop a Sequence block, there is a long delay before the Command Expert window appears. This delay only happens the first time (after a reboot) that you drop a Sequence block.
Command Expert does not work with the NVIDIA nView Desktop Manager. If the nView Desktop Manager is running when you launch Command Expert, Command Expert will not respond to any mouse clicks. Disable nView when running Command Expert.
When in "streaming mode", the Infiniium 90000A :WAVeform:DATA? command returns streaming data. Command Expert only retrieves the first portion of the streaming data. None
VISA C/C++ code generation for return values that are of the format String Program Data and contain white space is incorrect. The "%#s" format string that is generated will only read until the first white space character, not until the end of the quoted string. Manually change the generated code.
If the Windows 8 On-Screen Keyboard is enabled and the Command Expert Excel Add-in is installed, then Microsoft Excel may be slow to shut down. Disable the On-Screen Keyboard.

 Last Updated: September 27, 2013