# Simulating Devices

Both Cameras and Cognex Communications Card Devices can be simulated, enabling development to occur without the device being physically connected, by either right-clicking the device under the Devices node of the Project Explorer and selecting Simulate, or programmatically by using the SetSimulationDevice function.

Simulating a device is helpful during application development of your project. For example, if you had a camera and you wanted to simulate your application without having the camera continually acquiring images, you could have a Camera Device being simulated by an Image File Device. This allows you to mimic your application by having the Image File device point to a database of acquired images, and pass those images into your Task, instead of using the real Camera device. When configured in this way, you can leave the Camera block in the Task, and you do not have to replace it with an Image File block.

Note: For the Cognex Communications Card, if a CC24 Device is not installed in the PC, before creating a simulation of the CC24 Device, you must create a disconnected version of the device. Follow the steps for adding a CC24 Device, and ensure that the Index is set to 0, so once the project is moved to a PC with a CC24 Device installed, it will automatically replace the disconnected version with the CC24 Device present in the PC. Then, follow the steps outlined in the Enabling a Simulation Device to create a simulation of the disconnected CC24 Device.

You can also have multiple simulation devices, and change between the different simulators.