Introduction

As you prepare to design a user interface for your AcuBench program, it is important to ensure that all of the required foundation elements have been put in place. When you use the Standard Project template (which opens with a blank screen in the Screen Designer), it is tempting to jump right in to designing screens. But keep in mind that the process of creating a user interface is significantly easier if you have defined data layout files for your project and created data sets within your program.

With this in mind, before you begin designing and working with your screens, you should:

1. Create an AcuBench project (discussed in Working with Projects).
2. Define one or more data layout files in the Data view (discussed in Working with Data at the Project Level).
3. Create a new AcuBench program (discussed in Working with Programs).
4. In the Structure view, define one or more data sets for use by the program (discussed in Working with Data at the Program Level).

Once you have completed those four steps, you are ready to start working in the Screen Designer. The Working with Screens describes how to use the Screen Designer to create user interfaces for your AcuBench programs.