The Pipeline is a set of Visual3D commands that are processed in sequence. The pipeline is a COMMAND language, not a SCRIPTING language (like PHP for example).
The Pipeline is typically used to automate processing steps. The pipeline processor (or any text processor) can be used to create the pipeline. Any pipeline command that can be run interactively through the pipeline processor may be saved to a text command file. This file may be reloaded later, or combined with other command files to build a more complex pipeline. The pipeline processor can be launched from the Visual3D tool bar or from the Pipeline menu.
The Pipeline processor provides access to the core of Visual3D functionality. It provides a command line interface into all of Visual3D's functions. In special cases, C-Motion creates custom pipeline commands for users. These commands are usually fully functional but hidden from the interface. Users requiring these special commands will need to remember the syntax for the commands.
The Pipeline has the ability to manage files, define events, execute signal processing computations, create and edit modes, create and modify reports, and generated statistics. Edit boxes are usually provided for configuring each process step.
Pipeline commands are divided into various categories: File, Signal, Event, etc. Commands under these folders are added to the pipeline by expanding the folder for a category, and selecting the function to be added by clicking the "Add" button. The selected function will be added to the pipeline immediately after the command that is currently highlighted in the pipeline. Commands can be repositioned in the pipeline using the arrow keys to the right of the list box.
A pipeline can be used to define the processing steps for a given experimental data analysis protocol. This allows, for example, the director of the laboratory to control the processing that is done by a member of the laboratory. This may be essential for some experimental studies that require that all of the data analysis be performed consistently.
Visual3D plug ins integrate seamlessly into Visual3D and are accessed through the pipeline processor.
The Pipeline can be saved to disk as an ASCII file that can be edited with any common word processing program.
Pipeline commands usually process the "Active Files"; e.g. those files active in the Visual3D Workspace. If only one file is selected in the file selection box, the pipeline, when executed, will perform actions only on the data from that file. If ALL_FILES is selected, the script will perform actions on every file individually, as if the script had been run sequentially for each file.
This allows groups of files within the Workspace to be processed differently from other groups.
Files can be made active by selecting them in the combo box on the Visual3D Tool bar or by using the Pipeline Command Set_Active_File.
The Active File Selector combo box on the Visual3D Tool bar allows you to choose which subset of your motion trials are ACTIVE. The data tree is populated by data from the Active Files. The file selector combo will normally have one entry for each of your input data files (both standing and movement trials), two special entries ALL_FILES and GLOBAL, and also one entry for each file tag you may have defined on the Workspace Status page. Selecting a single file allows you to examine just that file’s contents, plus any new items (such as processed signals) computed only from that file’s contents. If you select a group of files (using e.g. a file tag or the special entry ALL_FILES, which means just what it says), you will see the union of all the data trees for the individual files in the group. (Every item which appears in the data tree when you select one of the files individually will also appear in the data tree for the entire group.)
Each Pipeline command consists of two parts - the command and its parameters.
Pipeline commands have a special syntax for defining parameters needed by the function. The general syntax of a Visual3D script command is:
Command_Name
/Parameter1= something
/Parameter2= this_value+another_value
/Parameter3= 3.14
!/Parameter4= default_value_for_Parameter4;
Note that each parameter begins with a slash and that the command is terminated with a semicolon. The generalized command above passes one set of three parameters to the command "Command_Name". To pass more than one set of parameters to the command, list the values of each parameter, separated by "+" signs. Optional parameter are commented out - thus they start with an excalmation mark.
The "!" character is used to comment out a parameter. If the "!" character is at the beginning of a line, the line is ignored, and the default values for the parameter are used in the processing. The script text is provided so that these optional parameters may be un-commented and additional parameter values added.
The pipeline commands reserve 4 special characters
Some commands act on signals (Target, Analog, etc). You can select a signal name for the command to work on by checking the signals in the data tree (signal and event processing mode) and pressing the "Import Signals from Data Tree" button. This will add the signal information (Type,Name,Folder) to the command.