User-Defined Questions

The user-defined question section of QUEST is defined by the post-processor or control emulator developer. The question definitions reside in an external text file on disk. It appears as the last sub-section in the General Information section. The user-defined questions give developers the ability to add their own questions to the questionnaire. The responses to these custom questions can be examined in GENER or CERUN macros using a standard set of macro system variables.

The following steps are necessary to create user-defined questions:

1. Create an empty text file in your icam_appdata directory and give the new file a unique name. (e.g., C:\ProgramData\ICAM\270\quest.txt).

2. Edit the new file and add user-defined questions as described in the “Question Tags” section below.

3. Run the Configuration utility (see “The Icam Configuration Utility”); select the QUEST tab; then edit the “User defined questions” field and enter the new user-defined questions file name (e.g., quest.txt).

Changes made to the user-defined questions file will be seen the next time QUEST is run.

Question Tags

The question definition file uses a set of tags to define questions. A tag must begin in column 1. The following lists the various tags.

/S User-defined section

The /S is a tag that defines the section name. It is not associated with any particular question and must appear as the first line in the file. The section name given is what appears as the menu title in QUEST.

/S UUser-defined section

The first letter in the string is the selection character in the menu. The repetition of the letter U in the title above indicates that U is the letter that selects the sub menu named “User-defined section”. Make sure the selector letter does not conflict with existing letters for other sections in the General Information menu.

/Q number type

The /Q tag is the main separator between questions. All other tags may follow in any order. The number value specifies the question number in an !(s32) format. The type specifier indicates the question type (e.g., CASE, IVALUE). For example, a CASE type question number 2.5 would be identified as:

/Q 250 case

Also note that the question numbers must be specified in ascending order and all information must be correct or the user-defined questions will not be utilized.

/P prompt text, or short description text

This tag defines the prompt for the question. Prompts must always end with a colon character.

/P What is the answer:

/T question text

This tag defines the long text for the question in HTML format.

/T This is the first paragraph in the long text message that will
appear in the help (or IL1) window.
<p>This is the second paragraph, as evidenced by the HTML paragraph code.

/D default answer

This tag defines the default answer for the question. For example, to select the second choice in the CASE list as the default:

/D 2

/L response location

This tag defines the response location for the question. The location is an array index for one of the xUDQ variables discussed later in this section. To select the first array position:

/L 1

/O options

The options are different for the different question types.

The CASE question type needs a comma separated list of choices. For example, a choice between the keywords Yes, No and Maybe would be coded as:

/O Yes,No,Maybe

The CCHAR question type needs to know if NA is a valid response for a question asking for a single character. An option value of –1 permits NA as a response; a value of 0 doesn’t. The following would permit the use of NA for a CCHAR question:

/O -1

The CVALUE question type needs the know the minimum and maximum size of the character string. The following would permit a string having from 2 through 10 characters:

/O 2 10

The IVALUE question type needs the low value flag, the low value limit, the high value flag, the high value limit and a rounding factor, in that order. The flag values are described in more detail later. For example, to prompt for [# >= 1 & < 20]:

/O 1 1 2 20 0

The WVALUE question type also needs the low value flag, the low value limit, the high value flag, the high value limit and a rounding factor. To prompt for the same range as a real number:

/O 1 1.0 2 20.0 0.0

The YESNO question type does not need /O

! comment character

An ! character appearing in column 1 indicates that the line is a comment.

CASE

The CASE question type gives the user a choice of several selections. For example “mill,lathe,edm,punch” would be a valid selection list. This question type requires a comma separated list of elements to select from as the /O tag. The /D tag specifies an integer number representing which element in the list is considered the default. The list items begin at one, from left to right. In the above example, mill is 1, edm is 3. This question type returns an integer number in the $IUDQ array representing the selected item in the list.

CCHAR

The CCHAR question type requests a single character or its ASCII code representation. The /O tag is a flag indicating if NA is a valid option. Specify –1 to allow NA as an answer; specify 0 if NA is not a valid response. The /D tag specifies the default answer represented by its integer ASCII code.

This question returns an integer code in the $IUDQ array representing the ASCII value of the answer. –1 is returned if NA was selected.

CVALUE

The CVALUE question type requests a character string. The /D tag specifies the default response as a character string. The /O tag specifies the minimum and maximum size of the character string. This function returns a character string contained in the $TUDQ array.

IVALUE

The IVALUE question type requests an integer number. The /D tag specifies the default response as an integer value. The /O tag specifies the valid answer range and resolution, using a series of 5 values as follows:

1) Integer low flag:

0: no low range check

1: response >= low value

2: response > low value

2) Integer low value.

3) Integer high flag:

0: no high range check

1: response <= high value

2: response < high value

4) Integer high value.

5) Integer round value, used to round the response.

0 indicates no rounding

This question type returns an integer number in the $IUDQ array.

WVALUE

The WVALUE question type requests a real number. The /D tag specifies the default response as a real value. The /O tag specifies the valid answer range and resolution, using a series of 5 values as follows:

1) Integer low flag:

0: no low range check

1: response >= low value

2: response > low value

2) Real low value.

3) Integer high flag:

0: no high range check

1: response <= high value

2: response < high value

4) Real high value.

5) Real round value, used to round the response.

0.0 indicates no rounding

This question type returns a real number in the $WUDQ array.

YESNO

The YESNO question type requests a simple yes or no. The /D tag specifies the default response as an integer value. The integer representation of yes is 1 and no is 0.

This question type returns an integer number in the $IUDQ array.

Macro System Variables

The user-defined question answers are stored in a special set of macro system variables. Text data is stored in $TUDQ, integer data in $IUDQ and real data in $WUDQ. Each of these macro system variables is actually an array.

• The character data has 10 elements (80 characters each). They are named $TUDQ(1) through $TUDQ(10).

• The integer data has 100 elements, $IUDQ(1) through $IUDQ(100).

• The real data has 50 elements, $WUDQ(1) through $WUDQ(50).

Example

The following lists a sample definition of a user-defined question section. Lines beginning with an ! (exclamation) are comments and are included as documentation.

! user-defined questions sample
/S SSpecial questions

! Question number 1.00 is a CASE question.
/Q 100 case
! This is the short prompt. Must always end with a colon
/P Machine identifier:
! This is the long description. A <br> causes a line
! break, a <p> causes QUEST to skip a line.
/T Each machine has an identifier.<p>Select
one of the identifiers in the list below.
! The default response is element 1; ingersoll.
/D 1
! The answer will be stored in $IUDQ(1).
/L 1
! These are the possible answers.
/O ingersoll,fanuc,mazak,omni

! Question number 2.00 is a YESNO question.
/Q 200 yesno
/P Automatic documentation:
/T Do you want to generate automatic documentation?
! The default response is 1 (Yes).
/D 1
! The answer will be stored in $IUDQ(2).
/L 2

! Question number 3.00 is a CCHAR question.
/Q 300 cchar
/P Machine class:
/T Enter a letter indicating the machine class
! Ascii code 57 is the default.
/D 57
! The answer will be stored in $IUDQ(3).
/L 3
! NA is a valid option.
/O -1

! Question number 4.00 is a CVALUE question.
/Q 400 cvalue
/P Comments:
/T Are there any comments concerning this post-processor?
! No comment is the default answer.
/D No comment
! The answer will be stored in $TUDQ(1).
/L 1
! The string size is 1 to 20 characters.
/O 1 20

! Question number 5.00 is a IVALUE question.
/Q 500 ivalue
/P Site number:
/T What is your site number?
! The default answer is 10
/D 10
! The answer will be stored in $IUDQ(4).
/L 4
! The answer must be >= 20 and <= 200, the resolution is
! 10 which means the answer will be rounded to the nearest
! multiple of 10.
/O 1 20 1 200 10

! Question number 6.01 is a WVALUE question.
/Q 601 wvalue
/P Integration factor:
/T Specify the integration factor for this post-processor.
! The default answer is 0.
/D 0
! The answer will be stored in $WUDQ(1)
/L 1
! No range checking or resolution
/O 0 0 0 0 0

The responses to these questions are accessible from macros in GENER and CERUN. Their usage is entirely up to the user.