Virtual Instrumentation and Instrument Widgets

A virtual instrument is a panel of meters, charts, sliders and indicators that behaves like a bench instrument, while the values come from software channels. In MatDeck that panel is called a Virtument. It can sit inside a document next to the notes and formulas that explain the measurement, or it can run on its own.

Widgets are placed by dragging them onto the panel. A gauge binds to a channel, a slider writes a setpoint, and a chart follows the stream. The same panel can talk to a MatDeck document or to a Python script, so the person who builds the instrument does not have to maintain a second user-interface project.

From a panel to a program

A finished panel can stay inside MatDeck for lab work, or it can be packaged as a Windows executable for a test bench that should not require the full editor. The layout, the channel bindings and the script travel together, so the operator sees the same meters that were used while the measurement was being set up.