How scans are done

There are several distinct steps to doing scans. They include calls to sm_scan.prepare_scan_parameters() and sm_scan.prepare_scan_devices(). Line-by-line scans are then done by repeatedly calling sm_scan.start_scanline(), waiting for sm_scan.scanline_completed(), and calling sm_scan.end_scanline(). At the end of all of this, the routine sm_scan.recenter() is to be called to re-center the stages, and sm_scan.complete_scan() is called to update final parameters and write the file on the server. We describe these steps in turn. In addition, the file doc/stxm5/scan_variables.xls lists all sm_par elements and all relevant sm_scan private variables.