Release Notes for HALCON 11.0.2

This document provides the release notes for MVTec HALCON 11.0.2, as released in July 2013. HALCON 11.0.2 is primarily a maintenance release that fixes all known bugs in HALCON 11.0.1; besides, it provides added functionality.

Addendum to the Release Notes of HALCON 11.0.2

The bar code reader and the data code reader of the originally released version of HALCON 11.0.2 had a few critical issues, as well as the operator list_files and the method GetGlobalCtrlVarTuple() of HDevEngine/.NET. To solve these problems, the original version HALCON 11.0.2 was substituted by an updated version HALCON 11.0.2.1.

Furthermore, some HALCON image acquisition interfaces have been revised since HALCON 11.0.2. Note that for using the updated BitFlow interface and the updated LinX interface, you must install the respective new SDK.

If you have already installed HALCON 11.0.2, we recommend to download the update and install it over the existing installation. For this purpose, the Windows installer has been adapted to replace the respective files automatically.

To find out which version is currently installed, please open the dialog "Help->About" in HDevelop. The correct versions and dates of HDevelop and HALCON are: "HDevelop version: 11.0.2.2 (20.09.2013)" and "HALCON version: 11.0.2.6 (20.09.2013)". The file version of the HALCON library can also be checked with the following operator call: get_system('file_version',FileVersion), or, under Windows, by inspecting the file properties of the files halcon.dll and halconxl.dll.

In particular, the following problems have been fixed:

Bar Code Reader

Data Code Reader

list_files on Asian Windows Systems

HDevEngine/.NET

In addition, HALCON 11.0.2.1 also fixes the following problems:

HDevelop

3D Object Model

Procedures

Extension Packages

Modified Image Acquisition Interfaces

Compatibility

Licenses

HALCON 11.0 licenses are also valid for HALCON 11.0.2. In contrast, all HALCON 10.0 licenses or licenses of earlier versions must be replaced or upgraded. Please contact your local distributor.

HALCON Library

HALCON 11.0.2 is fully compatible with HALCON 11.0 except for the changed behavior of some operators due to bug fixes. Compared to HALCON 10.0, many extensions have been introduced. Thus, the HALCON 11.0 libraries are not compatible with HALCON 10.0 or earlier versions.

In detail, please note the following incompatibilities with respect to HALCON 11.0.1:

HALCON Applications

Applications (i.e., executables) developed with HALCON 11.0 or HALCON 11.0.1 can be used with HALCON 11.0.2, i.e., HALCON 11.0.2 is binary compatible with HALCON 11.0 (except for applications that use the HALCON/C++ interface) and HALCON 11.0.1.

All programs (C, C++, .NET, or COM) that have been developed with HALCON 10.0.x must be recompiled.

The incompatibility with HALCON 10.0.x or earlier versions mainly concerns the binaries, with only few changes in the language interfaces. If you encounter problems during recompiling your programs, please check the detailed description of changes below and for HALCON 11.0 and HALCON 11.0.1, respectively.

Please note that applications using HALCON/.NET (and HDevEngine/.NET) have local copies of the corresponding assemblies (halcondotnet.dll etc.). After installing HALCON 11.0.2, these applications would therefore use the old version of the HALCON/.NET interface together with the new version of the HALCON library. In order to benefit from the bug fixes in the HALCON/.NET interface as well, you must either replace the assemblies manually or recompile the projects. If you do not recompile the application, you need to add an application configuration file mapping the application's expected assembly version to the new version. See the Programmer's Guide for more information.

Image Acquisition Interfaces

The system requirements of the following image acquisition interfaces have been changed since HALCON 11.0.1:

If you have developed your own acquisition interfaces with HALCON 11.0 or HALCON 11.0.1, you can use them with HALCON 11.0.2 without further action.

Extension Packages

Extension packages developed with HALCON 11.0 or HALCON 11.0.1 can be used with HALCON 11.0.2 without further action. Extension packages developed with HALCON 10.0.x or earlier versions must be re-generated. Note that the old makefiles for HALCON/C++ must be adapted according to the sample makefile under extension_packages/halconuser.

ActivVisionTools


Major New Features of HALCON 11.0.2

Licensing

HALCON Library

Procedures

HDevelop

Examples

Documentation


Detailed Description of Changes in HALCON 11.0.2

Detailed release notes can be obtained for the following topics:

HDevelop

Functionality

HDevelop Language
Assistants
GUI

Bug Fixes

HDevelop Language
Procedures
Image Acquisition Assistant
Calibration Assistant
Matching Assistant
OCR Assistant
Program Listing/Editor
Variable View
Operator Window
Help
Tools
Dialogs
General
Code Export

Examples

New Example Programs

HALCON has been extended with the following HDevelop example programs:

Modified Example Programs

HALCON Library

Speed-Up and Enhancements

3D Matching → Shape-Based, Matching → Deformable
Identification → Data Code

Modified Operators

3D Object Model → Transformations
3D Reconstruction → Multi-View Stereo
Graphics → Output
Identification → Bar Code
Identification → Data Code
Matching → Correlation-Based

Bug Fixes

2D Metrology
3D Matching → Shape-Based
3D Matching → Surface-Based
3D Object Model → Creation
3D Object Model → Features
3D Object Model → Segmentation
3D Object Model → Transformations
3D Reconstruction → Binocular Stereo
3D Reconstruction → Multi-View Stereo
3D Reconstruction → Sheet of Light
Calibration → Calibration Object
Calibration → Multi-View
Calibration → Rectification
Classification → K-Nearest Neighbors
Classification → Support Vector Machines
File → Images
Filters → Geometric Transformations
Filters → Lines
Filters → Optical Flow
Filters → Smoothing
Graphics → Drawing
Graphics → Output
Graphics → Parameters
Identification → Bar Code
Identification → Data Code
Identification → Sample-Based
Image → Manipulation
Matching → Deformable
Matching → Descriptor-Based
Matching → Shape-Based
Morphology → Region
OCR → Training Files
Segmentation → Threshold
Segmentation → Topography
System → Compute Devices
System → Multithreading
System → Serialized Item
System → Sockets
Tools → Function
Tools → Interpolation
Transformations → Poses
XLD → Features
XLD → Transformations
Automatic Operator Parallelization
Compute Devices
Misc

Procedures

Functionality

Bug Fixes

HALCON/C

Bug Fixes

HALCON/.NET

Bug Fixes

HALCON/COM

Bug Fixes

HDevEngine

Bug Fixes

Image Acquisition Interfaces

The latest information about new interface revisions and newly supported image acquisition devices can be found on MVTec's web server.

New Image Acquisition Interfaces

Modified Image Acquisition Interfaces

Image Acquisition Example Programs

New Image Acquisition Example Programs
Modified Image Acquisition Example Programs
Removed Image Acquisition Example Programs

Documentation

Installation Guide

HDevelop User's Guide

Solution Guide II+III (Advanced)

Technical Notes

Reference Manual

Release Notes

Supported Operating Systems

Windows

HALCON 11.0.2 has been compiled for the following Windows platform versions:

The setup process checks whether it is running on a 32 or 64 bit system and provides a suitable list of platform versions that can be installed.

During the installation, the environment variable HALCONARCH is set to x86sse2-win32 or x64-win64 to indicate the installed platform version.

Please note that if you want to switch to another platform version, you must first install it. Then, you must adapt the environment variable HALCONARCH (see the Installation Guide for more information).

Linux

HALCON 11.0.2 has been compiled in the following Linux platform versions:

Please refer to the Installation Guide for detailed system requirements corresponding to the different Application Binary Interfaces.

The installation script checks whether it is running on a 32 or 64 bit system and provides a suitable list of platform versions that can be installed.

Mac OS X

HALCON 11.0.2 has been compiled for Mac OS X in the following platform versions:

Miscellaneous

Installation

Licensing

Example Images

New Example Images

For several of the new HDevelop example programs, new images are available. On Windows, these images will be installed automatically during the update to HALCON 11.0.2.

3D Models

New 3D Models

On Windows, the new 3D model will be installed automatically during the update to HALCON 11.0.2.