Manipulation Toolgroup and Calib-Key

Manipulation toolgroups allow preprocessing of images before the actual Job execution. The processing is done in a toolgroup whose input and output is done by naming convention. Since the toolgroup is executed by the image source directly during image acquisition, changes also have an effect in the live-view, e.g. an image rotation would be visible there. The toolgroup is configured via the image source settings:

../../_images/imagesource_manipulation_toolgroup_config.png
  1. TG enabled: (De-)Activates the manipulation toolgroup of an image source.

  2. Edit Manipulation Toolgroup: Opens a ToolGroup editor for editing.

  3. Delete Manipulation Toolgroup: Removes manipulation toolgroup changes by resetting the ToolGroup to the default toolgroup.

  4. Space to @: If active, sets the SelectedSpaceName of the output image to the so-called root space @ after executing the manipulation toolgroup.

The Manipulation Toolgroup has the following standard structure:

../../_images/imagesource_manipulation_toolgroup_layout.png
  1. Input: The captured camera raw image is provided in the output terminal Image of the CogToolGroup.

  2. Output: The input terminal Image of the CogToolGroup receives the result of the preprocessing. It defines the output image of the image source.

  3. Calib: a fixturing tool, for applying camera calibrations. A Fixturing tool with this name must exist exactly if the image source is assigned a local camera calibration by CalibKey.

Users can use almost any other tools. Viper.NET Special functionalities of Interface Viper.NET to Cognex VisionPro are not available here. The standard structure can be individualized for a project by storing a toolgroup named toolgroup_imagesource.vpp in the standard data directory as a template. The directory path is entered in the Project configuration of the Vision plugin as defaultDataDirectory.

Note

The Manipulation Toolgroup’s preprocessing is also applied in live-mode of the in Job Display, so that image manipulations, such as image rotations, are immediately visible.

Note

In saving-input-images, the unprocessed input images from the camera are always saved. In RunFromDir the manipulation toolgroups are executed again.