Subject: Running MD2 from within MS Access
   Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 15:37:20 -0400
   From: Dennis Krausman <dkrausman@auriccorp.com>
     To: roger@robotics.com


Thank you for the assistance in pointing the direction for the 32 bit DLLs needed
to run MD2 in some Win95 environments.

We ended up using inout32.dll.  We found the samples in the zip file to be helpful
in getting the application running in VB5.

Once we knew we could run in a 32 bit Vbasic environment, we merged the code into
a Vbasic for Applications which runs in  MSAccess.
We did this by creating an Module in our Access database and copying the MD2vws2.bas
subroutines into the module.  We added our custom Grid procedure into the module
(calling MD2Grid).  We then had a module called "Motion(row, col)"  that could be
called from the code attached to any of our Access Forms.  

In our Access database, during normal operation, an operator will initialize a
test by clicking checkboxes where parts are located in a two dimensional array.
When the test is started, Access automatically sends the location (row, col) of
these devices to the motion stage, in order.  Blank locations are skipped.

This is a very fast way to field an application using Forms as the primary
operator interface, having extensive database facilities for storing and
managing information, and a very simple interface with the motion stage.

Our current application will go into a production operation for testing fiber
optic parts.

Again, thanks for the assistance.  If you have any customers who would like to
integrate with a database, have them contact me, particularly if there is some
work we could do for them.

Dennis Krausman
President
Auric Corporation
703.354.1100
dkrausman@auriccorp.com