Supported Operating Systems

MERLIC is available for Windows and Linux systems. On Windows, all components of MERLIC can be used. For Linux systems, currently only the runtime environment of MERLIC, MERLIC RTE, and MERLIC Frontend are available.

Windows

MERLIC 26.03.0 is available for Windows 11 (64-bit, version 24H2) or Windows IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024, or newer.

Linux

MERLIC RTE and MERLIC Frontend are available on PC-based and Arm-based Linux systems (kernel version 5.4 or newer).

Developing the MERLIC Vision App is still done on a Windows system with the MERLIC Creator. The application can then be used with MERLIC RTE and MERLIC Frontend on the Linux system. Cameras can be set up remotely with the help of MERLIC RTE Setup.

System Requirements

A detailed description of the system requirements for installing and using MERLIC on Windows and Linux systems is provided in the MERLIC manual on the page System Requirements .

Major New Features

New Versioning and Licensing

With MERLIC 26.03, the transition to the unified MVTec versioning nomenclature in the format Year.Month (YY.MM) takes place. Additionally, customers benefit from a new licensing model. It is simpler and more flexible, as there are now only two packages available: "MERLIC" and "MERLIC Professional."

The "MERLIC" package offers an ideal entry point into the machine vision world. It includes all rule-based features and functions of MERLIC, as well as the two tools “Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning” and “Count with Deep Learning”.

With MERLIC Professional, users gain access to all remaining deep learning functionalities, as well as all features included in the base package. Additionally, MERLIC Professional allows for the integration of custom MERLIC tools.

For even more customization, MERLIC 26.03 offers two add-ons that can be added to the "MERLIC" package as needed: "MERLIC Deep Learning Add-On" & "MERLIC Custom Tools Add-On". This allows users to select exactly the features they need. The previous limitation on the number of cameras has been removed. Both packages now support an unlimited number of cameras, within technical limits. For users, this means maximum flexibility, easy scalability, and complete future-proofing – regardless of how the application evolves.

"Frontend Observability"

MERLIC 26.03 introduces a new feature that enables complete observability for certain user interactions in the MERLIC Frontend. Users benefit from seamless traceability, knowing who made which changes and when. This ensures secure and transparent operation during ongoing processes and provides all information required to create an audit trail.

MERLIC provides an open interface through which activities like parameter changes or user logins can be automatically transferred to existing observability or audit systems. This not only enhances transparency but also supports compliance and quality requirements in regulated production environments.

Improved "Write Access" Widget

MERLIC 26.03 makes working with write permissions in the Frontend easier and more secure. The write access widget now clearly indicates whether changes are permitted and whether unsaved changes are pending. This ensures users always maintain full visibility.

Additionally, two new approval actions are available: automatic saving or a save dialog to confirm or discard changes. In combination with user management, different roles can be configured with appropriate approval options – ideal for professional and regulated production environments.

The result: greater usability, enhanced transparency, and controlled, traceable change management during ongoing operations.

New Concept Tool "Tile Images"

MERLIC 26.03 introduces the new concept tool “Tile Images.” It allows users to tile two images with the same number of channels into a single composite image – either horizontally or vertically. By applying the tool multiple times, larger image compositions can be created step by step. This helps structure image data clearly and supports efficient downstream processing.

In combination with acquisition sequences, images acquired from line scan or area cameras can be combined into a continuous overall image.

As a concept tool, “Tile Images” is still in an early stage of development. Users are invited to test the functionality and contribute feedback to help shape future MERLIC versions.

Improvements for Deep OCR

The tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" now provides a compact, high-performance, and memory-efficient deep learning model. In addition, models optimized for one of MVTec’s AI² interfaces can be used. Advanced parameters provide users with more control over recognition and reading behavior.

Improved print quality verification for 2D Code Quality

The 2D code tools in MERLIC now support the latest international quality standards ISO/IEC 15415:2024 for printed 2D codes and ISO/IEC 29158:2025 for direct part marking (DPM). This enables more precise and standard-compliant quality inspections.

Compatibility

Since the last MERLIC version we have been working hard to improve MERLIC in every way. This has, however, resulted in a few incompatibilities. We apologize for the inconvenience.

  • Communication Plug-in SDK
    • The communication plug-in support library method " MVPlugin::Config::Builder::WithName() " has been deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Plug-in authors should switch to the new " WithKey() " method instead. If the plug-in's configuration should remain compatible across the switch, users might need to strip non-alphanumeric characters manually. For example, " WithName("config_parameter") " would need to become " WithKey("configparameter") " to still refer to the same configuration parameter. If compatibility with plug-in versions using the old " WithName() " is not a concern, non-alphanumeric characters can be used together with " WithKey() " and will use the parameter key as-is. More information.
  • MERLIC RTE Setup
    • The MERLIC RTE Setup is only compatible with MERLIC servers of the same major version. As a result, the MERLIC RTE Setup of MERLIC 26.03 cannot connect to the MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE of MERLIC 5.x versions. Likewise, the MERLIC RTE Setup of MERLIC 5.x versions cannot connect to a MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE of MERLIC 26.03.
  • Tools
    • Due to various improvements in MERLIC tools and Designer widgets, the internal file version of MERLIC Vision Apps (MVApps) has been increased to version 7. When opening example MVApps created with earlier MERLIC versions, a conversion dialog is displayed. It is recommended to review the MVApp after conversion, as the changes may affect its functionality.
    • The MERLIC tool "Acquire Image from Camera" is no longer available in MERLIC. It has been removed from the "Legacy" category in the Tool Library. For the image acquisition from camera devices, we recommend using the Image Source Manager. More information.
    • The MERLIC tools "Read from Socket" and "Write to Socket" are no longer available in MERLIC. They have been removed from the "Legacy" category in the Tool Library. For the communication via sockets, we recommend using the communication plug-in "TCP Socket", which is available as an additional communication plug-in for MERLIC in MVTec Software Manager. More information.
    • Due to the parameter changes for the tool "Read QR Code", exisiting MERLIC Vision Apps (MVApps) using this tool must be converted to the new MERLIC version. It is further recommended to check the functionality of the tool after the MVApp conversion and adjust the configuration if required. More information.
    • Due to the parameter changes for the tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning", exisiting MERLIC Vision Apps (MVApps) using this tool must be converted to the new MERLIC version. It is further recommended to check the functionality of the tool after the MVApp conversion and adjust the configuration if required. More information.
    • MERLIC now supports the newest version of the print quality inspection standards ISO/IEC 15415:2024 and ISO/IEC 29158. Due to this update, one of the parameter values for the "Print Quality" parameter in MERLIC tools for reading 2D data codes has changed. Therefore, it is recommended to check and update MERLIC Vision Apps (MVApps), which use these tools and the respective verification standard. More information.
    • MERLIC tools with deep learning functionality no longer support deep learning models that were optimized for TensorRT on GPUs with a compute capability lower than 7.5. The error handling of the affected tools has been updated accordingly.
  • Licensing
    • Due to the new licensing model of MERLIC, a new license is required to use MERLIC 26.03. If MERLIC is started without an activated license, it will run in trial mode.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Due to the new underlying HALCON version, the behavior of existing custom tools may have changed since the last MERLIC version. Therefore, it is recommended to check the functionality of existing custom tools in this MERLIC version. More information.

    Security-Related Topics

    The following issues are relevant in the context of cybersecurity:

    • New Features
      • The release notes now contain an additional section for all issues that are relevant for cybersecurity.
      • The MERLIC manual has been extended with a new page "Auxiliary Information > Cybersecurity", which provides security information on MERLIC.
    • Fixed Problems
      • If the MERLIC Frontend was connected to an MVApp with user management and a user was already logged in, the authentication state could persist when loading another MVApp with its own user management, for example, when preparing a different recipe or connecting to a different server. In cases where both MVApps define a user with the same username but different passwords, the MERLIC Frontend may have granted access to the newly loaded MVApp without requiring re‑authentication. This problem has been fixed.
      • Internal security checks identified the security vulnerability CVE-2026-27171 (zlib). The vulnerability concerns the functions crc32_combine64 and crc32_combine_gen64. These functions are neither called by MERLIC nor by any third-party libraries used by MERLIC. Exploitation in the context of MERLIC is therefore not possible and the CVE is not applicable to our product.
      • While opening an MVApp with enabled user management in MERLIC Creator, it was possible to time the connection of a connecting Frontend such that the user login was bypassed and the unauthenticated Frontend received views that it should not have been privy to. These views remained usable until the Frontend was reconnected. This problem has been fixed. The user's authentication is now continuously validated and the Frontend session expires when opening a new user management database. Note that this problem did not affect MERLIC RTE.

    Image Source Manager

    • Enhancements
      • The “File” image acquisition interface used by the Image Source Manager (ISM) and the MERLIC tool “Acquire Image from File” has been updated to revision 24.11.8.

    MERLIC RTE

    • New Features
      • MERLIC RTE now supports the transmission of observability data. For this, MERLIC is instrumented to allow observability of the MERLIC Frontend via the OpenTelemetry framework. Users may track user interactions that were made in the MERLIC Frontend while MERLIC RTE is running. To enable the export of the observability data, MERLIC provides a new MERLIC INI option " OtlpHttpEndpoint " in category " [OpenTelemetry] ", which allows setting the endpoint to which the data shall be sent. If this option is enabled, MERLIC RTE records and sends observability data regarding the following actions:
        • User logins, user logouts, and password changes
        • Acquiring and releasing write access the MERLIC Frontend
        • Changing parameter values
        • Saving and reverting the program
      • MERLIC RTE now allows defining a custom name for a MERLIC RTE instance to facilitate identifying the instance, for example, when using the new Frontend obserability feature and monitoring recorded data. The name can be defined via the new command line option " --name " or via the MERLIC INI file with the new INI option " InstanceName " in category " [ProcessIntegration] ". If no instance name is defined when starting MERLIC RTE, a unique name in the form of a UUID (universally unique identifier) is assigned by default. The instance name is also written to the MERLIC log file.
    • Fixed Problems
      • MERLIC RTE crashed when the MVApp referenced by a recipe could not be read at the time the recipe was prepared. This problem has been fixed. Now, preparing the recipe will fail gracefully, causing MERLIC RTE to remain in the "Initialized" state and emit an "Error" event.

    Plug-ins for MERLIC RTE

    • Enhancements
      • The OPC UA plug-in has been improved and updated to version 2.4.0. The plug-in now redirects the "trace" information from the stack and application directly into the MERLIC RTE log files removing the need of a separate log file. The plug-in configuration has been adjusted accordingly. The following user parameters have been removed from the "OPC UA Trace" category as they are no longer needed:
        • Disable flushing of the trace file
        • Maximum number of trace entries per file
        • Maximum number of trace backup files
        • Trace file location
      • The configuration options for the OPC UA plug-in have been improved:
        • The category "Endpoint Connection" has been extended by two new parameters: "Address" and "Port". They can be used to define the IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) or host machine of the server, and the port for the connection. In contrast, the "URL" parameter has been removed from the configuration because it is no longer needed.
        • In the category "Server Certificate", the default value of the parameter "Domain name" has been changed from " [NodeName] " to " [HostName] ". However, using the " [NodeName] " for the parameter is still possible.
        • In the category "Endpoint Security Overrides", the following parameters have been renamed for more clarity:
          • "Accept missing CRLs" has been renamed to "Accept missing certificate revocation lists"
          • "Disable ApplicationUri check" has been renamed to "Disable application uri check"
          • "Disable UserToken PolicyId check" has been renamed to "Disable user token policy id check
      • The Unified Automation OPC UA SDK has been updated to version 2.0.1.

    Communication Plug-in SDK

    • New Features
      • The MERLIC executable "merlic_communication_plugin_host.exe" provided for the development of communication plug-ins has been extended with a new command line option " --override ". It can be used to override individual configuration parameters, for example, for debugging purposes. Additionally, the executable will now print the configuration parameters that will be used by the plug-in.
      • In the communication plug-in support library, " MVPlugin::Config::Builder " has been extended with the method " WithKey() ", which allows adding configuration parameters with keys. This keys can contain dashes ( - ) and underscores ( _ ) in addition to alphanumeric characters. This method supersedes " WithName() ", which drops all non-alphanumeric characters and has been deprecated. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

    MERLIC RTE Setup

    • Enhancements
      • In the "Recipes" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup, the display of the recipe and MVApp descriptions have been improved. Previously, the texts were wrapped character by character which could make it hard to read the text. Now, the texts are wrapped word by word.
    • Fixed Problems
      • When dragging a section in the configuration area of any tab in the MERLIC RTE Setup to the right and then reducing the window width, the contents of the respective section were not visible anymore. This problem has been fixed.
      • In case the MVApp referenced by a recipe could not be parsed, for example, due to lacking file permissions or a compatibility issue, the section "Recipe interface" on the "Recipes" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup potentially showed follow-up errors pertaining to ostensibly superfluous recipe values. This problem has been fixed. The validation of the recipe interface is now skipped in this case.

    MERLIC Creator

    • New Features
      • The “File” menu of MERLIC Creator and MERLIC Frontend now includes the new entry “Revert to Last Saved”. It can be used to restore an MVApp or a recipe to its last saved state.
    • Improved Usability
      • Saving write-protected MVApps has been improved. Attempting to save a write protected MVApp would present a pop-up error stating the issue, but offering no alternative to save the changes. This problem has been fixed. The pop-up error now prompts the user to save the MVApp in a different file.

    Frontend Designer

    • Fixed Problems
      • The context menu of some widgets in the Frontend Designer erroneously listed tools without any compatible parameters for the selected widget. Therefore, widgets could only be connected reliably to tool parameters and results via the widget properties panel. This problem has been fixed.
      • When resizing the "easyTouch Button" widget in the Frontend Designer, the background and handle of the widget were not correctly aligned anymore when the height-to-width ratio of the widget became too large. This problem has been fixed. Both the handle and background of the widget are now anchored to the top of the widget.
      • If the user canceled the dialog for saving an MVApp in MERLIC Creator, the menu and controls within the Frontend Designer were still erroneously disabled. The Frontend Designer could not be used before any MVApp was actually saved. This problem has been fixed. The Frontend Designer is now correctly enabled regardless of whether the saving process was finished or cancelled by the user.

    MERLIC Frontend

    • New Features
      • The write access mode of the MERLIC Frontend and the respective Designer widget have been improved. Previously, the "Write Access" widget could also be used when the MERLIC Frontend was connected to MERLIC Creator although the write access is granted by default for connections to MERLIC Creator. As this might have led to confusion on the intended use, the "Write Access" widget is now disabled by default if the MERLIC Frontend is connected to MERLIC Creator. It will only be enabled when the MERLIC Frontend is connected to a MERLIC RTE instance.
        Additionally, the "Write Access" widget has been extended by a new property "Release Action". It defines the action that will be triggered when releasing write access in the MERLIC Frontend or when the MERLIC Frontend is closed while there are still unsaved changes. MVApp developers may choose between saving the changes automatically or showing a save dialog. The save dialog allows Frontend users to specify a reason for the change but also allows discarding the changes or canceling the saving process.
        The icon for the "Write Access" widget has also been revised to make it easier to differentiate the widget from the "easyTouch Button" widget. It now indicates whether write access is currently granted in the MERLIC Frontend and whether there are any unsaved changes. The widget properties now also provide more customization options for the color of the widget.
      • The “File” menu of MERLIC Creator and MERLIC Frontend now includes the new entry “Revert to Last Saved”. It can be used to restore an MVApp or a recipe to its last saved state.
    • Fixed Problems
      • When a Frontend design contained both an "easyTouch Button" and a "Training" widget, easyTouch could not be enabled while the training mode was still active. This problem has been fixed. Now, both widgets can be enabled any time and, if necessary, the other widget is automatically disabled.
      • An intermittent connectivity issue caused the MERLIC Frontend to briefly lose connection and then reconnect automatically. If write access in the MERLIC Frontend was currently granted when the connection was lost, write access was also released. This problem has been fixed.
      • When saving a large MVApp after changing a parameter in the MERLIC Frontend, the connection could time out before the response of the server for the saving process was sent back to the client. The MERLIC Frontend then reconnected but without any indication of what happened. This problem has been fixed. The timeout has been increased. Additionally, the user is now notified with a dialog when the response for the saving process exceeds the timeout.
      • If the MERLIC Frontend was connected to an MVApp with user management and a user was already logged in, the authentication state could persist when loading another MVApp with its own user management, for example, when preparing a different recipe or connecting to a different server. In cases where both MVApps define a user with the same username but different passwords, the MERLIC Frontend may have granted access to the newly loaded MVApp without requiring re‑authentication. This problem has been fixed.
      • If an MVApp was reloaded in the MERLIC Frontend because of a user login or unpreparing and preparing a recipe in MERLIC RTE, the Frontend design of the MVApp sometimes appeared slightly shifted within the MERLIC Frontend window. This problem has been fixed.
      • When releasing write access in the MERLC Frontend while an "easyTouch Button" widget or a "Training" widget was engaged, the connected image display continued to be modified by the widgets, even though it was not possible to interact with them anymore until write access was acquired again. This problem has been fixed. Either widget will now disengage when write access is released and the image display will be restored accordingly.
      • If an MVApp was loaded in MERLIC Creator while the user management was currently enabled in the Frontend Designer, the Frontend design was not restored properly. As a consequence, a MERLIC Frontend connected to MERLIC Creator displayed a blank page instead of the Frontend design of the loaded MVApp. This problem has been fixed.
      • If the "Training" widget was used in a MERLIC Frontend design in combination with an enabled user management, it did not display any existing training data. It could be therefore not used for training in the MERLIC Frontend. This problem has been fixed.
      • While opening an MVApp with enabled user management in MERLIC Creator, it was possible to time the connection of a connecting Frontend such that the user login was bypassed and the unauthenticated Frontend received views that it should not have been privy to. These views remained usable until the Frontend was reconnected. This problem has been fixed. The user's authentication is now continuously validated and the Frontend session expires when opening a new user management database. Note that this problem did not affect MERLIC RTE.

    Tools

    • New Features
      • The MERLIC tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" has been extended and improved in various ways. It now supports using optimized Deep OCR models. Additionally, it now allows setting different processing units and precisions for the detection component and reading component of the Deep OCR model. For this, the respective tool parameters and tool results have been replaced as follows:
        • "Processing Unit" has been replaced with "Processing Unit - Reading" and "Processing Unit - Detection"
        • "Precision" has been replaced with "Precision - Reading" and "Precision - Detection"
        • "Used Processing Unit" has been replaced with "Used Processing Unit - Reading" and "Used Processing Unit - Detection"
        • "Precision Data Type" has been replaced with "Precision Data Type - Reading" and "Precision Data Type - Detection"
        As part of this change, further parameters that refer to specific components of the Deep OCR model have been renamed to ensure consistent naming:
        • "Detection Model File" has been renamed to "Model File - Detection"
        • "Reading Model File" has been renamed to "Model File - Reading"
        • "Image Width for Reading" has been renamed to "Image Width - Reading"
        Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
      • MERLIC has been extended with a new concept tool "Tile Images". It is available in the tool category "Concept Tools > Preprocssing". The tool allows tiling two images with the same number of channels into one image. The tool parameter "Mode" allows users to choose whether the images are tiled horizontally or vertically. The tool can be used multiple times to subsequently create an image based on a sequence of tiled images. In combination with acquisition sequences, the new concept tool can be used to tile images that were acquired from a line scan or area camera before proceeding with the actual image processing tasks.
        This concept tool can be used to evaluate the current stage of development of this tool. MVTec appreciates any feedback on desired changes or further feature requests. The feedback can be submitted on the MERLIC feedback website which can be accessed from the MERLIC Creator either via the feedback icon on the top right or via the "Help" menu.
    • Enhancements
      • The MERLIC tool "Acquire Image from Camera", which had been deprecated since MERLIC 5.0, has been removed. The tool is no longer available in the "Legacy" category of the Tool Library in the MERLIC Creator. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
      • The MERLIC tools for reading 2D data codes now support the newest version of the verification standards for print quality inspection: ISO/IEC 15415:2024 for print quality inspection of two-dimensional barcodes and the ISO/IEC 29158:2025 for assessing the symbol quality of direct marked parts (DPM). This update affects the following tools:
        • Read Aztec Code
        • Read Data Matrix ECC 200
        • Read PDF417
        • Read QR Code
        When selecting the respective value in the "Print Quality" parameter, the print quality will be inspected based on the newest version of the seleted standard. Due to this update, the parameter value for the ISO/IEC 29158 standard has been renamed from "ISO/IEC TR 29158 (AIM DPM-1-2006)" to "ISO/IEC 29158". This change applies to the tools "Read Aztec Code", "Read Data Matrix ECC 200", and "Read QR Code". Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
      • The MERLIC tool "Read Bar Code" has been improved. The parameter "Element Width Tolerant" is now also supported for the code types "Code 128" and "GS1‑128".
      • Starting with this MERLIC version, the tools "Read from File", "Write Image to File", and "Write to File" are set as legacy. The tools have been moved from the tool category "File Access" to "Legacy > File Access". They remain available to provide backward compatibility, but they will no longer be maintained or updated in upcoming MERLIC versions. We recommend using the communication plug-ins "save-results" and "save-images" instead.
      • The MERLIC tools "Read from Socket" and "Write to Socket", which had been deprecated since MERLIC 5.0, have been removed and are no longer available. As a result, the tools are no longer provided in the "Legacy" category of the Tool Library in the MERLIC Creator. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
      • The tool parameter "Minimum Contrast" of the MERLIC tool "Read QR Code" has been removed. The parameter was already deactivated in the previous MERLIC version and is now no longer available at this tool. As part of this change, also the respective tool result "Minimum Contrast Out" has been removed. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
      • The MERLIC tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" has been extended with a new Deep OCR reading model. The respective model file "pretrained_deep_ocr_reading_compact.hdl" can be selected at the tool parameter "Model File - Reading". The new model is slightly less precise than the default model, but it uses significantly less memory and is much faster during inference.
    • Fixed Problems
      • The MERLIC tools "Detect Anomalies" and "Detect Anomalies in the Global Context" did not perform an inference if the parameters defining the different thresholds were modified during the execution, for example, by a connected tool or in MERLIC RTE mode by an MVApp parameter. This problem has been fixed.
      • In the MERLIC tools "Read PDF 417" and "Read Aztec Code", the range of the parameter "Minimum Contrast" was incorrectly narrowed to [10..100] . This problem has been fixed. The valid range has been corrected to [1..255] .
      • The parameter value of "Minimum Module Size" in the MERLIC tool "Read Aztec Code" could not be modified using the arrow buttons. Additionally, the tool reference of the tools "Read Aztec Code", "Read Data Matrix ECC 200", and "Read QR Code" did not mention the correct value range for the parameter "Maximum Module Size". These problems have been fixed.
      • MERLIC could crash when the parameter "Deformation Tolerance" of the MERLIC tool "Read QR Code" was set to "curved" and certain images of codes with defect error corrections were used. This problem has been fixed.
      • When loading an MVApp containing the MERLIC tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning", a misleading error was logged if the tool used an optimized recognition model and the parameter "Recognition Alignment" was enabled. This problem has been fixed.
      • The Japanese translation of several tool parameters and tool results was inaccurate and did not correctly convey their intended meaning. For example, for results with the suffix “Out”, the suffix was translated as 外れ or 値外, which implies deviation or outliers. This problem has been fixed. The Japanese translations have been revised to ensure consistent and accurate representation of their meaning, for example by translating “Out” as 出力 for output values.
      • The values for the tool parameter "Precision" in MERLIC tools with deep learning functionality have been improved. Previously, the parameter could be set to "high" or "medium", which related to the data types "float32" and "float16". However, these values could lead to confusion as it was not clear, which data type was internally used for the respective value. Additionally, precisons other than "float32" or "float16" were displayed as "unknown". Now, the parameter values have changed to list the actual data types, for example, "float32", "float16", or "bfloat16".

    Examples

    • New Features
      • MERLIC has been extended with three new examples for Frontend observabilty. The examples use Docker Compose to define multiple containers, volumes, and networks in a reproducible way. The example Dockerfiles and scripts are provided in the directory "examples\containers\observability" within the MERLIC installation. For each example, a "Readme" file is provided, which contains information on the prerequisites and how to run the example.
    • Enhancements
      • The MVApp example "evaluate_ecc_200_print_quality.mvapp" has been updated to the new ISO/IEC 15415:2024 standard. Furthermore, some additional example images have been added.
    • Improved Usability
      • Saving write-protected MVApps has been improved. Attempting to save a write protected MVApp would present a pop-up error stating the issue, but offering no alternative to save the changes. This problem has been fixed. The pop-up error now prompts the user to save the MVApp in a different file.
    • Fixed Problems
      • Some texts of MVApp examples were not correctly displayed in the MERLIC Frontend because the specified font family was not available on the system. The texts were sometimes truncated or displayed with the system font instead of the specified font. This problem has been fixed. MERLIC now embeds the font families "Open Sans", "Noto HK", and "Source Code Pro". Additionally, the Frontend texts of the example MVApps have been adapted to use the font family "Open Sans" to ensure that the texts are displayed correctly on each system.

    Documentation

    • New Features
      • The release notes now contain an additional section for all issues that are relevant for cybersecurity.
      • The MERLIC manual has been extended with a new page "Auxiliary Information > Cybersecurity", which provides security information on MERLIC.
    • Enhancements
      • The system requirements in the MERLIC manual have been updated to include Windows IoT Enterprise LTSC 2024.
      • The documentation of the write access mode has been improved. It now describes more clearly the intended use of the write access mode, the differences depending on the server to which the MERLIC Frontend is connected, and how to enable the write access in MERLIC RTE mode.
    • Improved Usability
      • Accessing the MERLIC documentation via the graphical user interface of the different MERLIC applications has been improved and standardized to be more intuitive. The "Help" menus of MERLIC Creator, Frontend Designer, and MERLIC Frontend now provide two distinctive menu entries to access help: one for accessing the start menu of the MERLIC manual and one to access the context-help of the currently focused element. The menus also show the respective keyboard shortcuts. Additionally, the MERLIC RTE Setup has been extended with a help button on the top-right corner to access the context-help of the current tab via mouse-click.
    • Fixed Problems
      • The MERLIC manual did not provide any information on which MQTT version is used by the MQTT plug-in. This problem has been fixed.
      • In the MERLIC manual, the page "Installed File Structure" has been renamed to "Created and Installed File Structure". Furthermore, a new table has been added to provide a clearer overview of additional configuration files and log files that are created while working with MERLIC.
      • In the MERLIC manual, some pages referring to resizing the tool flow of an MVApp did not show the correct icon for the "Reset zoom to 100%" button. This problem has been fixed.
      • In the MERLIC manual, several terms referring to the OPC UA plug-in and OPC UA server were not used correctly. This resulted in inaccurate and inconsistent translations on some pages. This problem has been fixed.
      • On the page "Speed-Up Tips" in the MERLIC manual, the section "Disabling Foreground Window Priority Boost" was not translated. This problem has been fixed.
      • In the MERLIC manual, various screenshots and screencasts of the MERLIC Frontend were outdated. This problem has been fixed.
      • In the MERLIC manual, equations containing text were not displayed correctly accross all languages. The text font was set to italic, which is appropriate for the English and German manual but not for Chinese and Japanese. This problem has been fixed. Text within equations are still displayed in italic font in the English and German manuals. In the Chinese and Japanese manuals, however, the characters are now displayed in regular (non-italic) font to ensure proper readability and language-specific formatting.

    Licensing

    • Enhancements
      • The license protection tools from Wibu-Systems used by MERLIC have been updated to the latest versions. MERLIC now uses CodeMeter version 8.40d.

    Miscellaneous

    • The AI² interfaces that are optionally used for the deep learning tools are updated. MERLIC now contains the following versions of the interfaces:
      • OpenVINO: Revision 21.05.5.2
      • TensorRT: Revision 25.11.1.4
    • To profit from the improvements of the new HALCON version, the HALCON libraries used by MERLIC have been upgraded to the HALCON 25.11 Progress version. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

    Known Issues

    The following issue is already known and in development process. It will be fixed for upcoming releases.

    • In frequent cases, when using TensorRT™ accelerated processing units in MERLIC tools with deep learning technology, MERLIC crashes if the required memory for the deep learning model exceeds the available memory on the GPU.

    Legal Notes :

    Intel, the Intel logo, OpenVINO, the OpenVINO logo, and Movidius are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.