Function: Width measurement
Edge Selection – Polarity: Determines whether to measure a dark or light object with respect to the background. Light to Dark Edges searches for edges that transition from a light background to a dark object. Dark to Light Edges searches for edges that transition from a dark background to a light object. Any Edge searches for edges of any polarity.
Edge Selection – Sharpness: Determines the sharpness of the edge. Very Sharp Edges (+/-1) calculates gradients by looking 1 pixel before and 1 pixel after the analysis pixel. Sharp Edges (+/-2) calculates gradients by looking 2 pixels before and 2 pixels after the analysis pixel. Blurry Edges (+/-3) calculates gradients by looking 3 pixels before and 3 pixels after the analysis pixel. Very Blurry Edges (+/-4) calculates gradients by looking 4 pixels before and 4 pixels after the analysis pixel.
Edge Selection – Straightness: Filters which edge points are used by the line fit algorithm as shown in the diagrams below. Extra Straight only uses the points that are within +/- 0.10 pixels of the line, and discards the others. This may result in a failure to find the edge if it is not perfectly straight. Rough will use all points that are within +/- 2.75 pixels of the line. This is useful for finding normal edges that are not perfectly straight. Testing has shown that Rough produces the best results for most applications.
Distance Type: Determines how the distance between two edges of the object should be calculated. Point to Line Distance measures the perpendicular distance from the first edge’s center point to the second edge’s best fit line. Choose Point to Line Distance when measuring between parallel lines. Point to Point Distance measures the distance from the center points of two edges. Choose Point to Point Distance when measuring between non-parallel lines, or when you want the rotation of the lines to be ignored.
Edge Strength: The Measure Tool provides a gradient plot to assist with the setting of the edge threshold. The plot shows you how strong the transitions from dark to light or light to dark (gradients) are within the tool’s region of interest. The plot is calculated down the center of the ROI, left-to-right when measuring width, top-to-bottom when measuring height, and at the user-defined angle when measuring angle. A red horizontal line shows where the current threshold is set. Use the slider to adjust the threshold to an optimum value.
Tolerance: Lower and upper tolerance in pixels.
Enable ROI (Region of Interest) Rotation: The Measure Tool’s Width Measure capability can be enabled for ROI rotation by clicking the rotation icon at the upper left of the parameters view.
Function: Height measurement
Edge Selection – Polarity: Determines whether to measure a dark or light object with respect to the background. Light to Dark Edges searches for edges that transition from a light background to a dark object. Dark to Light Edges searches for edges that transition from a dark background to a light object. Any Edge searches for edges of any polarity.
Edge Selection – Sharpness: Determines the sharpness of the edge. Very Sharp Edges (+/-1) calculates gradients by looking 1 pixel before and 1 pixel after the analysis pixel. Sharp Edges (+/-2) calculates gradients by looking 2 pixels before and 2 pixels after the analysis pixel. Blurry Edges (+/-3) calculates gradients by looking 3 pixels before and 3 pixels after the analysis pixel. Very Blurry Edges (+/-4) calculates gradients by looking 4 pixels before and 4 pixels after the analysis pixel.
Edge Selection – Straightness: Filters which edge points are used by the line fit algorithm as shown in the diagrams below. Extra Straight only uses the points that are within +/- 0.10 pixels of the line, and discards the others. This may result in a failure to find the edge if it is not perfectly straight. Rough will use all points that are within +/- 2.75 pixels of the line. This is useful for finding normal edges that are not perfectly straight. Testing has shown that Rough produces the best results for most applications.
Distance Type: Determines how the distance between two edges of the object should be calculated. Point to Line Distance measures the perpendicular distance from the first edge’s center point to the second edge’s best fit line. Choose Point to Line Distance when measuring between parallel lines. Point to Point Distance measures the distance from the center points of two edges. Choose Point to Point Distance when measuring between non-parallel lines, or when you want the rotation of the lines to be ignored.
Edge Strength: The Measure Tool provides a gradient plot to assist with the setting of the edge threshold. The plot shows you how strong the transitions from dark to light or light to dark (gradients) are within the tool’s region of interest. The plot is calculated down the center of the ROI, left-to-right when measuring width, top-to-bottom when measuring height, and at the user-defined angle when measuring angle. A red horizontal line shows where the current threshold is set. Use the slider to adjust the threshold to an optimum value.
Tolerance: Lower and upper tolerance in pixels.
Enable ROI (Region of Interest) Rotation: The Measure Tool’s Height Measure capability can be enabled for ROI rotation by clicking the rotation icon at the upper left of the parameters view.
Function: Angle measurement
Scan Direction: Determines whether the tool will scan for an edge from top to bottom, left to right, right to left, or bottom to top.
Edge Selection – Polarity: Determines whether to measure a dark or light object with respect to the background. Light to Dark Edges searches for edges that transition from a light background to a dark object. Dark to Light Edges searches for edges that transition from a dark background to a light object. Any Edge searches for edges of any polarity.
Edge Selection – Sharpness: Determines the sharpness of the edge. Very Sharp Edges (+/-1) calculates gradients by looking 1 pixel before and 1 pixel after the analysis pixel. Sharp Edges (+/-2) calculates gradients by looking 2 pixels before and 2 pixels after the analysis pixel. Blurry Edges (+/-3) calculates gradients by looking 3 pixels before and 3 pixels after the analysis pixel. Very Blurry Edges (+/-4) calculates gradients by looking 4 pixels before and 4 pixels after the analysis pixel.
Edge Selection – Straightness: Filters which edge points are used by the line fit algorithm as shown in the diagrams below. Extra Straight only uses the points that are within +/- 0.10 pixels of the line, and discards the others. This may result in a failure to find the edge if it is not perfectly straight. Rough will use all points that are within +/- 2.75 pixels of the line. This is useful for finding normal edges that are not perfectly straight. Testing has shown that Rough produces the best results for most applications.
Edge Strength: The Measure Tool provides a gradient plot to assist with the setting of the edge threshold. The plot shows you how strong the transitions from dark to light or light to dark (gradients) are within the tool’s region of interest. The plot is calculated down the center of the ROI, left-to-right when measuring width, top-to-bottom when measuring height, and at the user-defined angle when measuring angle. A red horizontal line shows where the current threshold is set. Use the slider to adjust the threshold to an optimum value.
Tolerance: Expected angle measurement and the range the angle can vary from the nominal angle, in degrees.
The Measure Tool in AutoVISION can also be used to measure the radius of a circle and to find its center point. Insert a Measure Tool into your job, and then use the dropdown at the top of the parameter area to select the Circle Measure option.
The circle shape that appears in the image area allows you to specify both an inner and an outer radius. This shape adjusts the start and end radius values without showing individual vectors. When first inserting a circle measurement, the inner radius will be 0 and the shape will look like this:
The size of the circle can be increased or decreased. The single anchor point in the center is for the inner radius. Grab the anchor point and drag down to open up the inner radius size as shown below:
The inner circle is labeled as Circle1:Start, indicating that the edge scan will start here, and the outer circle is labeled Circle1:End, indicating that the edge scan will stop there. The green background arrows are also intended to show the direction in which the edge scan will proceed, which is inside to outside in this example. If you want to scan from the outside to in, simply increase the size of the Circle1:Start circle to make it larger than the Circle1:End circle, as shown here:
Note that the green arrows now point from the outside in.
The editors shown below are provided to configure the circle fit.
Scan Direction: Sets the direction of the vector edge search, either from the inside out or from the outside in.
Number of Vectors: This is the number of vectors that will be used to search for gradient points around the edge of the circle. These vectors will be equally spaced and arranged in a radial pattern.
Polarity: Allows you to determine whether the vectors will search for light to dark edge transitions, dark to light, or both.
Sharpness: Configures the number of pixels over which the gradient will be calculated. Select a lower value when you have very sharp edges, and select a larger value when your edges are more blurry.
Edge Point Selection: When scanning the length of a given vector, you may find more than one edge point. This option tells the tool which edge point to select: the first, the best (largest gradient), or the last.
Similar to the Width and Height measurements, a gradient plot editor is provided for setting the minimum edge strength of the vectors. With a Width Measurement, the gradient plot is down the middle of the region of interest, moving from left to right. With a Height measurement, the gradient plot is also down the middle of the region of interest, but moving from top to bottom. With Circle measurement, it is selectable. Note that there is a control on the right that allows you select where the gradient scan is taken within the Circle measurement. If lighting around a given circle is uneven, this allows you to see the gradient values on the left, right, top, and bottom edges of the circle.
These are the options for the circle fit, which allows you to select the minimum number of vector edge points required for a valid circle fit, and then allows you to choose how precise that fit must be.
This is the tolerance on the radius of the circle.
In Edit mode, if the Circle measurement is able to fit a circle, the tool will display the center and the radius of that circle.
If unable to fit the circle, the tool will notify you and report the number of edge points found:
In the image, an ‘X’ will be drawn everywhere an edge point is found, and the fit circle will also be drawn:
These parameters allow you to connect the two input points to output points from any other tool. The standard tolerance editor is also provided to allow the setting of an upper and lower measurement limit:
Status: Status is set to 1 if the measured value is within the tolerance. It is set to 0 if the measured value is not within the tolerance.
Distance: The distance between the two input points.
Horizontal Distance: Delta X between the two input points.
Vertical Distance: Delta Y between the two input points.
Line: The line that runs through the two input points (Advanced).
MidPt: The point that is midway between the two input points (Advanced).
These parameters allow you to connect the input point and line to an output point and line from any other tool. The standard tolerance editor is also provided to allow the setting of an upper and lower measurement limit:
Distance: The perpendicular distance between the input point and line.
Normal Point: The point where the normal line intersects the input line (Advanced).
Normal Line: Perpendicular line that runs from the input point through the input line(Advanced).
Both the Point to Point and Point to Line distance capabilities can be calibrated, as with other measurements. The Calibration editor will be present in the parameter area for both of these capabilities.
Perfect Edge = Accurate edge line placement; stray edge points are ignored.
Rough Edge = Edge line placement uses an average of all edge points including stray edges. This is useful when no clearly-defined line is available.
Status – True/False status of the tool.
Measurement – Width or height measurement, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Edge Point 1 and 2 – Center point (x, y, angle) for both measurement edges, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Edge Line 1 and 2 – Line Equation for both measurement edges (can be used in other point-to-line measurements).
Status – True/False status of the tool.
Center Point – Center point (x, y) of the circle, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Radius – Radius of the circle. Normally in pixels. In world space when calibrated.
Number of Fit Points – The number of edge points used in the circle fit calculation.
Status – True/False status of the tool.
Distance – Distance between two points, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Horizontal Distance – Horizontal distance between two points, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Vertical Distance – Vertical distance between two points, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Point-to-Point Line – Line equation of line connecting points (can be used in other point-to-line measurements).
Mid-Point – Mid-point on line (x, y, angle) between the two points, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Status – True/False status of the tool.
Distance – Distance between two points, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Normal Point – Normal point on line (x, y, angle) perpendicular to the input point, normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Normal Line – Line equation of perpendicular line connecting input point and normal point on input line (can be used in other point-to-line measurements).
Status – True/False status of the tool.
Edge Angle – Angle of the line.
Edge Point – Location point (x, y), normally in pixels. In world-space when calibrated.
Edge Line – Line equation for located edge (can be used in point-to-line measurements).
Distance Type is the method used to measure distance between lines.
Point-to-Point measures from the center point of Edge1 to the center point of Edge2.
Point-to-Line measures the perpendicular distance between the center point of the first edge to the line of the second edge.
Distance Type is the method used to measure distance between lines.
Point-to-Point measures from the center point of Edge1 to the center point of Edge2.
Point-to-Line measures the perpendicular distance between the center point of the first edge to the line of the second edge.
Measure Tool (Circle) Advanced Parameters
Result Type specifies the type of output and provides a choice between Transitions and Lines:
Transitions (Default): The output point will correspond to the location of the selected gradient transition.
Lines: The output point will correspond to the midpoint between a pair of matched transitions.
Edge Point Selection: First, Best, Last, Nth, All. By default, the Circle Fit tool will use the highest-strength edge. This parameter allows you to choose which transition or line along the vector to select.
First (Default): The first transition or line meeting the Gradient Threshold requirement along the direction of the vector is output as the result.
Best: The result corresponds to the transition with the highest gradient. This option is not available when Result Type is set to Lines.
Last: The result corresponds to the last qualifying transition or line.
Nth: The result corresponds to the Nth transition or line along the direction of the vector.
All: All qualified transitions or lines are shown on the display and included in the Point List output.
Enable Radius and Location Filter: Only points that are within the settings of these parameters will be used as inputs to the circle fit.
Circle Completeness sets where points on the circle have to be located for circle fit to be generated.
Don’t Care: As long as the minimum number of points are found, the circle fit will be generated.
Quadrants: As long as there are valid points in all four quadrants, the circle fit will be generated.