VisionGauge^® OnLine
Latest Enhancements

We are continuously working to improve VisionGauge^® OnLine. Here is an overview of the main improvements and new features that have recently been added to VisionGauge^® OnLine:

• We've added a new tool in the Program Toolbox that allows you to execute external applications directly from within a VisionGauge® OnLine automatic inspection program.

• In the "Edit | Image Info" tool, along with the image width & height, we've added the displayed image width & height. These displayed dimensions reflect the effect of the value specified in the "Settings | Image Display Settings" window.

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added user-selectable acceleration & deceleration parameters in the "Motion Control Settings" window

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added the ability to step through a series of points in the Program Toolbox's "Motion Control" tool. Points can be read-in from file ("give the file format") and can also be added & removed manually.

• We've enhanced the Program Toolbox's "Jump" tool so that you can specify a specific number of times (i.e. iterations) to carry out the jump operation. This is especially useful when combined with the ability to step through a series of points in the Program Toolbox's "Motion Control" tool.
  

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• We've added support for a new PCI-bus multi-function board that can be used to control up to 8 light sources (VisionGauge® OnLine presently supports up to 4) and also supports up to 48 I/O channels.

• We've added a "Capture image from sequence" option (in the Program Toolbox's "Image Capture" tool).

• We've added a "Compute & Display Statistics" checkbox in each Data Group's "Options" submenu. You can un-check this box to accelerate calculations & also make the Data Group's window smaller.

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added "positional recall" in the DataGroups. You can have the stage return to a position by simply double-clicking on one of the 10 buttons on the left hand side of the DataGroup.

• We've added a new Control-I "hotkey" to callup the Motion Toolbox in the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine.

• We've further enhanced VisionGauge® OnLine's Auto-Focus tool to make it even faster & more accurate. Also, we've added an Auto-Focus velocity that you can set to optimize the tool's speed and accuracy.

• We've added a new "Remove Image Annotations on program termination" checkbox in the Program Toolbox's "Options" window.

• We've added Non Destructive Live Image Overlays (i.e. crosshair & bull's eye) with user defined line width, line style (i.e. solid, dashed & dotted) & line color. Also, in the "bull's eye" mode, the user can define the umber of rings.

• We've added a Units menu option in the Motion Toolbox

• We've enhanced VisionGauge® OnLine's support for DirectX-compliant devices.

• We've added the ability to output either all results, or only pass or only fail results to Data Groups.

• We've added a new "Scan" tool in the Motorized Stage Configuration (with user-specified "overlap").

• Also: we've added the ability to set the value of a result variable when a scan operation completes. This can be useful for controlling the timing between various operations.

• We've carried out "Dynamic Data Exchange" (i.e. DDE) enhancements and have added support for "non-book" topics.

• We've added new measurement tools designed specifically for the measurement of cable & wire cross sections.

• We've also added a new marker to marker measurement tool: bottommost position of grayscale value. This can be useful to find the bottommost boundary of a feature characterized by its grayscale value.

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added a skew function in the Motion Toolbox.

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added both Linear Error Correction (i.e. LEC) & Stage Squareness Correction in the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine.

• In the Motorized Stage Configuration of VisionGauge® OnLine, we've added the ability to change the Motion Control Window's display (between Standard and Expanded).

• We've added a new "Set result variable" tool in the Program Toolbox to set the value of a result variable.

• We've added a manual "Counting & Sizing" tool in VisionGauge® OnLine.

• In the Program Toolbox's "Capture" tool, we've added the ability to set the length of the number string (i.e. force the length of the number string) so that the string is "left padded" with zeros.

• We've added a new "Data File" tool in the Program Toolbox...

• We've added a "Computation settings" dialog box in the "Settings" sub-menu. This dialog box displays the number of physical processors present as well as the number of virtual processors that VisionGauge® OnLine is using.

• In the Feature-Based Pattern Matching tool, we've added a checkbox that allows you to indicate if you want the tool's algorithm to be optimized to support "negative" images (i.e. where color reversal could take place). This can be useful in situations where changes in illumination could produce such "color reversal" types of effects (e.g. bright field/dark field illumination), etc...

• In the Feature-Based Pattern Matching tool, we've added the ability to display the pattern image's edge map. Note that only the edges that meet the "minimum edge magnitude" criteria are displayed. This allows you to see which edges get considered in the pattern matching calculations.

• In the Image Alignment tool, we've added the ability to display the edge map of the pattern images. Note that only the edges that meet the "minimum edge magnitude" criteria are displayed. This allows you to see which edges get considered in the pattern matching calculations (which are part of the overall image alignment calculations).

• We've added an "Iteration No" widget in the Program toolbox.

• We've carried out some performance optimizations when using EPIX PIXCI framegrabbers.

• In the Program Toolbox's "Counting & Sizing" tool, we've added a new "Total Area" (that allows you to test the minimum & maximum "total area").

• We've added a new "Edge Map..." tool in the main window's "Tools" submenu. This can be useful for displaying & evaluating an image's edge information.

• We've added a new Timer tool in the Program Toolbox. This can be very useful for evaluating the time requirements of individual instructions and operations and optimizing a program's performance.

• We've improved the timer tool. VisionGauge® now uses the system's high-resolution performance counter (if one exists). This provides even more accurate timing values as well as sub-millisecond resolutions.

• In the Program Toolbox's "Motion Control" tool, we've added the ability to "Set result variable on completion" for a "Move" operation. This gives you the ability to carry out move operations "in the background" when you do not check the "Pause program execution until all motion is complete" checkbox. You can then carry out other image analysis tasks while the move operation is occurring in the background...

• We've added a "Wait for result variable" option in the Program Toolbox's "Wait" tool. When used in conjunction with the Motion Control tool's "Set result variable on completion" option, this allows you to simultaneous execute image processing & motion operations, and to synchronize their execution...

• We've added the ability to output data directly to COM ports. On startup you can specify the number of com ports to setup as well as the communication parameters for each port:
  

  

  

  and in the "Statistics & Data Groups" tool you can indicate that you want the contents of a data group sent to a COM port during the program's execution. 

  

  When the "Send Data to COM Port" option is selected, the number of values in the data group in question as well as the values themselves will be output to the specified data group. Note that you can also indicate if you want line feed (i.e. <LF>) and carriage return (i.e. <CR>) characters added after each value.

  VisionGauge® OnLine's ability to send data directly to COM a port is a very useful and general-purpose mechanism that you can use to interface VisionGauge® OnLine to other external equipment and machinery.
   

• We've added a new "Read Input Channel" tool that you can use to set results variables and output channel values based on an input channel's high/low value (this new tool is very useful for program control & program logic)

• We've added a "Range" widget (range = max - min) in the "Statistics" section of the Numerical Data Groups.

• When a "Save to disk" command is executed during a program's execution and a Data File is open, the name of the saved image file (complete with path & extension) is written to the Data File.

• In the "Wait" tool, when you select "wait for user input" you can also specify a message to display to the user when he's prompted for input.

• We've added support for the latest PIXCI framegrabber drivers.

Click on this link to see a list of previous enhancements...