Tektronix AFG3000 - Manual (Page 78)

Syntax and Commands
3-4 AFG3000 Series Arbitrary/Function Generators Reference Manual
Command Entry Follow these general rules when entering commands:
„ Enter commands in upper or lower case.
„ You can precede any command with white space characters. White space char-
acters include any combination of the ASCII control characters 00 through 09
and 0B through 20 hexadecimal (0 through 9 and 11 through 32 decimal).
„ The instrument ignores commands that consists of just a combination of white
space characters and line feeds.
SCPI Commands and
Queries
The arbitrary/function generator uses a command language based on the SCPI stan-
dard. The SCPI (Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments) standard
was created by a consortium to provide guidelines for remote programming of
instruments. These guidelines provide a consistent programming environment for
instrument control and data transfer. This environment uses defined programming
messages, instrument responses and data formats that operate across all SCPI
instruments, regardless of manufacturer.
The SCPI language is based on a hierarchical or tree structure that represents a
subsystem (see Figure 3-2). The top level of the tree is the root node; it is
followed
by one or more lower-level nodes.
Figure 3-2: Example of SCPI subsystem hierarchy tree
You can create commands and queries from these subsystem hierarchy trees.
Commands specify actions for the instrument to perform. Queries return measure-
ment data and information about parameter settings.
TRIGger
SEQuence
SLOPe SOURce TIMer
Lower-level nodes
Root nodes