The DCAM Prop DLL that provided access to special DCAM properties in version 1.41 is not needed anymore, because these special properties can now be accessed and manipulated using the new VCD properties. This document describes alternatives for all functions and procedures of the DCAM Prop DLL.
If physical units are supported for the property %%%, the appropriate VCD property provides a map strings interface ( VCDMapStringsProperty ). It might be necessary to activate physical units support for a specific device explicitly by a special driver setup. Please refer to the device documentation for details. There is a new interface called absolute value ( VCDAbsoluteValueProperty ). Like the physical units of the map strings interface, it provides a meaning for the values. In addition, it provides a high resolution. Therefore, you should use the absolute values interface, if supported.
Basically there are two ways to handle these functions. The first one is to use the VCDSimpleProperty class. The usage of this class is described in the Using the VCD Simple Property Class chapter of the user's guide. The helper class offers methods to set and retrieve property values and to check the availability of a certain property. Every method of this helper class needs an ID that specifies the property for which the method is to be called. The IDs for "WhiteBalanceBlue" and "WhiteBalanceRed" are VCDElement_WhiteBalanceBlue and VCDElement_WhiteBalanceRed. For detailed information, please refer to the VCDSimpleProperty class.
The second way is to directly use the new VCDProperties. The chapters Basic Use of VCD Properties and List VCD Properties of the user's guide show you how to use them. When using the new VCDProperties, it is important to know how they are organized. There are VCDPropertyItems, VCDPropertyElements and VCDPropertyInterfaces. Each item has one or more elements and each element has one ore more interfaces. The interfaces allow the related property elements to be manipulated. In order to check, whether "WhiteBalance%%%" is available, use the VCDPropertyItems.FindElement method with VCDID_WhiteBalance + ":" + VCDElement_WhiteBalance%%% as a parameter. VCDID_WhiteBalance describes the property item, while VCDElement_WhiteBalance%%% describes the element "WhiteBalanceRed" or "WhiteBalanceBlue". If the property is supported, the respective element is returned. If it is not supported, Nothing is returned.
To get or set the values for "WhiteBalance%%%", retrieve the appropriate interface with the VCDPropertyItems.FindInterface, VCDPropertyElement.FindInterface or VCDPropertyElements.FindInterface method. As soon as the interface is retrieved, its methods can be used to manipulate the property. For detailed information, please refer to VCDPropertyInterface.
' Declare a range interface Dim Range As VCDRangeProperty ' Retrieve a range interface for WhiteBalanceRed Set Range = ICImagingControl1.VCDPropertyItems.FindInterface( VCDID_WhiteBalance + ":" + _ VCDElement_WhiteBalanceRed + ":" + _ VCDInterface_Range ) ' Initialize a slider sldWhiteBalanceRed with the values of the WhiteBalanceRed property If Not Range Is Nothing Then sldWhiteBalanceRed.Min = Range.RangeMin sldWhiteBalanceRed.Max = Range.RangeMax sldWhiteBalanceRed.Value = Range.Value sldWhiteBalanceRed.Enabled = True Else sldWhiteBalanceRed.Enabled = False End If
To check whether the horizontal flip is available, use the DeviceFlipHorizontalAvailable property. To get or set the horizontal flip, the DeviceFlipHorizontal property is used.