Paragon-X: config files (.cst) and compatibility across versions

Owned by Kevin Godfrey
May 26, 2020
2 min read

The Paragon-X GUI enables the saving of the instrument configuration into a .cst file for later recall i.e. to enable the configuration to be stored and reused easily:

However, because of the software architecture used in Paragon-X, it cannot be guaranteed that a config file created in one version will be compatible with future versions.

If an incompatible file is loaded, an error message indicating an ‘unknown setting’ will be displayed, some examples of which are given below.

If this error occurs, the only way to translate from old format to new is by loading the old file into a compatible version of the GUI, then running the new GUI side-by-side and manually configuring the same setup.

Scripting alternative

An alternative method of creating a particular configuration that does not have this incompatibility is to use scripting to create the config step-by-step. This can either be created manually (with reference to the Paragon-X Remote Control Reference Manual available from the Help menu in the GUI) or, more easily, by using the Script Recorder feature found in the Tools menu:

More information on these may be found on the Paragon-X: Automation page.