ActivVisionTools from MVTec Software GmbH
Release Notes for Version 2.1





Major New Features of ActivVisionTools 2.1


Detailed Description of Changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1

Detailed release notes can be obtained for the following topics:

ActivVisionTools in general
ActivView
ActivZoom
ActivHistogram
ActivGeoCalib
ActivAlignment
ActivMeasure
ActivBarcode
ActivBlobFinder
ActivFeatureCalc
ActivDataView
ActivDecision
ActivViewer


ActivVisionTools in general

o Functionality:
  • It is now possible to get an event whenever a property inside an ActivVisionTool changes. For this, one must acquire a reference to this property's class using atTool.Properties.Property("Name").
  • The default ranges for several features have been adapted. These values are, e.g., used to offer initial values in ActivDecision.
  • The color and font of each tool can now be set individually, without being overridden by the settings of the Form.

o Changes in the Programming Interface:
  • The class AVToolRegister was renamed to AVTToolRegisterClass, the class AVToolDescriptorClass to AVTToolDescriptorClass.

o Bug Fixes:
  • In some cases ROIs persisted even after their tool had been deleted. This should no longer happen.
  • Closing a tool dialog in design mode while its support tool is open in a property page no longer causes a runtime error.
  • If a tool desired a specific predecessor tool, and this predecessor tool was not available, then the property page 'Connection' became unusable. This behaviour has been fixed. It is now possible to assign a new predecessor, if available.

o Manual:
  • The manual Getting Started with ActivVisionTools is available in a new edition. It has been extended and updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.

ActivView

o Speed-Up and Enhancements:
  • The management of the standard frame grabber parameters was improved in the following way:
    1. The parameter settings are persistently stored in the DSC file for each frame grabber separately.
    2. There is now a button in the AVTViewFG support tool/dialog for resetting the frame grabber parameters to sensible default values.
    As a result, frame grabber parameters in DSC files created using an older ActivVisionTools version are not read correctly and must be restored manually.
  • AVTView now has two properties AllowEditROIConfig/AllowEditROIAppl, which determine if an ROI can be modified in configuration/application mode. These are also accessible via the support tool AVTViewConfigExec.

o Functionality:
  • AVTViewDisplayModes now provides two additional color parameters, which are used mark ROIs evaluated as 'not okay' and for highlighting objects selected in ActivDataView or in the tree of AVTDecision.
  • A busy cursor is displayed during grabbing.
  • AVTView provides the new property EnableWriteToDCSFile, which enables or disables the writing to the description file. Furthermore, the method WriteToDSC, which is called by the AVTProjectManager whenever the project is saved, is now also available via the programming interface.
  • It is now possible to enter the length of the line in AVTViewCalibration while the application is running.
  • Pasting an ROI now causes an immediate calculation of results.

o Changes in the Programming Interface:
  • The following properties and methods of AVTView have been renamed or removed. The following list shows the new names or specifies the new method which should be used by the user to accomplish the same task:
    • DrawMode -> DisplayMode
    • AddViewData -> AddOverlay
    • Reset(All)ViewData -> RemoveOverlays
    • No longer required
    • DisplayAllAction -> RefreshDisplay
    • DisplayResultsROIAction -> RefreshDisplay
    • AddROI -> CreateROI*
    • RemoveROI -> DeleteROI, DeleteROIByName
    • HROI* -> AVTROI*
    • AVTROIClass.Init -> Use AVTView.CreateROI* to create ROIs
    • ExecuteAllToolsContinously -> ExecuteAllToolsContinuously
  • The representation of a line ROI has changed, such that the direction of the line is from the first point to the second point, as intuitively expected. A side effect is that line ROIs of old projects will have a reversed direction. The most simple way to fix this is to modify the ROI in the GUI. If this is undesirable, because the positional information is delicate, you can also modify the entry in the DSC file, by exchanging the names of the coordinate tags Row1,Col1 and Row2,Col2 for the line ROI, e.g.,
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_ROIKind       L       3
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_ROIName       S       Line_1
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Row1  I       159
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Col1  I       451
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Row2  I       160
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Col2  I       136
                
    becomes
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_ROIKind       L       3
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_ROIName       S       Line_1
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Row2  I       159
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Col2  I       451
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Row1  I       160
    AVTView1        AVTMeasure1.ROI_0_Col1  I       136
                
o Bug Fixes:
  • It is no longer possible to paste an ROI if the active tool is incompatible with this ROI's type.
  • If a grab failed, the AVTView property FGParallelGrabbing was set to false and the grab was repeated. This is now only done if the grab failed because parallel grabbing was not supported by the frame grabber.
  • Tools are now correctly re-executed when a minimal ROI is generated.
  • The zoom position in AVTView is now correctly made persistent.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivView is available in a new edition. It has been updated and extended to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.

ActivZoom

o Bug Fixes:
  • ActivZoom now correctly displays the iconic results of the current execution cycle instead of those of the previous cycle.

ActivHistogram

o Functionality:
  • For emphasizing extreme values in the histogram, the color of a triangular marker changes to red if the respective characteristic histogram value (minimum, maximum, or peak) joins the left or right histogram border.

o Changes in the Programming Interface:
  • AVTHistogram's property DrawMode was renamed to GraphMode.

o Bug Fixes:
  • The display combo box in ActivHistogram no longer allows to type in arbitrary text.

ActivGeoCalib

o Bug Fixes:
  • The calibration plate is now found more robustly.
  • Now all parameters of a calibration (like the thickness of the calibration plate) are stored automatically in the DSC file.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivGeoCalib is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.

ActivAlignment

o Functionality:
  • You can now train an anchor using an ROI defined before AVTAlignmentTeach became visible.

o Bug Fixes:
  • If an anchor was trained using a polygon ROI, the ROI data was not stored in the anchor file (*.alm). This has been fixed.
  • Creating a one pixel polygon ROI for ActivAlignment no longer causes an error message.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivAlignment is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.

ActivMeasure

o Bug Fixes:
  • Measuring edge distances along very large circular arcs could generate a runtime error. This has been fixed.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivMeasure is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.
  • A problem in the example examples\manuals\activmeasure\evalaccess has been fixed.

ActivBarcode

o Functionality:
  • If a parameter in AVTBarcode1DParameters has not changed from its default value, the corresponding reset button is now grayed out. This helps to see which parameters have been modified.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivBarcode is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.
  • A problem in the example examples\manuals\activbarcode\evalaccess has been fixed.

ActivBlobFinder

o Functionality:
  • The property "Contrast" of was used with different semantics based on the blob extraction method. This has been cleaned up by adding two new properties "Offset" and "Threshold".
    "Threshold" is used by the method "Global Fixed", "Offset" is used by the method "Global Auto", "Contrast" is used by the method "Local Neighbourhood".
    Attention: In old projects, the threshold value will have been made persistent in the DSC file under the name "Contrast". When loading old projects which use the methods "Global Fixed" or "Global Auto", then the threshold or offset will not be loaded correctly. They must be set again manually. You can find out the original value by looking at the "Contrast" property in the property window (or by temporarily choosing "Local Neighbourhood".

o Bug Fixes:
  • It is no longer possible to select a not supported method for ActivBlobFinder in the property window; previously, this caused a runtime error.
  • In version 2.0, the controls of ActivBlobFinder remained invisible if one set UseIconMode to False and then back to True. This has been fixed.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivBlobFinder is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.

ActivFeatureCalc

o Bug Fixes:
  • The caption of the property page for AVTFeatureCalcGray now correctly uses the native language. Also, this property page is now registered with the support tools for basic, shape and moment features.
  • Area features can now be displayed in square meters when using a 2D calibration. Previously, selecting the unit 'm' yielded a result in square pixels.
  • A runtime error occurred if the feature Minor Radius was calculated for very small blobs; this problem has been fixed.

o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivFeatureCalc is now available in a new edition. It has been updated to reflect the changes in ActivVisionTools 2.1.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.
  • A problem in the example examples\manuals\activfeaturecalc\evalaccess has been fixed.

ActivDataView

o Bug Fixes:
  • The selection of multiple ROIs is now correctly stored in the DSC file.

ActivDecision

o Speed-Up and Enhancements:
  • The new sub-tool AVTDecisionStatus displays the number or percentages of good and bad objects; display parameters can be chosen via another new sub-tool, AVTDecisionStatusParameters.
  • The new sub-tool AVTDecisionResult allows to display a single feature result or evaluation in various display modes.

o Functionality:
o Manual:
  • The User's Manual for ActivDecision is available in a new edition. It has been updated and extended by descriptions how to use the new sub-tools AVTDecisionResult, AVTDecisionStatus, and AVTDecisionStatusParameters.
  • The example Visual Basic projects have been adapted to version 2.1.
  • A problem in the example examples\manuals\activdecision\access has been fixed.

ActivViewer

o Bug Fixes:
  • ActivView now raises the event ImageGrabbed for the automatic grab after selecting a new frame grabber. Thus, resizing the window of ActivViewer before the first manual grab no longer causes a problem.

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· Webmaster · Last modified: Fri January 21 11:06:32 CET 2005