[Home]Running Multiple User Interfaces

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More than one User Interface? Why?

The default configuration of EMC runs a single user interface (GUI), as called out by the DISPLAY = <something> variable in the [DISPLAY] section of the ini file.

However, you can run more than one GUI, or several different ones at the same time. The additional user interfaces can be in additional windows on the main EMC computer, or even on completely different computers connected over a network. This page describes some of the possibilties, but is not complete.

Why would you want to do such a thing?

It has always been possible to run multiple GUIs, but it hasn't always been trivial to set it up. It still isn't, but some progress has been made in that area, and discussions have started about other improvements.

How to do it

When using "run in place"

The following step-by-step instructions assume that you already did your clone, configure, and build. Lines starting with "$" are commands to be typed exactly as written, other lines are just for your information and should not be entered into the PC.

  1. Switch to the top level directory of your checkout (the command below is appropriate for my system, your directory probably has a different name):
  2. $ cd ~/emcdev/emc2head
  3. Set some EMC environment variables (not strictly neccessary here, but it saves some typing):
  4. $ . scripts/emc-environment
  5. Now start EMC normally - you can just type "emc" and use the config picker, or start it with a specific config by specifying that ini file:
  6. $ emc configs/<your-config-directory>/<your-ini-file>
  7. Now for the second GUI... leave the original shell and EMC running, and open another shell.
  8. Switch to your checkout directory again:
  9. $ cd ~/emcdev/emc2head
  10. Then set the environment variables for the new shell (this time it is required):
  11. $ . scripts/emc-environment
  12. Switch to your config directory:
  13. $ cd configs/<your-config-directory>
  14. Run the second GUI:
  15. $ tkemc.tcl -ini <your-ini-file>
  16. (or axis, or mini.tcl, or....)

If the second GUI is to be on a different PC, there are a couple of approaches:

When using an installed EMC2

I think its not too different, although you won't use emc-environment, and you will have to cd to a few different directories. More later.


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Last edited June 20, 2009 8:47 am by JeffEpler (diff)
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