Author: Brian Cowan

When we introduced VisionGauge®’s patented CAD Auto-Align™ tool, it greatly extended how parts could be inspected. This revolutionary tool gives users the ability to automatically carry out CAD-to-part alignment, very quickly and accurately.

When it is used in conjunction with VisionGauge®’s patented CAD Auto-Pass/Fail™ tool, it allows users to compare a part to its CAD file, completely automatically, with great repeatability & accuracy and absolutely no operator-dependence. There are a great many applications where this is invaluable. The verification of profile and surface tolerances are two very common examples.

We are pleased to announce the release of VisionGauge®’s new CAD Fitting™ tool. This tool is capable of automatically refining the results of CAD Auto-Align™ in some trickier applications to produce even better results.

VisionGauge®’s patented CAD Auto-Align™ tool aligns the CAD nominal to the part at user-specified control sections. It does this in a least-squares sense, i.e. it minimizes the sum of the squared deviations from nominal over all of the control sections.

In most cases, this is ideal. However, there are some situations where it might not be the absolute optimal approach. For example: we can imagine an (extreme) situation where the result of the CAD Auto-Align™ calculation would have the CAD nominal perfectly aligned with the part at all of the control sections except one, at which the part would be just outside the tolerance band. This could lead to a “Fail” result. In this example, the optimal solution might be to slightly modify the alignment (still respecting all of the prescribed constraints) so as to “bring the part back into the tolerance band” at the one control section where this was not the case. This could result in the part slightly “moving away from the CAD nominal” at the other control sections, but still remaining in tolerance at all of these locations. This is what we refer to as “CAD Fitting™” and, in this case, it would transform the result to a “Pass”.

The results of the CAD Auto-Align™ tool applied on an aerospace part are shown above and those of the CAD Fitting™ tool on the same part are below.

Learn more about VisionGauge®’s new CAD Fitting™ tool.

Contact us with the details of your application!

VisionGauge® OnLine version 15.24, dated April 22nd, 2022, is available for download.

The following new features and enhancements have been added over the past few versions:

This update adds a Manual Axis Lock which allows users to declare certain axes as ‘Locked’ against manual control in the Motion Control Toolbox. Attempts to manually move an axis/stage that is locked will be prevented (i.e. joystick operations, Motion Control Toolbox +/- buttons, “Go”/”Go All”). The Status Box will receive a message notifying when a locked axis is trying to move.

The “Lock” checkbox can be enabled/disabled in the Motion Control Toolbox’s Display – Lock Settings menu. This feature can be password protected by the VisionGauge® OnLine Security Manager. By default the Manual Axis Lock is reset for all axes when the software is started, but a new option in the Motion Control Toolbox – Startup Settings allows Administrators to determine if these manually locked axes should persist when the software is shutdown/restarted.

This feature could be useful on the fly during difficult inspections when you may want to prevent accidentally changing the focus or the position of specific axes, or Administrators can restrict operator’s manual control over specific axes and rely on automated programs to handle control of these axes.

VisionGauge® OnLine’s Operator Mode has been updated to allow Administrators to define additional access control settings for the Motion Control Toolbox, including the following possibilities:

• disable the Go All button,
• disable the Home All button,
• disallow setting positions for specific axes (e.g. Zeroing an axis or setting specific positions in the Motion Control Toolbox)

These new options are not applied by default and must be configured when setting up Operator Mode.

This update also adds the ability to save and recall DirectX compliant camera properties when shutting down and restarting the software. Examples of these standard properties are exposure, gain, brightness, white balance, etc…

We’ve also added support to allow users to save the currently loaded properties to the Settings Toolbox (for DirectX-supported devices only). This is useful to quickly switch/recall device properties without having to manually change these settings.

We’ve enhanced support for Computer Controlled Illumination to allow up to 8 illumination controls for applications with more demanding lighting requirements. Support for a new illumination controller has also been added.

An option has been added to the Program Toolbox – Counting & Sizing Settings to allow the user to save to file information about all objects found from the Counting & Sizing operation.

Various additional performance improvements and enhancements have also been made.

VisionGauge® OnLine version 15.00, dated October 14th, 2021, is available for download.

New features and enhancements have been added over the past few versions:

This update moves “Auto-Align” settings previously found in the “CAD Auto Pass/Fail Settings” into a new “CAD Auto-Align Settings” window, accessible from the Overlay Toolbox alongside the “Auto Pass/Fail Settings”.

The CAD Auto-Align Settings include a new parameter to save a default Auto-Align Mode (e.g. X-only, Y-only, XY + Rotation, etc.) when Live Video is activated. XY + Rotation alignment is set by default. The option is saved with each CAD file’s .apf file when configured. This allows users to load different CAD files, each with its own default Auto-Align Mode pre-selected.

The CAD Auto-Pass/Fail Settings also include a new set of default values when setting up Control Sections. These default values are applied when a new control section is added, which can make short work of setting up multiple control sections with the same tolerances, display deviations, and more. You can also use the “Apply to All” button to change the settings for all currently configured control sections.

We have also greatly improved the motion convergence time when running programs VisionGauge® OnLine’s Program Toolbox when the Watchdog option enabled and an E-Stop is connected to the motor drives. This ultimately contributes to motion programs running even faster without sacrificing positioning accuracy. In some of our test cases, we experienced programs with many Motion Control steps running up to 40% faster!

VisionGauge® OnLine’s live overlay image refresh rate has been improved when displaying complex DXF file with a large number of entities. These improvements are particularly noticeable when viewing a relatively small field-of-view compared to the full scope of the overlay being drawn, e.g at high magnifications or very large overlays.

VisionGauge® OnLine now includes a new “Operator Mode” feature. Operator Mode is designed to let Administrators setup a repeatable environment for their operators that limits the operator control over 1) moving windows and/or 2) opening and closing windows when this mode is enabled. Administrators can customize control by choosing to Allow or Deny these Move and Open/Close window operations for individual tools in the Security menu:

Operator Mode is disabled by default so this update will not make user interface changes until Operator Mode is explicitly enabled. After Operator Mode has been enabled, control is automatically restricted based on the Administrator’s configurations when VisionGauge® OnLine starts up. Control over setting up Operator Mode is password protected and factory locked-out. A new option has been added to the Single-Session Factory Lock-Out procedure to permit modifying Operator Mode during a single session of VisionGauge® OnLine.

Additional feature and menu restrictions may be added with future updates of the software.

We have also added new ‘Cancel All’ buttons to the Program Toolbox’s Setup windows. This button is useful for quickly cancelling out of all changes to a program step and returning control directly to the Program Toolbox itself, instead of the Program Toolbox settings setup window.

We’ve enhanced support for certain DirectX/DirectShow compliant cameras that do not list their full resolution compatibilities. This update applies to both VisionGauge® and VisionGauge® OnLine. Previously when using these devices, when users tried to save a certain resolution as default, the maximum resolution would be displayed instead. Now these resolutions are all able to be properly saved and restored, as well as the camera framerate and bitdepth.