Programming with HALCON

HDevelop – your central workspace for machine vision

MVTec provides HDevelop as the integrated development environment (IDE) for MVTec HALCON. HDevelop is the central workspace for creating, testing, and optimizing machine vision applications in an interactive and efficient way.

It supports rapid prototyping and visual validation of image processing logic. Once the vision logic is complete, it can be exported as source code or executed directly in applications using HDevEngine.

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HDevelop in the HALCON development process

HDevelop is the tool where machine vision functionality is designed and refined. HDevelop focuses on interactive development and complements runtime execution and deployment tools.
HDevelop is part of the Development Tools and Programming area within HALCON.

All of MVTec's Development Tools & Programming

Interactive Development For Machine Vision

HDevelop is a highly interactive environment tailored to machine vision workflows. Operators are executed immediately, and results are visualized automatically. This allows developers to validate ideas, adjust parameters, and optimize results directly during execution.
HDevelop supports the full HALCON functionality, including advanced image processing, deep learning, and 3D vision.

Learn more about HALCON's core features

Assistants For Common Vision Tasks

MVTec provides HDevelop with assistants to simplify common machine vision development subtasks. These assistants guide users through interactive configuration steps and insert the corresponding code into the program when needed.

Typical assistant-supported tasks include:

Image acquisition
Camera calibration
Matching
Measurement
Optical character recognition (OCR)

This approach reduces manual coding effort and supports consistent and reproducible results.

Graphical Windows And Development Environment

HDevelop is equipped with specialized graphical windows that support efficient development, debugging, and analysis.

HDevelop enables direct visualization of iconic data in the graphics window. Images with arbitrary data types and channel counts can be displayed and adapted interactively. Visualization modes such as lookup tables, 3D gray-value plots, contour lines, regions, and subpixel results support intuitive interpretation of image data.

The evolution of machine vision development

HDevelopEVO

HDevelopEVO builds on MVTec’s trusted development environment, enhancing the creation and optimization of machine vision applications. With faster prototyping and seamless integration into HALCON, HDevelopEVO empowers you to refine vision systems with greater efficiency and precision, driving innovation in industrial automation.

Learn more about HDevelopEVO

Language Support

The HDevelop user interface in multiple languages to support international development teams. Available languages include English, German, Spanish, Japanese, French, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Korean, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

Code Export And Integration

Smooth transition from interactive development to productive use.

HDevelop supports:

Export of vision logic as C, C++, C#, or Visual Basic source code
Execution of HDevelop programs inside applications using HDevEngine, without recompiling

This flexibility supports different system architectures and long-term maintenance strategies.

Learn more about HDevEngine

Creating Custom Tools For MERLIC

HDevelop can be used for developing custom tools for MERLIC. These tools extend MERLIC’s standard tool library with application-specific functionality while reusing HALCON-based vision logic.

This supports consistent workflows across programming-based and no-code machine vision environments.

Working Across Platforms

HDevelop is supported for all operating systems that are by used HALCON. This ensures consistent development workflows across PC-based and embedded systems.

HDevelop can be seamlessly integrated into environments that target embedded systems and heterogeneous hardware platforms.

Platforms, Compatibility & Embedded Vision HALCON for Embedded Vision