Instrument Specific Capabilities

In addition to inherent IVI capabilities, base instrument capabilities, and extension groups, IVI specific drivers may export instrument specific functions and attributes. These features are usually device-specific functions that are not interchangeable with other devices.

Only the specific driver implements the instrument specific capabilities. Therefore, if you want to use instrument specific capabilities in your test program, you must access the specific driver directly, instead of using a class driver. For information about the instrument specific features of a driver, refer to IVI Instrument Specific Drivers.

Your test program can access both the class driver and the specific driver during execution. In LabVIEW, the current instructions work. In LabWindows/CVI or Measurement Studio, you must use the GetSepecificDriver C Handle to get the specific driver session, then use the new handle to access the specific driver directly.

When you initialize an instrument through a class driver, you can specify default values for instrument specific attributes. MAX allows you to set the initial values of the instrument specific attributes to protect interchangeability.