Experiment folder guide

Initialization files

An experimental setup (or personal computer) often requires code that should be initialized at the start of your measurement session. This includes loading often-used packages, initializing instruments, setting up the Layout, etc.

Instead of having all this code at the start of your measurement code, SilQ provides an alternative, namely by creating a list of initialization files that can be run easily. If the initialization belongs to a measurement, the correct folder is experiments\{experiment_name}\init, while for personal initialization code the correct folder is personal\{username}\{whatever_you_prefer}. It is recommended that you create separate files for distinct types of initialization code (e.g. package imports, instruments). The files will be run in alphabetical order, so it is useful to add a numerical prefix to indicate the loading order.

Furthermore, you should add a label to silq\configurations.py, with information on the location of the initialization folder. You can also add additional modes, which can for instance ignore some of the files (useful when you want to operate in analysis mode, etc.). Once the initialization code has been written and a label has been assigned, you can run the initialization code using:

import silq
silq.initialize({label}, mode={mode})

where mode is optional.