GDA User Guide

This is the Generic Data Acquisition (GDA) User Guide.

GDA is an open source project providing a configurable platform for running experiments on synchrotron and neutron beamlines.

The User Guide’s companion document the GDA Developer Guide is available here.

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User Guide contents:

• 1. About this document
  • 1.1. GDA single-point-of-truth
  • 1.2. External links to source code documentation
• 2. Introduction to the GDA
  • 2.1. The GDA Project
  • 2.2. Logging onto a beamline workstation
  • 2.3. Starting the GDA
  • 2.4. The GDA Client
  • 2.5. Data Storage
• 3. The GDA Command line
  • 3.1. Background
  • 3.2. Basic Concepts
  • 3.3. Code Completion
  • 3.4. Example usage of the main Jython GDA commands
  • 3.5. Sources for help
• 4. Extended Syntax Commands
• 5. Writing Scripts
  • 5.1. Basic scripting
  • 5.2. Coding Standards
  • 5.3. Importing Modules
  • 5.4. Interrupting Scripts
  • 5.5. Matrices
  • 5.6. Advanced Scripting
• 6. Scanning
  • 6.1. The definition of a scan
  • 6.2. Traditional scan commands
  • 6.3. Mapping scan command
  • 6.4. Default devices and detectors
  • 6.5. Configuring Scannable movement priority (levels)
• 7. Mapping Scans
  • 7.1. The Mapping GUI
  • 7.2. Conducting a Scan
• 8. Writing new scannables
  • 8.1. How to create a Scannable
  • 8.2. Basic Template
  • 8.3. The Scannable Constructor
  • 8.4. Methods available to implement in the Scannable Interface
  • 8.5. More templates
  • 8.6. Ensuring Correct Scan Behavior from Scannables
• 9. Data Analysis
  • 9.1. Plotting
• 10. Plotting
  • 10.1. scisoftpy software
  • 10.2. Datasets
  • 10.3. Peak Fitting
• 11. NeXus Data Files
  • 11.1. Overview
  • 11.2. Using NeXus at Diamond
  • 11.3. Relevant Java Properties
  • 11.4. Useful Java Interfaces
  • 11.5. Capturing Additional Information
  • 11.6. Defining the location of NeXus file entries
  • 11.7. GDA Helper functions
• 12. Eclipse GUI Preferences
  • 12.1. How to Specify Preferences
  • 12.2. ScanPlot Preferences
  • 12.3. Preference to display text beside icons in GDA view
• 13. Common Scientific Tasks
  • 13.1. Tomography
  • 13.2. Ptychography
  • 13.3. TBC
• 14. Specific Beamline Guides
  • 14.1. Spectroscopy
  • 14.2. Macromolecular Crystallography (MX)
  • 14.3. Imaging & Microscopy/ Physical Sciences
  • 14.4. Crystallography
  • 14.5. Soft Condensed Matter
  • 14.6. Magnetic Material
  • 14.7. Surface & Structures
• 15. Contributors to the GDA project

Appendix

• Document’s Broken Links
  • ACKS.md
  • about_this_document.md

Indices

• Index