OmniView 6.0 Release Notes
Copyright (c) 2011 Cognex Corporation
August 2011
This release note lists the supported features and known limitations of OmniView® 6.0, including software and user documentation. Product features not listed in the OmniView user documentation or in this release note are not supported in version 6.0.
In cases where a known limitation has been filed as a Change Request (CR), its 5-digit identification number is included for reference.
You should be aware of features that are new or changed in OmniView 6.0 since the previous release:
OmniView Application and OmniView SDK Naming
Throughout the OmniView user interface and documentation, the term OmniView Application refers to the OmniView executable program supplied by Cognex that you run to interactively configure and operate OmniView, while the term OmniView SDK refers to the Cognex-supplied programming interface, library, and documentation that you use to create your own custom program to perform container inspections using Cognex OmniView technology.
.NET Software Development Kit (SDK)
This release supports a .NET API for calibration, shape training, 3D alignment, image-unwrapping, and unwrapped image alignment for you to develop Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 applications compatible with the .NET 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 OR 4.0 frameworks, including sample code and project files.
Be aware the OmniView SDK supports Visual Studio 2010 SP1 only. Refer to the OmniView SDK Class Reference manual, available from the Start menu, for a full description of the API.
Quad port for GigE Vision side-view cameras
This release allows you to use a single quad-port network adapter for all four side-view cameras.
White Balance for OmniView Application
This release allows you to manually perform a white balance for your Basler color cameras to get the colors in your images as accurate as possible for analysis by the color VisionPro tools.
Bayer color conversion for OmniView Application
This release allows you to continue generating full-resolution color plane images from the acquired Bayer color image (the behavior of previous releases) or you can select a new option that generates half-resolution color plane images. The new option provides greatly improved performance, particularly when using 5 Megapixel color cameras. Note that if you enable the new option for an existing system, you must re-calibrate your cameras and adjust your inspection.
Multi-core vision tool support available for OmniView Application
This release lets you enable OmniView vision tools to make use of multiple processor cores, if available. Enabling multi-core operation may reduce inspection latency time.
New 5MP color camera
This release adds support for the Basler Pilot piA2400-17gc with a resolution of 2448 x 2050.
Visual Studio 2010 support for sample code
This release allows you to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 to open and build the sample code shipped with OmniView Application.
Cognex supports OmniView systems that use specific configurations for PCs, cameras, and operating system.
This release supports the following GigE Vision cameras:
Basler Scout scA1600-14gm (1628 x 1236)
Basler Pilot piA2400-17gm (2448 x 2050)
Basler Scout scA1600-14gc (1628 x 1236)
Basler Pilot piA2400-17gc (2448 x 2050)
Cognex has tested OmniView on two different configurations of the Dell Precision T5500:
Intel dual processor Xeon Six Core, 2.66 GHz, 12GB physical memory
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
512 MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 graphics card
Intel Xeon Quad Core, 2.66 GHz, 6GB physical memory
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
512 MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 graphics card
See the OmniView Application Getting Started for a full list of minimum PC requirements.
Although the system is designed to operate successfully in countries outside the US and Canada, only 120V 60Hz North American equipment configurations have been fully validated at the time of this release.
Be aware of the following issues with this OmniView release:
To enable the OmniView Model Viewer, which can animate the OmniView shape model in 3D space, you need to edit a configuration file and restart OmniView. If you close the model viewer window, you can not display it again until you restart OmniView. Cognex recommends that you use a second monitor to display the model viewer for best results. You can change the viewer settings by clicking the "Options" button. Note this is a demo feature that should not be used for production. See the OmniView Application User's Guide for details. (CR63323)
The statistics in OmniView Operator Panel are not updated in real time, as the display thread is running at a lower priority than the inspection thread. The statistics shown should only be used as a guideline on how system performs statistically and not as a real time indicator. (CR59137)
When you increase the resolution of the unwrapped image by modifying the Parameters in UNWRAP TRAINING PANEL, make sure to adjust the region of interest of the inspection tools to fit inside the new unwrapped image. Otherwise the jobs saved after the resolution change may not be loaded. (CR63258)
In Calibration, the color of "Camera X, Step Y" is red until that step is complete. If you acquire a new image for an already completed step, that step's color remains green even while the new image is being processed. The color is updated to indicate success or failure when the processing is complete. (CR63288)
The Image Database Archiving option allows you to enter the name of the archive directory directly into the dialog box. Be aware to enter a valid and correct name for the directory or OmniView cannot perform the archive operation (CR54789).
Perform the following steps to migrate from OmniView 5.0 to this release:
Refer to the OmniView Application Getting Started for detailed instructions on installing the OmniView software and configuring the cameras supported in this release.
Use the Setup Wizard to specify the same physical units (inches or millimeters) used in the existing application.
Launch OmniView 6.0 and load your existing application, which will include the existing model and nominal pose.
Adjust the nominal pose using the Set Alignment Parameters screen from the Supervisor Panel.
See the OmniView Application User's Guide for details. In addition, refer to the following sections for other recommendations on adjusting your existing application based on the cameras supported in this release.
Refer to the following table for recommendations on how to migrate your existing application if you switch to different cameras supported in this release:
| Change | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Color Images | If you want to analyze color images using grey-scale vision tools, use the VisionPro Image Convert tool to accept a color input image and generate a grey-scale output image, and then use the output image as the input image to your existing vision tools. See the OmniView Application User's Guide and the VisionPro online documentation for details on the Image Convert tool. |
| Decreased field of view | Make the following adjustments to your existing application:
|
| Increased camera resolution but nearly the same field of view | No changes should be required. You may want to reconfigure the user selected pixel size used for your unwrapped image, however, to take advantage of the increase in camera resolution, which will require you to reconfigure the vision tools you use to verify each container. From the Supervisor Panel, click Train Unwrap Regions, click Parameters and change the value for user selected pixel size. |
Decreased camera resolution but nearly the same field of view | Check the quality of the unwrapped image the new cameras generate as this can impact the accuracy of the vision tools you use to verify each container. |
| An increased field of view | No changes unless the increase in field of view adversely affects the resolution of features on the container, which will require a reconfiguration of existing vision tools you use to verify each container. |
Before beginning to use OmniView, review the OmniView Application Getting Started and the OmniView Application User's Guide. You can view these documents from the Start menu (Start->All Programs->Cognex->OmniView).
You can also view the documents on the DVD media at:
\OmniView\documentation\OMNIVIEW-GettingStarted.pdf
\OmniView\documentation\OMNIVIEW-UsersGuide.pdf
© Copyright 2011 Cognex Corporation. All rights reserved.
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