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NI Vision 8.6 Development Module Readme

Primary Software: LabVIEW Modules>>Vision Development Module
Primary Software Version: 4.0.1
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem: I have not installed the NI Vision 8.6 Development Module. Can I still access the readme file?

Solution: The NI Vision 8.6 Development Module readme file appears below and also installs with the product. The readme document describes any last-minute installation instructions, known issues, and changes from the previous version.

NI Vision 8.6 Development Module Readme

June 2008

This file contains important information about National Instruments Vision Development Module and is organized into the following sections:

General Information
New Features
Updates and Improvements
System Requirements
How to Activate the NI Vision License
Deploying Vision Applications
Using NI Vision with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
Creating a New .NET Application Using NI Vision
Converting an Existing Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Application
Viewing the NI Vision Examples
Known Issues
Documentation

Refer to the Machine Vision Web site at ni.com/vision for the latest information about the NI Vision Development Module.

General Information

Installing this program may remove previous versions of the NI Vision Development Module that are currently installed.

NI Vision 8.6 supports LabVIEW 7.1, 8.2, 8.5, and 8.6, Visual Studio 6.0 or later, and LabWindows™/CVI™ 7.0 or later. The installer specifically allows side-by-side installations of NI Vision for each of the supported versions of LabVIEW, enabling you to use the NI Vision Development Module with multiple versions of LabVIEW. National Instruments recommends that you install LabVIEW, or any other supported development environment, before installing the NI Vision Development Module.

Note: The NI Vision 8.6 Development Module overwrites existing NI Vision examples and NI Vision VIs. Move modified examples or VIs that you want to save to another directory before installing the NI Vision 8.6 Development Module.

New Features

This release of the NI Vision Development Module includes the following new features:

  • Support for LabVIEW 8.6
  • Enhanced overlay management
  • Support for image masks in pattern matching template images
  • Support for user-specified fonts on LabVIEW Real-Time targets
  • Enhanced edge detection algorithm for the spoke, rake, concentric rake, and find edge functions
  • Optimized the following algorithms to improve performance on multi-core processors:
    • Convolute
    • Cross Correlation
    • Concentric Rake
    • Gray Morphology
    • Image Absolute Difference
    • Image Addition
    • Image Complex Division
    • Image Complex Multiplication
    • Image Division
    • Image Expansion
    • Image Logical AND
    • Image Logical OR
    • Image Logical XOR
    • Image Multiplication
    • Image Resampling
    • Image Subtraction
    • Image Symmetry
    • Morphology
    • Nth Order
    • Rake
    • Spoke
  • New zoom-to-fit option for displaying images
  • Support for annulus regions of interest for OCR functions in LabWindows/CVI
  • Support for unsigned 16-bit images with image management functions.
  • Support for coordinate systems in Vision Assistant
  • Support for renaming steps in Vision Assistant
  • Support for acquiring images from NI Smart Cameras in Vision Assistant
  • Support for exporting calibrated results from the Vision Assistant Express VI

Updates and Improvements

The following list describes issues in previous versions of the NI Vision Development Module that are fixed in this release. If you have a CAR ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of the NI Vision Development Module.

ID Fixed Issue
37572 Video Out is not supported on NI PXI-819x controllers
41011 Incorrect Elongation Factor equation in the NI Vision Concepts Manual
41911 Vision Assistant C Code Generation creates an incorrect enumeration, IMAQ_NORMALIZATION_IMAGE_STATISTICS, for imaqCompareGoldenTemplate()
43292 Unable to read some Data Matrix codes with multiple concentrated errors
44105 The IMAQ Particle Filter 2 VI does not give a performance increase by running reentrant
44195 The Vision Assistant Express VI does not use the correct points when running the Caliper step
55455 The Vision Assistant Express VI does not run if a script contains the Caliper step
94026 imaqMatchPattern2() can produce an unhandled exception error
97970 In the CWIMAQViewer control resizing an oval ROI results in a circular ROI
103661 The IMAQ Write File VI leaks memory
106164 Cannot create an indicator of IMAQ Image.ctl reference
107246 Batch Processing in Vision Assistant does not allow selecting multiple images as the source for a script
107827 imaqMatchColorPattern() causes a fatal run-time error if you pass any value other than zero to the numRanges property
115820 imaqConstructROI2() returns divide by zero errors in Visual C++

System Requirements

The development computer must meet the following system requirements to run the NI Vision Development Module:

  Minimum Recommended
Processor 233 MHz Pentium or equivalent Pentium 4/M or equivalent
Memory 256 MB RAM 512 MB RAM
Display 1,024 × 768 resolution video adapter with a 16-bit display 1,024 × 768 resolution video adapter with a 24- or 32-bit display
Free Hard Disk Space 700 MB 1 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista/XP/2000
Browser Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later

How to Activate the NI Vision License

When you run an NI Vision application for the first time, it prompts you to activate a license for the product. If you do not activate a valid license, the NI Vision application will run in Evaluation Mode and continue to prompt you to activate a license on each subsequent launch.

Complete the following steps to activate the NI Vision license through an Internet connection.

  1. Run the product you want to license.
  2. Click Yes when prompted to interactively activate your product.
  3. Ensure that Automatically activate through a secure Internet connection is selected, and click Next.
  4. Enter the product serial number, and click Next.
  5. Enter your registration information, and click Next.

Tip: Enter your email address to receive a copy of your activation code for your records.

Deploying Vision Applications

Deployment refers to developing an application so that it can be distributed, or deployed, on a different computer than the one on which the application was developed. The NI Vision Development Module provides everything you need to deploy custom NI Vision applications to target computers. The NI Vision Development Module provides the following options:

  • The ability to create NI Vision Run-Time Engine installers, which integrate with the LabVIEW Application Builder, applications built in LabWindows/CVI, or a custom installer.
  • The ability to install the NI Vision Run-Time Engine directly from the Vision Development Module CD.
  • One NI Vision Run-Time License, which allows you to install a custom application on a single machine.

You can install a number of different versions of the NI Vision Run-Time Engine. The NI Vision Development Module installer also contains the run-time engine installer for NI Vision. Visit the Drivers and Updates section of ni.com to download software upgrades for NI Vision and the NI Vision Run-Time installers.

Purchasing NI Vision Deployment Licenses

You must purchase an NI Vision Run-Time License (part number 778044-03) for each target machine onto which you want to install your custom NI Vision application, even if you install the NI Vision Run-Time Engine directly from the NI Vision Development Module CD. The NI Vision Development Module CD ships with one run-time license. Contact a National Instruments sales representative or visit ni.com to purchase additional run-time licenses.

Note: Additional NI Vision Run-Time Licenses do not include a CD. To install additional licenses, use the original NI Vision Development Module CD and the serial number provided by National Instruments.

Using the NI Vision Run-Time Engine

You can call the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer from the application installer. If you create the application installer with the LabVIEW Application Builder or with LabWindows/CVI, you can direct the installer to call the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer.

Refer to the LabVIEW Help for more information about the LabVIEW Application Builder. Refer to the NI LabWindows/CVI Help for more information about building and distributing LabWindows/CVI applications.

You can also direct a custom application installer to call the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer. Refer to the documentation that came with the installer software to learn how to call executables from the custom installer. If you are using a custom installer, call the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer at the end of the installation procedure because the installer may require the system to be restarted.

To use the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer, you must add /qn as a command line argument to the run-time engine installer. For example, enter <Vision>\Run-Time Engine\vision86rte.exe /qn to run the NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer, where <Vision> is the location to which NI Vision is installed.

Distributing LabVIEW Applications

The NI Vision Run-Time Engine installer does not install LabVIEW VIs. If you use the LabVIEW Application Builder to create an application (EXE) or dynamic link library (DLL), the Application Builder automatically includes the VIs used by the application. If you distribute a VI, you must include all subVIs that comprise the top-level VI. You must include the appropriate LabVIEW Run-Time Engine as part of the installation.

Refer to the LabVIEW Help for more information about viewing the hierarchy of VIs and for more information about using the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine.

Distributing LabWindows/CVI Applications

In addition to including the NI Vision Run-Time Engine with the installer, you must include the appropriate LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine. Refer to the NI LabWindows/CVI Help for more information about creating an executable, creating a dynamic link library, and distributing applications.

Using NI Vision with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003

NI Vision supports interoperability between the Vision ActiveX control and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003. NI Vision installs the following Interop Assemblies that allow .NET languages to correctly communicate with the ActiveX controls:

  • NationalInstruments.AxCWIMAQControlsLib.Interop.dll—cwimaq.ocx
  • NationalInstruments.AxCWIMAQHelpButton.Interop.dll—CWIMAQHlpBtn.ocx
  • NationalInstruments.AxCWMV.Interop.dll—cwmv.ocx
  • NationalInstruments.AxNIOCRLib.Interop.dll—niocr.ocx

You can find these assemblies in the <Vision>\dotNET\Assemblies\Current directory. The assemblies installed by NI Vision correctly wrap several methods that generate errors if you call the methods using the assemblies generated by Visual Studio .NET. For information about the properties, methods, and events available with these assemblies, refer to the NI Vision for Visual Basic Reference Help and the NI Vision for Visual Basic User Manual.

Creating a New .NET Application Using NI Vision

You must first add the NI Vision controls to your toolbox when creating a new application. Complete the following steps to add the NI Vision controls to the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Toolbox:

  1. In Visual Studio .NET, either create a new application or open an existing one.
  2. Open a form in Design View.
  3. Select View»Toolbox.
  4. Select the category in which you want the NI Vision controls to appear, such as General, Components, and so on.
  5. Select Tools»Add/Remove Toolbox Items.
  6. In the .NET Framework Components tab, select the controls you want to add to your application. Choose from CWIMAQ, CWIMAQVision, CWIMAQViewer, CWMachineVision, and NIOCR.

When the controls are in the toolbox, you can add them to your forms by clicking the tool and drawing an area on the form. References to the NI Vision Interop Assemblies are automatically added to your project.

Converting an Existing Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Application

Microsoft's automatic upgrade engine often generates its own Interop assemblies rather than referencing the official NI Vision Interop assemblies. When this happens, your project will have two references for every NI Vision assembly needed. Complete the following steps to correctly reference the NI Vision Interop assemblies:

  1. In Visual Studio .NET, select Edit»Find and Replace»Replace in Files. Replace the following with NationalInstruments.CWIMAQ Controls:
    • AxCWIMAQControlsLib
    • AxCWIMAQHelpButtonLib
    • AxCWMVLib
    • AxNIOCRLib
  2. Select View»Solution Explorer.
  3. Expand the Project References.
  4. Remove the following references if they are present:
    • AxCWIMAQControlsLib
    • AxCWIMAQHelpButton
    • AxCWMV
    • AxNIOCRLib

Viewing the NI Vision Examples

The NI Vision examples for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 are converted from the NI Vision for Visual Basic examples. The .NET examples are written in Visual Basic .NET and demonstrate use of the NI Vision Interop Assemblies. The examples are located in the <Vision>\Examples\MSVB.NET directory, and the images for the examples are located in the <Vision>\Examples\Images directory.

Known Issues

  • Upgrading an RT desktop formatted with a LabVIEW Real-Time 8.2.1 boot disk to LabVIEW Real-Time 8.6, and installing any NI Vision 8.6 Development Module components to the RT desktop, the RT desktop fails to complete the boot-up process. The RT desktop hangs before the Welcome to LabVIEW 8.6 message. To fix the hang, format the RT desktop with a LabVIEW Real-Time 8.6 utility USB drive. Install LabVIEW Real-Time 8.6 and the NI Vision 8.6 Development Module.
  • AVI functionality requires Microsoft DirectX 8.1 or later.
  • On Windows XP computers with Service Pack 2 installed, NI Vision does not support reading AVI files located in the Local Settings folder, or any subfolders of this folder, when the AVI file uses any of the following compression filters:
    • Indeo® Video 5.10 Compression Filter
    • Intel Indeo® Video R3.2
    • Intel Indeo® Video 4.5
    • Indeo® Video 5.10

    Copying the AVI file to another folder resolves this problem.

  • Viewing the online help files requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.
  • Using NI Vision with LabWindows/CVI on a machine that does not support the MMX instruction set may cause an Illegal Operation exception to occur within the LabWindows/CVI environment. This error occurs when DirectX checks for the availability of the MMX instruction set on the machine.
  • The Visual Basic .NET examples may display the UI controls with incorrect size and location settings if you use a computer with a DPI display setting other than 96 DPI. 96 DPI is the default setting for most Windows operating systems.
  • The Vision Assistant Express VI image caching feature is available in LabVIEW 8.2 or later.

Documentation

The NI Vision Development Module documentation set consists of the following manuals and help files:

  • NI Vision Concepts Manual—Describes the basic concepts of image analysis, image processing, and machine vision. This document also contains in-depth discussions about imaging functions for advanced users.

The following sections describe the documents available for each application development environment.

NI Vision for LabVIEW Documentation

  • NI Vision for LabVIEW Help—Describes how to create machine vision and image processing applications in LabVIEW using the NI Vision Development Module. It also describes how to create a real-time vision application using NI Vision and the LabVIEW Real-Time Module.

    This document also contains reference information about NI Vision VIs and details about how to use NI Vision with LabVIEW. In LabVIEW, select Help»NI Vision for LabVIEW Help.

    Note: The NI Vision for LabVIEW Help combines the NI Vision for LabVIEW User Manual and NI Vision for LabVIEW VI Reference Help from previous releases into one document.

  • NI Example Finder—Illustrates common applications you can create with NI Vision. In LabVIEW, select Help»Find Examples. Click the Help button in the NI Example Finder to display the NI Example Finder Help.

NI Vision for LabWindows/CVI Documentation

  • NI Vision for LabWindows/CVI User Manual—Describes how to create machine vision and image processing applications in LabWindows/CVI using the NI Vision Development Module.
  • NI Vision for LabWindows/CVI Function Reference Help—Contains reference information about NI Vision for LabWindows/CVI functions.
  • Function panel help within LabWindows/CVI—Allows you to right-click within each Vision function to access help for that function, control, function class, and function library. Function panels are installed at <CVI>\bin\NIVision.lfp, where <CVI> is the location to which LabWindows/CVI is installed.
  • Example programs for specific applications are installed at <CVI>\Samples\Vision.

NI Vision for Visual Basic Documentation

  • NI Vision for Visual Basic User Manual—Describes how to create machine vision and image processing applications in Visual Basic using the NI Vision Development Module.
  • NI Vision for Visual Basic Reference Help—Contains reference information about NI Vision for Visual Basic objects and their associated properties, methods, and events. The help is available from within Visual Basic by pressing <F1>.
  • Example programs for specific applications are installed at <Vision>\examples\MSVB and <Vision>\examples\MSVB.NET, where <Vision> is the location to which NI Vision is installed.

NI Vision Assistant Documentation

  • NI Vision Assistant Tutorial—Describes the Vision Assistant software interface and guides you through creating example image processing and machine vision applications.
  • NI Vision Assistant Help—Contains descriptions of Vision Assistant features and functions and provides instructions for using them. In Vision Assistant, select Help»Online Help.
  • NI Classification Training Interface Help—Contains information about how to use the NI Classification Training Interface to classify binary samples. In the NI Classification Training Interface, select Help»Online Help.
  • NI OCR Training Interface Help—Contains information about how to use the NI OCR Training Interface to learn characters, save character sets, and verify characters by comparing them to a reference character. In the NI OCR Training Interface, select Help»Online Help.
  • NI Vision Template Editor Help—Contains information about how to use the NI Vision Template Editor to learn and edit template images that you can use with pattern matching, geometric matching, and golden template comparison functions. In the NI Vision Template Editor, select Help»Online Help.

Copyright

© 2008 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.

Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.

Trademarks

National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and LabVIEW are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Terms of Use section on ni.com/legal for more information about National Instruments trademarks.

Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Patents

For patents covering the National Instruments products, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your CD, or ni.com/patents.



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Report Date: 06/03/2008
Last Updated: 08/18/2008
Document ID: 4M2H66LC

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