Author: Brian Cowan

We’ve enhanced our groundbreaking and patented CAD Auto-Align™ CAD Auto-Pass/Fail™ tools to continue making them even more widely applicable, robust, and accurate. And recently we carried out a number of enhancements geared towards supporting very large CAD files. The resulting accelerations, optimizations, and enhancements yield a tremendous speedup (typically: by a factor of 40 or higher) that will be useful in a very wide range of applications.

We’ve carried out a number of enhancements to our iterative 6-point nest part reorientation tool that have increased its applicability and improved its performance, and we’ve also carried out extensive systematic testing to document how our innovative algorithm correctly “re-orients” the part, corrects for fixturing variation, and produces accurate results.

An update changes the behaviour of the Settings Toolbox when attempting to change buttons that load magnifications on multimag systems. Now if the system is already at a magnification and a button is selected that would load the same magnification, the system will not change the multimag position. All other parameters saved in that Settings Toolbox button will still change, though (e.g. illumination, camera format files, units, etc.).

A new test has been added to the “Data Groups and Statistics” step of the Program Toolbox to test the range of the last two additions to a Data Group.

A new option has been added to the Program Toolbox’s “Wait” menu for Operator Input that requires the operator to manually choose a Pass or Fail value. This can be useful if a previous operation requires an operator decision.

We have added a new “Units” step in the Program Toolbox to allow changing the current set units during the course of a running program.

We have added the ability to set Auto-Align Settings in Program Toolbox “Image Overlay” steps.

A recent update modifies the actions the user can take in the Data Group’s Pass/Fail map. When single clicking on a Pass or Fail region in the map, if the Data Group is collecting images, the image from that location will be displayed. Previously single-clicking on that region would move the stage to that location with live video activated: This stage movement action has now been set when double-clicking on the region.

We have updated support for Computer Controlled Illumination devices to allow multiple mixed devices to function on the same system and to support new multi analog output channels on a single device.

This update adds a new option when outputting data from VisionGauge® OnLine to Excel via DDE. Previously all transfers to Excel were asynchronous which could have the chance to overload Excel with commands on slower systems or if Excel had additional tasks to respond to in the background. In that scenario, Excel may have disconnected from VisionGauge® OnLine and reset the transfer parameters. This new update adds an option to use synchronous data transfer to Excel, which forces Excel to acknowledge each transfer and respond. Synchronous transfer may be slightly slower and VisionGauge® OnLine may pause while waiting for a response from Excel, but there is no data loss or resetting of parameters. This data transfer option may be found in the “Customize – Data Transfer – Excel” menu.

Writing data to files during a shutdown procedure has been improved for various files types. which could prevent lost settings when shutting down under certain circumstances.

We have added a timeout parameter for single image capture operations that could be used when slower framerates are being applied.

Added the ability to allow operator access to the Measurement Toolbox “Open” menu in the Security Manager when password protection is enabled

A software instability has been fixed when reading some .dxf files with Polylines or LWPolylines with certain data.

A timeout issue with the hardware security key has been resolved that could prompt “dongle” errors during use of the software then force the software to shutdown.

Program Toolbox – Error Options

The Program Toolbox now contains new Error Options in the Options setup, with the ability to set variables on error or jump to specific steps on error.

Absolute Value of Deviation from Nominal

We have added the ability to output the absolute value of the control sections’ deviations from nominal to a Data Group. This also modifies the tolerances accordingly, when applicable. The new option to output the absolute value is defined when setting up each control section. Note that the displayed deviation from nominal on the image will still be the actual value as computed, and only the value output to the Data Group will be modified.

This update further enhances the robustness of the Threads measurements ROI selection. To be able to carry out proper measurements with the pitch, the minimum required number of full thread crests and roots is now 2.

This update also adds support for horizontal thread measurements (for vertically position screws), including all the previous measurement capabilities for threads. The orientation of the threads is selected in both the manual measurement mode and the Program Toolbox Measurement step in the the Threads Measurement tab.

A new “Print” option has been added to Data Groups under the “File” menu to allow printing the currently shown data in the Data Group (across multiple pages, as needed).

In this update, additional support has been added when setting up computer controlled illumination to skip over/offset a module’s channel. This permits our technicians to setup the new octant-based illumination with other illumination channels in a more familiar configuration, with backlight set as the first channel.

On systems with DirectX compliant video acquisition devices, when opening the “Settings – DirectX Video Properties” menu to adjust camera settings, live video will now activate to display live feedback of the changes being made.

Improved Counting and Sizing operations when using dilation adjustments to ‘merge’ close objects.

Addition of a “Smallest Object Equivalent Diameter” measurement with tolerances for Counting and Sizing operations.

Counting and Sizing “Largest object..” results now factor in user limits when returning the largest object in the ROI.

VisionGauge OnLine’s DDE Server capabilities have been updated with the following topics:

A new “Quicksave” Topic was added to our DDE server support to activate the QuickSave feature with its current configuration (in the Settings – General Preferences). When the image has been saved, the filepath is returned to the DDE client.

Also a new “Measure” Topic was added to start a measurement and return the result from the DDE client (e.g. Excel). The Item string serves as a description of the measurement being taken.

Ethernet Motion Control Drive support:

Improved timeout scenarios when awaiting a response from an ethernet motor drive before disabling the drive.

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Multilingual/Localisation Support:

This updates adds further multilingual support. The following windows have been updated with localisation support:

Annotation Label for measurements
Configure Measurement Toolbox Label
Allow User to Confirm Measurement
Area/Pathline Measurement windows
Measurement Additional Settings window
Measurement Toolbox + Set dialogs
Snap Mode window
Units dialog + Advanced
String/Numerical Variables Setup

Support has been added for Unicode characters in Automatic DDE to Excel filepaths and in the Program Toolbox “Step” label.

All String Variables can now be Unicode strings.

This update adds the ability to bypass requiring a password for operators when accessing the Live Image Overlay Settings menu, if the Security Manager has been setup with password protection. This grants operators access to specific overlay settings. However, further access to DXF Overlay calibration and alignment-specific settings are still password protected.

The following fixes have also been made:

• This update corrects an issue in the Program Toolbox where ROI’s for the Threads or Trace Width measurement tools may need to be reset when loading programs with previously saved ROI’S.
• Fixed an issue in Remote Program Communications when receiving multiple commands at once that may contain errors or that may repeat the same command. Previously commands received simultaneously during the same input window would only execute the first command.
• An issue was also fixed that may cause a crash during Digital Input Monitoring or Remote Program Communications if a program was running in the Program Toolbox but the toolbox itself was closed.
• This update includes a fix that can prevent a designated program channel from properly saving the selected program in the Input Monitoring window.
• Fixed an issue that might occur when shutting down VisionGauge OnLine that could crash the software if the Status Box is in a certain state.
• A potential crash has been fixed when opening the Measurement Mode window when a Marker to Marker tab is already active, or when changing to the the Marker to Marker tab on some systems due to Datum/Lines data being selected and updating.
• This update includes a fix for a crash that can occur when opening the CAD Navigator window multiple times in a row.
• This update adds improved handling for warning/error notifications, particularly when errors are reported from various threads, preventing crashing in various cases – mostly relating to live video display. This improves stability of the software in the event of various errors which could present as random software crashes.
• This update fixes a bug when inserting or deleting Program Toolbox steps where some parameters in Data File steps later in the program than this insertion/deletion point would not transfer to the new step position.

Program Toolbox – “Wait” Settings

The Wait Program Toolbox step has been updated with a new option that would disallow empty input from a Wait – “Wait for user input” step. When selected, the dialog prompt to enter input will continue to be displayed until non-blank input is entered.

Parallelism and Perpendicularity Alternate Mode

An option for an alternative method to measure Parallelism and Perpendicularity has been introduced when performing these measurements either manually or through the Program Toolbox. This alternate method specifies the first two points to define the initial reference line, as before. However, the third point establishes a single point on the comparison line, while the 4th point establishes a direction for the comparison line to extend. An extra parameter is required to specify how far away on the comparison line to project the point to be measured. The returned measurement is the projected point to the 2nd reference line (still defined as a line parallel to the 1st reference line passing through the 3rd point).
A new “Additional Setup” dialog allows enabling this alternate method during measurement selection.

We have added support for new Thread measurement and inspection tools in the manual and automated measurement modes. When selected, this measurement mode allows multiple measurements to be returned from the result of drawing a single ROI around the top and bottom threads. A minimum of 4 threads is required to complete all measurement options.

Thread feature measurements currently able to be reported include:

• Average minor diameter
• Average major diameter
• Average pitch diameter
• Minimum pitch diameter
• Maximum pitch diameter
• Average pitch

Specific points calculated from the measurements can also be saved as Datums for re-use in further measurements.

For more information and an overview video, visit the Thread inspection and measurement page.

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The top-bottom thread edge profile detection has been improved with regards to filtering stray contaminants above/below threads.

This update introduces template Excel files that are used to automatically create specific Excel files when outputting data from the Data Groups, without having to pre-create the target Excel file. Currently supported templates are Excel files with the extensions .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm.
The new, blank template files provided in the C:/vgOnLine/Reports/Templates directory can also be customized, or replaced with your own standard templates in this directory renamed the target extension as ‘template’.

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Writing Data Groups to file with string variables used into the filename will now replace the ‘:’ populated by a date/time string with dashes, for Windows file naming compatibility.

We have added support for up to 12 light sources in VisionGauge® OnLine, including the ability to ‘lock’ sequential channels together so their illumination levels all increase/decrease together. Locked illumination channels can be unlocked to control the channels individually. This can be useful for fine illumination control with specific modules that have multiple LEDs.

This update supports our newly released Octant-based Reflected Illumination module.

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We have also enhanced general performance for manually controlling computer controlled illumination channels to reduce lag when adjusting the values.

The log file has been updated to include Program Toolbox steps as well as status box messages when enabled.

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A camera rotation configuration has been added to the Image Capture Settings. This configuration is useful in specific system builds and camera selections when it fits the application.

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We have added expanded support to read analog input with new devices. These new devices also have the option during configuration to convert the analog input result to voltage.

• We’ve carried various performance enhancements and user interface quality improvements.

The following fixes have also been made:

• Fixed various potential crash conditions when executing and loading programs
• Outputting data as whole numbers to a Data Group that has existing real values may temporarily modify the number of significant digits of the entire Data Group. This has been resolved.
• Fixed a crash condition when reading in overlays after an overlay with Tooth Checker settings enabled has been read in.
• Fixed an issue when the first instance of displaying live video in some scenarios may result in the software appearing to freeze up.

Program Toolbox – “Pause” Settings

A new option has been added to the “Program Toolbox – Pause” step settings to allow saving the current image in the program before pausing and restoring that image when the program resumes. This option is enabled by default. Disabling this option would use the current image at the time the program is resumed (if the image changes while the image is paused…)

Program Toolbox – Image Overlay Settings

Additional Settings have been added to the “Program Toolbox – Image Overlay” step for an Auto-Align operation. These settings only apply to certain systems that have been setup with axes for part rotation. In this configuration, users can now choose to follow-up an Auto-Align step by rotating the axis controlling part rotation by the amount of the offset of the Auto-Align step result.

 

We have also added an option in the “Program Toolbox – Image Overlay” step to allow output to CSV file of the X,Y position of the located edges from the Auto-Pass/Fail operation on Entity cross sections. All Entity cross section edges located in the current field-of-view are output to the CSV file. The output file name is able to be configured by the user manually or by using a stored string variable. It is also possible to add a time/date string to the end of the filename at the time of output.

Expanded support for defining measurements using Line datums

We have expanded support for Line measurements in manual and automated measurements in the latest version of VisionGauge® OnLine. These enhancements allow operators to use the “Line Finder” and “Edge Break” measurement tools to save a located line as a Line datum (similar to our Datums), and then re-use these “Lines” in future measurements. As with Datums, these Lines travel with a part as the stage moves, such that a Line defined on the edge of a part still references the same edge as the part moves along the stage. For some measurements, previously only a single Line was able to be defined for measurements, and now we allow multiple lines to be defined to support more complex measurements.

Setup of these measurements can now select Define Using Lines to enable options to define which Lines to use. Measurements supporting definition using these Line datums include:

 

General Measurements:

• “2-point” angles measuring from horizontal or vertical – requiring 1 Line
• “4-point” angles measuring between two lines – requiring 2 Lines

 

Marker-to-Marker Measurements:

• Intersection of 2 Lines – requiring 2 Lines
• Orthogonal to a Line (or Closest Point on a Line) – requiring 1 Line
• Orthogonal to a Line Bisecting an Angle – requiring 2 Lines. This measurement can now also be defined with standard Datums, too.

 

Miscellaneous Measurements:

• Roll Pin Distance – requiring 4 Lines (2 Lines per Roll Pin). An additional point is required to select approximately the center of each of the Roll Pins and determine between which line segments the Roll Pin is located: In a manual measurement, the operator must use the mouse to select where the Roll Pin is located, while in an automated measurement, a Datum must be defined before that is located in the appropriate segment.

 

We have also included an option when using the Line Finder and Edge Break tools to apply iterative sub-pixel refinement which can greatly improve the resulting Line along imperfect edges.

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Intersection of a Circle and a Line Projection & Orthogonal to a Line Tangent to a Circle Measurements

This update adds 2 more automated measurements to the Program Toolbox – Measurement step. The Marker-to-Marker measurements now include “Intersection of a Circle and a Line Projection” and “Orthogonal to a Line Tangent to a Circle”, which were previously introduced to the manual measurement mode.

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RS-232 COM Measurement Device Support Added

Support has been added to allow measurements from RS-232/COM devices (or those with USB adapters that create a COM port in Windows). When starting VisionGauge® OnLine with this update, the user will be prompted if they want to support any of these devices.

During configuration, the RS232/COM device parameters must be entered for each device, including bit rate, data bits, parity, stop bits, a device description, and the command to request a measurement from the device.

A new option for RS-232/COM Port Measurement has been added to the “Miscellaneous” tab of the manual measurement mode, as well as the Program Toolbox – Measurement step. During this setup, users need only select the number of the device they setup.

During manual measurement mode, simply pressing the Measure button will obtain the reading from the device and send it to a Data Group accordingly.

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Roll Pin Distance Returned Value update

We have added a “Returned Value” option in the Program Toolbox for “Roll Pin Distance” measurements. As with other measurements that support it, this permits the user to determine if the straight-line distance is returned between the measurement points or only the horizontal or vertical component of this distance.

We have also added clarification to the measurement string returned about which value is selected. The same adjustments have been made to the manual measurement mode for Roll Pin Distance, referred to as “Primary Measurement”.

We have added the ability to edit the Motion Control Toolbox’s list of System Coordinate names. By default these are named “Coordinate System #X” for each label, up to 20 coordinate systems. At the bottom of the System Coordinate menu, users can now access a dialog box to edit these names. The names will carryover from session to session of the software.

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We have enhanced the software to accommodate recent hardware changes to our newer ethernet motion control drives. Existing system with drives in this configuration will remain unchanged, except the software will startup faster than before.

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We have added a 1-second wait after a stage has been instructed to home to allow the motion control system to settle after the last movement before setting the position to zero for greater positional accuracy when applying 2D XY Stage Corrections.

To protect against lost software settings when Windows is shutdown or restarted while VisionGauge® OnLine is still running, VisionGauge® OnLine will now signal that it is still running and object to shutting down Windows before the software is properly closed. If a Windows shutdown event forces VisionGauge® OnLine to close without saving the current settings, the user will be notified about the event upon startup of the following session and the last properly saved settings will attempt to be used. Examples of such shutdown events are Windows automatic updates, users logging off, and other manual or automatic restarts. As a reminder, it is highly recommended to shut down VisionGauge® OnLine properly before initiating a Windows reboot, shutdown, or user log-off operation.

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We have added a notification for users when attempting to read in a newer version of Control Section or Entity-Based Auto-Pass/Fail files. The same notification is also now available for setup files. This may prevent certain crashes users experience when reading in unsupported files, particularly when sharing files between systems that do not have the same software revision.

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We have expanded support for input/output of rotary stage coordinates in the Degree/Minutes/Seconds format. These units can be selected as usual from the “Settings – Units” menu. Various locations in the Motion Control Toolbox, Program Toolbox, and output have been updated with this support.

• We’ve carried various performance enhancements and user interface quality improvements.

The following fixes have also been made:

• We have corrected an issue where the manual measurement mode could be switched during an active measurement operation, which could cause a software crash with certain measurement types.
• We have corrected an issue where the software used the wrong value when outputting the overlay’s rotation position to a Data Group from the “Program Toolbox – Image Overlay” step.
• We have corrected an issue when recalling an overlay through a Data Group may change the units to ‘pixels’ if images are being collected in the Data Group. Also recalling an overlay through a Data Group previous might not have properly displayed edge search ranges for Auto-Pass/Fail entities.
• We’ve corrected an issue where certain .dxf files may appear to read properly, but would display no entities or only text entities overlapping each other.
• We’ve corrected an issue that may happen intermittently when manually starting an Auto-Align operation in the Overlay Translation/Rotation window. In those instances, the Auto-Align may appear to start but finishes immediately without actually moving the overlay: Pressing the button additional times results in the Auto-Align operation starting and completing as intended. This has been resolved and operates as intended on the first button press.
• Previously Data Groups that had the option to restore overlays and offsets enabled were unable to properly restore the overlay when a result was populated by an automated program. This has been resolved and overlays are restore no matter how the result was populated.