The SCOUT software developed for optical analysis by spectrum simulation is a Windows based stand-alone solution. The typical SCOUT user works in a research environment, has some background in optical spectroscopy and is able to setup new models for optical constants and layer stacks.

Communication with other programs is possible by file import and export and some clipboard transactions.

For routine spectroscopy (product and process control) simplified user interfaces have been developed. While there is an almost complete SCOUT program doing its work in the background the 'front end window' has only a few buttons being operated by users without spectroscopic background.

A typical sequence is the following: First a so-called 'method' is loaded (i.e. a complete configuration containing all necessary models for a given problem) which is then used to analyze many spectra of a certain type of samples. A spectrum is loaded (or recorded with direct spectrometer control from within the front end application), the parameter fitting is started and stopped after a certain level of quality has been reached, and finally the obtained parameters are stored in a proper way.

Following increasing demands for external control we have turned SCOUT into an OLE automation server accessible by all Windows programs supporting OLE automation. The SCOUT OLE automation server is described in this user guide.

After a description of the installation procedure the public properties and methods of SCOUT OLE automation objects are discussed. Then we show how you can automate your SCOUT work  using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros in Excel. Programs providing easy access to tables of data like spreadsheet applications are certainly best suited for SCOUT work. This will be clear from the shown examples. Nevertheless, you can use any application that can act as an OLE automation client (or controller) to work with the SCOUT server.