Overview

To use ORCA you must make design a configuration of objects that matches your needs. First open a new configuration from the Files->New menu. The either select a group from the templates or open the object Catalog from the Windows->Catalog. Here is what the catalog looks like:

Drag the objects that you need into the Configuration window. Use the mouse to connect the objects to define the flow of data and commands.

Some of the objects, like the Vme crate and the Mac object, are container objects that hold other objects. To add objects to these container objects, open them up by double-clicking on them. A dialog will appear into which you can drag objects from the catalog.

To actually take data you must not only set up a hardware configuration as the above example, but also a data collection chain. A typical set of data collection items would consist of a Run Control, Data Taker, Data Monitor, and Disk File objects connected together thus:

Keyboard ShortCuts

There are a number of keyboard short cuts that can be used when working with objects in the configuration. For the most part the operation of dealing with moving, selecting, and deleting objects is the same as dealing with files in the MacOS Finder.

Opt-drag                                       makes a duplicate of the objects(s) being dragged

Shift while drag selecting             adds objects to the selection, or removes from selection objects already selected

Shift while click selecting            adds object to the selection, or removes from the selection if already selected

Shift key while starting ORCA    ORCA starts without loading dialogs

Cmd-Shift >                                  shifts dialog to object + 1 of that type

Cmd-Shift <                                  shifts dialog to object - 1 of that type

Cntrl-C                                          copy selected object(s)

Cntrl-X                                          delete selected object(s)

Cntrl-V                                          paste objects from pasteboard

delete                                             delete selected object(s)

Example of typical Data Collection Chain

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