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MVTEC MERLIC 5.6.0 x64-linux完整版和运行版的扩展MERLIC 5.6.0 Communicator SDK

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MVTEC MERLIC 5.6.0 x64-linux完整版和运行版的扩展MERLIC 5.6.0 Communicator SDK

http://visionbbs.com/thread-32227-1-1.html

(出处: 石鑫华视觉论坛)

MERLIC 5.6 的最新功能

在新版本中，我们延续了 MERLIC 的既定路线——简单的流程集成与强大的机器视觉方法相结合。这就是为什么 MERLIC 5.6 再次包含一个界面，进一步简化 MERLIC 的流程集成。此外，还将有令人兴奋的新功能。

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最新改动？

在连接性方面，5.6 版本将引入针对 Siemens SIMATIC S7 PLC 的插件。此外，现有的 REST API 插件也得到了扩展，新增了直接访问图像结果的功能。新的机器视觉方法包括对 2D 数据代码的质量控制选项和利用光度立体技术进行的表面重建，后者也用于质量控制。客户还可以期待基于 AI 的深度学习应用程序的增强功能。

西门子 S7 通讯插件

新版 MERLIC 现已包含一个用于与西门子 SIMATIC S7 PLC 通信的插件。这一插件使 MERLIC 能够直接访问西门子被广泛应用的 PLC，进一步提升其连接性。对于客户而言，这款插件不仅提升了使用的便捷性，还能够更快速、直接地集成到生产环境中。

简化图像源的参数化流程

图像采集的参数化功能使用户可以轻松切换不同的预设相机参数设置。这不仅提升了操作的便捷性，还节省了时间，同时为新的应用场景提供了更多可能性。借助这一功能，MERLIC 中的机器视觉应用（即 MVApps）能够在特定的相机设置下顺利运行。

使用 REST 插件进行图像传输

REST 插件自 MERLIC 5.4 版本推出以来便可用。该接口为使用 REST API 网络服务打开了广阔的可能性。在新版本的 MERLIC 中，用户现在还可以通过该接口访问图像。这在将 MERLIC 生成的图像直接集成到 HTML 网站中时尤其有用，使用户能够更方便地控制和监控生产过程。这意味着，客户可以将 REST API 的图像直接嵌入到他们的应用程序中。此外，扩展的图像内存允许通过插件异步检索 MERLIC 中的图像，从而提升了操作的灵活性和效率。

深度学习工具中优化模型的支持

针对 AI2 加速器优化的深度学习模型可直接在相应的 MERLIC 工具中使用。典型的工作流程是在深度学习工具中训练模型。导出后，模型可针对目标硬件进行优化，然后直接在 MERLIC 中使用。在 MERLIC 中，无需进一步调整模型，因此在加载程序时可节省大量时间。

2D 二维码的印刷质量

在生产行业中，2D 二维码的质量控制至关重要。MERLIC 5.6 中的新方法不仅可以读码，还能够评估其印刷质量。代码的印刷质量依据 AIM DPM-1-2006 和 ISO/IEC 15415 标准进行评估。该新方法加快了商品标签印刷质量的检测过程，对许多公司来说具有重要意义。

工具流程中的搜索工具

此功能提升了 MERLIC 中复杂工具流程的清晰度，使用户能够更明确地搜索特定工具。

使用光度立体技术重建表面

光度立体技术（Photometric Stereo）是一种用于重建物体 3D 表面结构的机器视觉技术，该技术通常用于检测表面缺陷，因为它能够非常精确地捕捉到物体表面微小的凹凸和细节。光度立体表面重建”功能将首先加入MERLIC的概念工具中。此功能所需的特定照明，也可通过MERLIC内的GenICam相机接口轻松控制。

提供 MERLIC在线说明文档

从 5.6 版本开始，MERLIC 说明文档可在 MVTec 网站 www.merlic.help 上获取。这使用户能够直接通过相应网页上的链接共享文档参考资料。

全新机器视觉工具

在 MERLIC 5.6 版本中，一些之前以测试形式提供的方法已被转移到新的工具中。这些工具包括：“使用深度学习计数”、“ 像素级精确图像分割”和“ 颜色识别”。

通过“使用深度学习计数”（也称为深度计数），用户能够在极少训练的情况下快速且可靠地计数大量物体。此功能在多种场景下都有广泛应用，例如用于完整性检查。

“像素级精确图像分割”工具可以通过像素级精度定位训练过的缺陷类别，解决用户之前无法解决或需要大量编程工作才能完成的检测任务。

“ 颜色识别”功能允许用户在不同条件下可靠地识别颜色，并且可以通过调整参数进一步优化结果。该方法在质量保证中起到重要作用，例如在检测任务或选择正确组件的应用中。

发行说明 MERLIC 5.6.0

Here you can read the release notes for MVTec MERLIC 5.6.0, as released in October 2024.

Contents

• Supported Operating Systems

• Major New Features

• Compatibility

• Image Source Manager

• Process Integration

• Communicator

• Interfaces for Process Integration

• MERLIC Creator

• MERLIC Designer

• MERLIC Frontend

• Tools

• Examples

• Documentation

• Licensing

• Miscellaneous

• Release Notes for Windows Systems Only

• Release Notes Linux Systems Only

• Known Issues
  

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 , is available.

Windows

MERLIC 5.6.0 is available for Windows 10 ( 64-bit , version 1903) or newer.

Linux

MERLIC RTE is available on PC-based and Arm-based Linux 5.0 systems.

Developing the MVApp is still done on a Windows system with the MERLIC Creator. The application can then be used with MERLIC RTE 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 FeaturesCommunicator Plug-in "SIMATIC S7"

The new version of MERLIC includes a plug-in for communicating with Siemens SIMATIC S7 PLCs. This direct access to the widely used Siemens PLC further increases the connectivity of MERLIC. For customers, the plug-in offers improved usability as well as faster and direct integration into the production environment.

REST Plug-in

The REST plug-in has been available since MERLIC 5.4. This interface opens the door to the world of REST API web services. In the new MERLIC version, images can now also be accessed via the interface. This is useful, for example, for integrating images from MERLIC directly into HTML websites which enable users to control and monitor production processes. That means, customers can integrate images from the REST API directly into their applications. Furthermore, an extended image memory enables retrieving images from MERLIC asynchronously via the plug-in.

New machine vision tools

In MERLIC 5.6, some methods that were previously available on a test basis have been transferred to completely new tools. These tools are: "Count with Deep Learning", "Segment Image Pixel-Precisely", and "Recognize Color".

With "Count with Deep Learning", also known as Deep Counting, it is possible to count a large number of objects quickly and robustly with little training effort. There are many possible use cases for this feature, like for example completeness checks.

"Segment Image Pixel-Precisely" makes it possible to localize trained defect classes with pixel precision. This enables users to solve inspection tasks that previously could not be solved at all or only with considerable programming effort.

With the tool "Recognize Color", users can reliably recognize colors under different conditions. In addition, the results can be further improved by setting the parameters accordingly. Among other things, the method contributes to quality assurance, for example in applications such as inspection tasks or selecting the right components.

Print Quality of 2D data codes

Quality control of 2D data codes is particularly important for the production industry. The new method in MERLIC 5.6 does not only read the code, but also evaluates its print quality. The print quality of the codes is determined in accordance with the AIM DPM-1-2006 and ISO/IEC 15415 standards. The new method speeds up the process of checking the print quality of labels on goods, which is very important for many companies.

Reconstruct Surface with Photometric Stereo

Photometric stereo is a technique in machine vision used to reconstruct the 3D surface structure of an object. This approach is often used for detecting defects. The corresponding tool "Reconstruct Surface with Photometric Stereo" is initially available in MERLIC as a concept tool. The lighting required for this technology can be easily controlled within MERLIC via GenICam.

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.

• Image Source Manager
  
  

• Empty names

• Names ending with a white space

• Names ending with .

• Names containing one of the following characters: {{ /:*?"<>| }}

• Reserved names such as the following: CON , PRN , AUX , NUL , COM1 ... COM9 , LPT1 ... LPT9
  

• In case of a configuration with an invalid name, rename the directory mentioned in the log and additionally toggle the "Use as RTE startup configuration" option in the MERLIC RTE Setup if necessary.

• In case of an image source with an invalid name, rename the "<image_source_name>.json" file mentioned in the log and additionally make the following adjustments:
  

• In case of an acquisition sequence with an invalid name, rename the "*.seq" file mentioned in the log and additionally make the following adjustments:
  
  

• Rename the corresponding parameter persistence files, i.e., "<image_source_name>_*.pers",

• Adapt the "Image Source Name" of "Image Source" tools in MVApps that already used the invalid name.
  

• Set the desired acquisition sequence as the default sequence of the affected ISM configuration using the MERLIC RTE Setup if necessary.

• Adapt the entry "AcquisitionSequence" in recipe files that already used the invalid name.
  

• The restrictions for names of ISM configurations, image sources, parameter sets, and acquisition sequences have been expanded. Therefore, the names of existing ISM components might now contain characters that are not allowed anymore. We recommend checking the validity of the names of existing ISM components and adjusting them if necessary.
  The following names are invalid for ISM components:
  While previous versions of MERLIC erroneously still accepted some of these names and reloaded corresponding ISM components with such names on startup, they are now no longer accepted and thus ignored on startup. The log file will contain a warning in such cases, stating the affected file or directory containing the name that is now deemed invalid. To restore it to working condition, please rename these files or directories to a valid name in the filesystem manually.
  Take care to adapt or check the following entries as well:More information.
  

• Tools
  

• The tool parameter "Maximum Number of Objects" of the tool "Find Objects" must no longer have a value of 0. In previous MERLIC versions, a value of 0 meant that the model file's inherent upper limit was used. Now, the parameter must have a finite value but will be automatically changed to the model's inherent upper limit when loading a new model file. Therefore, existing MERLIC Vision Apps, in which the parameter is still set to 0, must be adapted manually. More information.

• The "Preprocessed Image" result of the "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" tool is now obsolete and will only display the last processed ROI when multiple ROIs are present. The parameter will be removed in a later MERLIC version. More information.

• Tools in the "Deep Learning - AI" category will now no longer perform hardware-specific optimizations when the tool is loaded or the model is changed. This decreases the loading times but may potentially negatively impact the runtime performance during inference. The previous behavior can be restored through the "Preferences" dialog in the MERLIC Creator. More information.
  

• 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.
  

Image Source Manager

• New Features
  

• The Image Source Manager (ISM) has been extended. It is now possible to save multiple sets of parameters of a camera or peripheral device. For this, different types of "parameter sets" have been introduced in ISM: primary parameter sets and alternative parameter sets. The primary parameter set is created implicitly for each image source. Alternative parameter sets are settings that can be saved for an image source in addition to the primary set. They allow to quickly accommodate different inspected parts, changes in lighting conditions, or trigger setups.
  The parameter sets can be created and maintained in the "Image Sources" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup. When using acquisition sequences, it is also possible to assign specific parameter sets for each image source. This opens up the possibility of loading different settings for a camera or peripheral device during MERLIC RTE as acquisition sequences can be referenced in recipe files. When preparing a recipe in MERLIC RTE, each image source in the respective acquisition sequence is loaded with its associated parameter set.

• To make it easier to start using acquisition sequences, the Image Source Manager (ISM) has been improved. When saving the parameters of a camera device or peripheral device as an alternative parameter set, the ISM automatically creates an acquisition sequence. The name of the acquisition sequence corresponds to the name of the alternative parameter set.
  This type of implicitly created acquisition sequence is called a "managed" sequence because these sequences are automatically created, updated, and removed by the ISM along with the corresponding alternative parameter set. In contrast, "custom" sequences which allow combining parameter sets freely across multiple image sources and enable more complex acquisition scenarios still need to be written by hand. Details on their use is made available upon request.
  It is also possible to save parameter sets for different image sources with the same name, for example, if a camera device and peripheral device should be used together. In this case, the ISM will maintain only one managed sequence for these parameter sets. This way, these parameter sets can be used together as the corresponding managed sequence will use all parameter sets with the same name.
  In addition, managed sequences can also be referenced by recipes, just like custom sequences, to automatically activate them when preparing the recipe in MERLIC RTE.
  

• Enhancements
  

• GigEVision2: Revision 20.11.19

• GenICamGenTL: Revision 20.11.19

• USB3Vision: Revision 20.11.22

• File: Revision 18.11.5
  

• The image acquisition interfaces that are used for the Image Source Manager (ISM) as well as for the tools "Acquire Image from Camera" and "Acquire Image from File", respectively, have been updated to a new revision. MERLIC now contains the following versions of the interfaces:
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• If the user did not have full write permission for the directory corresponding to an ISM configuration (by default "%AppData%/MVTec/Configurations/<name_of_configuration>" on Windows and "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MVTec/Configurations/<name_of_configuration>" on Linux) and the user deleted the configuration using the MERLIC RTE Setup, MERLIC erroneously did not complain. This gave the impression that the configuration was deleted properly although all or some of the associated files had been left behind. In such cases, the supposedly deleted configuration would reappear after restarting MERLIC, potentially in an invalid state. This problem has been fixed. Now, if a configuration cannot be removed due to access permission issues, MERLIC RTE Setup shows an error and the configuration remains in place.

• When using "." or "" in the name of an ISM configuration or image source, it was possible that the corresponding configuration files and directories were located in the wrong directory because the name was interpreted as path relative to the designated location. Therefore, the respective configuration or image source could not be found the next time MERLIC was restarted. This problem has been fixed. The set of special characters and special names that are disallowed in configuration or image source names has been expanded such that path-like names are no longer possible. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

• For some camera models and depending on camera settings, MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE could crash in rare cases, possibly after a long time. This was more likely to occur when EasyParams were simultaneously and frequently queried or modified, for example, by using the "Auto Exposure" or "Auto Gain" features. This problem has been fixed in the new version of the image acquisition interfaces.

• If the image acquisition from an image source failed for some reason, the tool state error in the "Image Source" tool and the corresponding log message contained "%1" which ought to have been substituted with the reason. This problem has been fixed. Now, the reason for the failure is given in both cases.
  

Process Integration

• New Features
  

• When creating a recipe for a MERLIC Vision App in the MERLIC Creator, it is now possible to specify an acquisition sequence that should be activated when the recipe is prepared in MERLIC RTE by selecting the acquisition sequence from a drop-down menu. This drop-down is only shown if at least one alternative parameter set or custom sequence is available within the active configuration.

• In the "Select system" dialog in the MERLIC RTE Setup, a remote system can now be chosen via a new drop-down list instead of manually entering the hostname and IP address of the respective system. The new drop-down list shows systems running MERLIC Creator, MERLIC RTE, or MERLIC Communicator on the local network. For host systems to be discovered in this way, they have to be running MERLIC 5.6 or later and any firewalls need to allow the UDP broadcasts used for this service discovery to reach MERLIC RTE Setup.
  In addition to the host found on the local network, the drop-down menu also lists the most recently used hosts.
  

• Enhancements
  

• The result store in MERLIC RTE can now be extended by an additional opt-in image store. Unlike the main result store which stores complete result records including non-iconic results and metadata in the process's memory, this image store will retain only result images in a file on disk after their corresponding results have been dropped from the result store. This ensures that Communicator plug-ins can retrieve result images from the vision system upon request for an extended period without increasing main memory demands. The size and location of the extended image store can be configured through the "Preferences" dialog in the MERLIC Creator.

• The informational tooltips in the "Select system" dialog in the MERLIC RTE Setup have been updated to clarify the capabilities afforded by selecting either the local or remote system.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• After resizing the MERLIC RTE Setup window back to a smaller window size, it was possible that the splitters between the columns on the different tabs would jump around when dragging them, or be forced entirely outside of the window's bounds. This problem has been fixed. The window's contents are now arranged according to the new window size if needed.

• In MERLIC 5.5, the log level was not always set correctly when starting MERLIC RTE from the command line in combination with the command line option " --verbose <n> ". If the value for the "verbose" option was set to 2 or higher (n ≥ 2), the "info" log level was used instead of "trace". This problem has been fixed. The correct behavior has been restored and the log level is now set correctly to "trace" if the command line option "verbose" is set to a value of 2 or higher.

• In the parameter overview of Communicator plug-ins and in the overview of the EasyParams in the MERLIC RTE Setup, the labels showing the minimum and maximum value of the parameters were sometimes not correctly displayed. If a plug-in parameter defined a floating-point value or an EasyParam had an underlying floating-point value, and the respective minimum and maximum values had a fractional part, the decimal point was erroneously omitted from the labels. This problem has been fixed.

• When a Communicator plug-in defined a floating-point parameter with a range constraint where the minimum value is negative, the MERLIC RTE Setup would hang indefinitely when trying to render a control for this parameter. This problem has been fixed.

• When setting the language to German, some texts in the MERLIC RTE Setup did not fit in the available space, causing them to be shortened with an ellipsis or extend beyond the enclosing box. This problem has been fixed.
  

Communicator

• Enhancements
  

• Fetching the image result data from a Communicator plug-in used to block one of the communication channels which slowed down concurrent requests and could, in some cases, cause timeout errors. This has been improved by offloading the image conversion to a thread pool and polling for the result periodically. Now, the vision system can process multiple image conversion requests in parallel without blocking other requests.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• When a Communicator plug-in used the MV_FetchDataContainer() API function to request a data component for an image that was empty but provided non-zero image dimensions, the resulting data component produced the non-specific error code MV_CODE_DATA_CONVERSION_FAILED and an error message containing the underlying raw HALCON exception. This behavior has been updated: requesting a data component for an empty image still results in an error, but now produces the more appropriate error code MV_CODE_DATA_PARAM_NOT_SUPPORTED , along with the message "Original image width and height must be greater than 0."
  

Interfaces for Process Integration

• New Features
  
  

• The "REST" plug-in now supports accessing result image data. Images can be requested in either PNG or JPEG format using the new endpoints "/results/{result_id}/data/{data_index}.png" and "/results/{result_id}/data/{data_index}.jpg". The new endpoints also provide various query parameters that enable customizing the desired image format options for quality or compression level as well as the image dimension.
  In addition, the plug-in has also been extended by the new endpoint "/results/{result_id}/" to query individual results by their result ID. Responses from this endpoint are identical to those from the endpoints returning result lists, except it yields a single JSON object instead of a list.

• The "MELSEC Communication" plug-in has been extended and updated to version 1.2.0. The new version supports a heartbeat mode which allows the PLC to monitor the connection to MERLIC and to handle any unexpected loss of connections. For this, a new version of MVTec's PLC protocol has been added. If the new PLC protocol is used, a heartbeat variable is provided which is constantly updated in a new field " gMV_Heartbeat " when MERLIC is connected. The heartbeat interval for the updates can be set in the configuration of the plug-in. The new plug-in version also allows to choose the used PLC protocol. Therefore, it is still possible to use the previous PLC protocol of MVTec for existing projects.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new Communicator plug-in "SIMATIC S7". It enables the user to communicate directly with Siemens SIMATIC programmable controllers of the S7-1200 and S7-1500 series and allows the user to control and monitor the vision system in the process integration mode. For the communication between the "SIMATIC S7" plug-in and the SIMATIC PLC, the SIMATIC S7 communication protocol is used.
  The plug-in offers a rich set of configuration options in the "Communication" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup, for example, plug-in parameters to set the connection settings to the PLC, to select the number of MVApp results that shall be available to be queried by the PLC, as well as the number of iteration parameters that shall be available for the PLC to overwrite the parameter values defined in the recipe. After configuring the plug-in, the user may export the tags for the selected MVApp parameters and results and import the exported file into their TIA Portal STEP 7 project. The imported tags can then be accessed by both the plug-in and the PLC to transmit commands, results, and further information.
  

• Enhancements
  

• The performance characteristics of the "REST" plug-in have been improved. All queries to the REST API now scale at most logarithmic in the store sizes whereas previously some queries could exhibit linear scaling.

• The "REST" plug-in now logs additional messages. In addition to operational plug-in errors, the plug-in will now log warnings and errors due to "bad" requests; previously, the corresponding error messages have only been sent as responses to the client. When setting the log level of the plug-in to "debug", every single request and their responses are logged.

• The JSON responses on the "/errors" and "/errors/{error_id}" endpoints of the "REST" plug-in have been extended by the "action_id" property which references the action that caused the respective error or is null if the error was not directly caused by an action. For symmetry, this information has also been added to the elements of the "errors" property on the "/state_machine/actions/{action_id}/status" and "/recipes/actions/{action_id}/status" endpoints. The "REST" plug-in's built-in web app reflects this change and now provides an "Action ID" column in the table on the "Errors" tab.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• The "OPC UA" plug-in in MERLIC 5.5.1 and 5.5.2 still carried the plug-in version 2.2.0, the same as in MERLIC 5.5.0, even though a problem regarding the "MeasId" and "PartId" has been fixed in MERLIC 5.5.1. This problem has been fixed. The plug-in version has been updated to 2.2.1.
  

MERLIC Creator

• New Features
  

• The Tool Flow panel has been extended by a search function in the top right-hand corner. It can be used to quickly find specific tools in the Tool Flow of the MERLIC Vision App.
  

• Enhancements
  

• The "File" menu of the MERLIC Creator has been improved. Previously, the "Recently Opened" menu item was always enabled, even if no recently opened MERLIC Vision Apps (MVApps) were available. Now, the menu item is only enabled if there are recently opened MVApps, otherwise it will be disabled.

• The layout and style of several dialogs in MERLIC have been improved. Previously, these dialogs used the system's native dialog style. Now, they are replaced by a new dialog that is more consistent with the button style used elsewhere. The new dialogs also offer more control over whether dialogs should block the application beneath them. In some cases, the application can now remain responsive in the background while the dialog awaits user input.

• The Tool Flow setting for the zoom level has been improved. Previously, the zoom level was always reset to 100% when starting the MERLIC Creator. Now, changes at the zoom level are retained after restarting MERLIC Creator.
  

• Improved Usability
  

• In the Tool Flow panel, the icon for resetting the zoom level to 100% has been replaced with a more appropriate "1:1" icon to avoid confusion about its meaning. Previously, the button for resetting the zoom level showed an icon that is also used for "Fit image" buttons which led to confusion.

• Saving changes in an existing MERLIC Vision App (MVApp) has been improved. When the "Save as" dialog is opened in the MERLIC Creator via the respective menu entry or shortcut, the name of the MVApp will be preset in the "Save as" dialog.

• The visualization of the Tool Flow has been improved. Previously, the top border of tools whose inputs are not connected to any preceding tools and the bottom border of tools whose outputs are not connected to any subsequent tools were drawn with a thicker stroke. However, this style was mostly perceived as inconsistent and less helpful. Therefore, the border style has been revised. Now the border around all tools is drawn with uniform thickness.

• The warning shown in the MERLIC Creator when tools are moved in the Tool Flow in such a way that connections to other tools would be lost has been improved to clarify the consequences of proceeding to move the tools.

• The "Start Dialog" of the MERLIC Creator has been improved. The previous gray-in-gray button and icon style made way for a brighter color scheme. Additionally, the "Getting Started" tile has been replaced by a tile linking to the MVTec Academy course for a guided introduction to MERLIC. The "Getting Started" chapter is still available in the MERLIC manual, though.

• The visualization of the connected tools and their connections in the Tool Workspace has been improved. If a connected tool on the top or bottom of the Tool Workspace is selected via mouse click, the respective GUI element and connection are highlighted more clearly, regardless of the state of the connection. In addition, erroneous connections such as race conditions are now completely marked in red.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• The arrows representing connections to other tools at the top and bottom of the tool board were previously sometimes colored inconsistently in case the arrow indicates a connection that is subject to a Tool Flow error. This problem has been fixed. Now, the arrow's head and shaft are consistently colored, regardless of whether the connection is selected or the head is being dragged. Additionally, the arrow will now be colored orange if releasing the dragged arrow would cause the connection to be removed.

• The style of some GUI components in the MERLIC Creator was not changed to look deactivated while the MERLIC Frontend was running. This problem has been fixed.

• Various drop-down menus in the MERLIC Creator and MERLIC RTE Setup contained superfluous empty space. This problem has been fixed.

• When a new or different MERLIC Vision App (MVApp) was opened while there were still unsaved changes in the current MVApp, the user was asked whether the changes should be saved. If the user selected to save the changes but saving failed, for example, because of insufficient disk space or file permissions, MERLIC continued anyway and the unsaved changes were lost. This problem has been fixed. Users are now prompted to either discard unsaved changes, cancel the operation, or save the MVApp under a different name.

• MERLIC Creator crashed when the MERLIC Frontend was opened after deleting a tool whose ROIs were selected for display in the MERLIC Frontend. This problem has been fixed.

• If a non-executable tool or a race condition occurred in a Tool Flow that was already subject to another non-executable tool or race condition, sometimes the secondary error was reported in the MERLIC Creator. This problem has been fixed. Now, only the first race or non-executable tool is reported and subsequent errors are ignored.

• If the MERLIC Creator showed an error message because the MERLIC Vision App (MVApp) contained blocks, the error message remained visible even after creating a new MVApp. This problem has been fixed.

• MERLIC crashed when a tool with a graphic display was deleted and the deletion caused a race condition or block in the MERLIC Vision App. This problem has been fixed.

• If the acquisition of the initial images, that happens when opening the MERLIC Creator, took particularly long and a MERLIC Vision App (MVApp) was opened while those initial images were still being acquired, the overlay that prevents user interaction while an MVApp is being loaded was erroneously dismissed early once the initial images had been acquired. This problem has been fixed. The overlay will now be shown until the MVApp has been opened.

• When switching between different tools in the Tool Flow, the label showing the name of the selected tool in the Tool Workspace flickered briefly if the tool had a user-given name. This problem has been fixed.

• After deleting a tool group in which MVApp parameters were exposed, it was no longer possible to create a recipe from this MERLIC Vision App. This problem has been fixed.
  

MERLIC Designer

• Fixed Problems
  

• When cutting and pasting a widget in the MERLIC Designer, the widget's position in the window was not preserved unlike when copying the widget. This problem has been fixed.

• If a "Picture Box" widget was used in the Frontend design of a MERLIC Vision App (MVApp), saving the MVApp resulted in a corrupted file that could not be loaded correctly anymore by MERLIC. This problem has been fixed. MERLIC now allows opening and partially restoring such corrupted MVApps. However, the "Picture Box" widget will still need to be reconfigured in such cases.

• The height of the "Radio Button Group" widget was not correctly updated in the MERLIC Designer when the widget was resized. This problem has been fixed.

• In the "User Management" window, the group icons in the drop-down menu in the "Create group" dialog were not visible. This problem has been fixed.

• The overview in the "User Management" window was not updated correctly when the window was reopened after using the "Save and Close" button. This problem has been fixed.

• After reordering the expressions in an "Evaluate Expression" tool, the connections of any widgets in the MERLIC Designer to that tool's results had been lost. This problem has been fixed.

• When double-clicking into an editing combo box in the MERLIC Designer, MERLIC sometimes crashed. This problem has been fixed.
  

MERLIC Frontend

• Improved Usability
  

• The design of the "Training" widget has been improved to provide a better overview of the added training images. The widget now also shows the respective indices of the training images. In addition, if the widget is connected to a training tool that requires specific settings for each training image, the respective settings are now displayed more clearly in the MERLIC Frontend.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• The MERLIC Frontend was not marked as modified when the current training data set of a training tool was replaced through the "Training" widget. As a result, users were not prompted to save or discard changes when closing the MERLIC Frontend. This problem has been fixed. The MERLIC Frontend now correctly prompts users to save or discard changes when the training data set is replaced.

• The "Training" widget always showed the "Apply Training" button, even when the training started automatically whenever training parameters were set or changed. This problem has been fixed. The button is now hidden when the tool starts the training automatically.

• In some cases, the buttons to create ROIs from within the "Training" widget in the MERLIC Frontend were not enabled, preventing the user from drawing ROIs into new training images. This problem has been fixed.
  

Tools

• New Features
  

• A telecentric lens or a lens with a long focal distance must be used.

• Telecentric illumination sources with uniform intensity or, as an alternative, distant point light sources must be used.
  

• Classify Image

• Detect Anomalies in the Global Context

• Find Objects

• Segment Image Pixel-Precisely
  

• Find Objects

• Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning
  

• The following MERLIC tools have been extended to support pre-optimized models for AI2 interfaces:
  Deep learning models can be optimized when exporting the model in the MVTec Deep Learning Tool. Using optimized deep learning models instead of non-optimized models improves the loading time of the respective MERLIC Vision Apps and reduces the amount of memory that is needed for the model.
  In addition, the following tools have been extended with additional and more accurate error messages related to model file handling:

• The tool "Find Objects" has been extended and improved. It now supports deep learning models for instance segmentation in addition to object detection models. The instance segmentation method distinguishes between multiple instances of the same class and is a special case of object detection. A deep learning model for instant segmentation can be trained in MVTec's Deep Learning Tool or MVTec HALCON.
  To support the verification of the instant segmentation, the tool has also been extended by a new tool result "Object Instances". It returns a region for each detected object instance that traces the object's perimeter more accurately than the rectangular bounding box. These "Object Instances" are only available when the tool is used with an instance segmentation model.
  In addition, the default value of the tool parameter "Maximum Number of Objects" has been changed from 0 to 20. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

• The tool "Get Image Properties" has been extended by the new tool result "Number Of Channels". It allows the user to check the number of channels of the current input image.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new concept tool "Reconstruct Surface with Photometric Stereo". It enables inspecting a 3D surface structure of an object, for example, to detect defects, by combining multiple images under different illumination conditions to infer the albedo, curvature, and height field. The tool requires three or four images as input. These images must be acquired from different spatial directions. To acquire the images in concert with a GenICam-compatible lighting controller, the Image Source Manager's acquisition sequences can be used.
  For the setup of the image acquisition, the following camera and illumination specifics should be considered:
  Additionally, the object must have Lambertian reflectance characteristics.
  This concept tool can be used to evaluate the current stage of development for the photometric stereo method in MERLIC. 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.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new tool "Segment Image Pixel-Precisely" in the tool category "Processing > Deep Learning - AI". The tool was previously available as a concept tool named "Segment Image Pixel-Precise" and is now provided as a standard MERLIC tool. It enables a pixel-precise segmentation of the image in pre-trained classes using a deep-learning-based approach. The tool requires a classifier, that is, a trained deep learning model, as input, which must be trained in MVTec's Deep Learning Tool.
  The tool has been improved according to user feedback we received on the concept tool. The revised version of the tool has been extended with a new "ROI" parameter which supports the use of circle, rectangle, and paraxial rectangle ROIs of previous tools, as well as with a parameter "Processing Region". Both of these can be used to restrict the area to which the segmentation should be applied.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new tool "Count with Deep Learning" in the tool category "Processing > Counting". The tool was previously available as a concept tool and is now provided as a standard MERLIC tool. It enables the counting of objects using a deep-learning-based approach. The tool comes with a training mode that allows the training of the objects to be counted with minimal labeling and to train a model that also detects the objects in various rotations and scaling factors.
  The tool has been improved according to user feedback we received on the concept tool. The revised version of the tool has been extended with a new filter option for the training data. This allows the user to fine-tune the training to exclude specific objects from the counting. In addition, it is now possible to use regions to restrict the image parts to be processed. The value range of the parameter "Maximum Overlap" has also been revised. Previously, the parameter could be set to a value between 0 and 1. Now, it can be set to a value between 0 and 100 to reflect that it represents a percentage value.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new tool "Recognize Color" in the tool category "Processing > Checking". The tool was previously available as a concept tool and is now provided as a standard MERLIC tool. It enables the detection of one or multiple colors in various conditions. The tool comes with a training mode that allows the user to define the colors to be detected and to train a model with customized training settings to extend the range of the colors to be detected. If necessary, the user may further refine the detection by adjusting the search parameters such as the "Minimum Score" or "Minimum Ratio of Classified Pixels".
  

• Enhancements
  

• Read QR Code

• Read Aztec Code

• Read ECC 200

• Read PDF417
  

• The tools "Measure Row Spacing", "Measure Parallel Edges", "Measure Opposite Edges", and "Measure Outliers" make use of the orientation of the ROI and therefore should not be used with paraxial rectangle ROIs. These tools now show a warning when any type of ROI other than an (oriented) rectangle is used.

• The tool "Measure Row Spacing" can only handle a single ROI. Therefore, the tool now shows a warning when more than one ROI is supplied.
  

• Classify Image

• Detect Anomalies

• Detect Anomalies in the Global Context

• Find Objects

• Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning"
  

• Acquisition > Acquire Image from Camera

• Communication > Read from Serial Interface

• Communication > Read from Socket

• Communication > Write to Serial Interface

• Communication > Write to Socket
  

• In the Tool Library, a new tool category "Legacy" has been introduced. It contains all MERLIC tools that are considered legacy tools, ordered by the respective sub-category:
  The respective tools have been moved from their previous categories. Therefore, the tool category "Communication (Legacy)" has been removed.

• For the following tools using deep learning-based technology, the heuristic for choosing the "Processing Unit" has been improved in case the parameter is set to "auto". GPUs will now only be utilized if they have more than 4GB of free memory.
  The improved heuristic is also used in the new standard tools "Count with Deep Learning" and "Segment Image Pixel-Precisely" which were previously available as concept tools.

• The handling of unsupported ROI types has been improved across various tools:
  

• The tool "Read Bar Code" has been improved by adding support for non-ISO/IEC 15420 standard-conformant UPC-E1 codes.

• The following tools for reading 2D data codes have been extended by the new tool parameter "Print Quality" to monitor quality grades according to ISO/IEC 15415 and AIM DPM-1-2006.
  In addition, the tools have also been extended by two new tool results "Print Quality Features" and "Print Quality Values". They return the names and values of the evaluated quality grades.

• The tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" has been improved. When passing multiple ROIs to the tool in the "detect and read" mode, the tool previously attempted to detect text in the smallest rectangle encompassing all of the ROIs. This might have covered an area significantly larger than the combined area of the ROIs. Now, each ROI is considered on its own and the individual results are combined.
  As a consequence, there is no longer just one preprocessed image but instead each ROI is used to crop the image individually. Hence, the tool result "Preprocessed Image" is considered obsolete and will be removed in a future version of MERLIC. It is kept in this version for compatibility reasons but will only produce the cropped image for the last ROI. Additionally, the tool no longer accepts circular ROIs. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

• Loading tools in the "Deep Learning - AI" category can take quite long and may use a lot of GPU memory. In MERLIC 5.5, the startup time was potentially further extended by hardware-specific model optimizations that took place when loading these models. In MERLIC 5.6, these optimizations are now disabled by default. If the potentially improved inference performance enabled by these optimizations is deemed worth the additional wait, they can be enabled again from the Preferences dialog. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• The tool "Apply Gray Morphology" did not show any error message when the "Mask Radius" parameter was set to a negative value. This problem has been fixed.

• If the parameter "Use model data" of the tool "Detect Anomalies in the Global Context" was set to "all" and an ROI was drawn into the image, the tool always showed an "info" message that the ROI will be ignored even if the used deep learning model did not contain any region. This problem has been fixed. Now, the information is displayed only if the model contains a region and an ROI is drawn in the image.

• The tool "Detect Anomalies" previously did not report an error when either of the parameters "Anomaly Region Threshold" or "Anomaly Score" had been set to negative values. This problem has been fixed. The tool state now indicates when the parameter value is out of the acceptable range, and the tool will not execute in such cases.

• Several error messages reported by the "Evaluate Expression" tool were not translated. This problem has been fixed.

• If multiple expressions were defined in the tool "Evaluate Expression" and an expression was dragged to change the order, the indicated drop position did not always match the actual position where the expression was placed after dropping. This problem has been fixed.

• When using the names of tool parameters as string literals within the expressions of the tool "Evaluate Expression", the string literals were replaced by the internal identifier of the respective parameters. This problem has been fixed.

• When multiple regions or ROIs were passed to the tools "Locate in Back Light" and "Locate Bright Tips", their intersection was used for easyTouch but for the processing, the union was used instead. This problem has been fixed. Now, easyTouch also considers the union of the regions or ROIs.

• If only some of the ROIs provided to the tool "Measure Parallel Edges" failed to find a set of parallel edges or only some of the ROIs provided to the tool "Measure Outliers" failed to find even a single edge, an underlying HALCON error was reported. This problem has been fixed. The tool state now reports the same error as if none of the ROIs find any edges.

• When using ROIs with a height or width of 0 in the tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning", an internal exception occurred. This problem has been fixed. Now, an error message occurs in which the problem is stated correctly.

• When using the tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning" and moving the mouse pointer over the text in the image, the tooltip providing further information on the read text was not displayed anymore. This problem has been fixed.

• When using the concept tool "Segment Image Pixel Precise" and moving the mouse pointer over the image to see the detected class labels, the respective tooltip providing further information on the assigned class and confidences was not displayed anymore. This problem has been fixed. In the new version as a standard MERLIC tool, the tooltip is now displayed again.

• When loading or pasting the previous concept tool "Recognize Color" without having performed any training yet, the tool reported an underlying HALCON exception which did not provide helpful information about the missing training model. This problem has been fixed. In the new version as a standard MERLIC tool, a message is displayed on the tool informing the user that no model is available and that a training must be performed first.
  

Examples

• New Features
  

• MERLIC has been extended by the new MVApp example "detect_only_scratches_with_photometric_stereo.mvapp". It demonstrates the use of the new concept tool "Reconstruct Surface with Photometric Stereo" to distinguish between a deep scratch and a plain discoloration.

• MERLIC has been extended by a new example REST API client. The new example is a simple web client that demonstrates the use of the new image result endpoints. This client can be opened in a web browser and it will display any image results of the recipes running in MERLIC RTE. The new example can be found relative to the installation directory in "rest_plugin_clients/web/result_images".

• MERLIC has been extended by the new MVApp example "evaluate_ecc_200_print_quality.mvapp". It demonstrates the evaluation of the print quality of ECC 200 data codes via the new parameter "Print Quality" provided in the MERLIC tools for reading 2D data codes.

• MERLIC has been extended by the new MVApp example "segment_pills_by_shape.mvapp". It demonstrates how to distinguish the shape of pills and tablets based on an instance segmentation model in the tool "Find Objects".
  

• Enhancements
  

• The MVApp example "read_best_before_date_with_orientation.mvapp" has been improved. Previously, the alignment data were determined using shape-based matching. Now, they are determined using correlation-based matching to improve the alignment of the region of interest (ROI) around the expiration date. Due to the improved alignment, a smaller ROI can now be used which is drawn tightly around only the date, thus eliminating the need for post-processing using the "Evaluate Expression" tool. Also, the alignment data is now passed directly to the tool "Read Text and Numbers with Deep Learning", removing the need for an "Align Image" tool in between.

• The MVApp example "adapt_brightness_for_measuring.mvapp" has been improved by renaming the parameter of the "Branch on Condition" tool to "Increase Brightness" to clarify its meaning in the context of the example.
  

• Improved Usability
  

• All MVApp examples provided in MERLIC have been extended with an MVApp description that briefly outlines the demonstrated application and the used methods and tools. The descriptions are visible in the start dialog of the MERLIC Creator when selecting the MVApp examples in the overview.
  

Documentation

• Enhancements
  
  

• The topic "Image Acquisition in MERLIC > Basic Terms and Concepts" has been improved. It now provides information on the maximum image size supported by MERLIC.

• The overview page of the chapter "MERLIC Process Integration" in the MERLIC manual has been improved. The section on the available Communicator plug-ins has been revised to provide quick access to the detailed description of the respective standard plug-ins, example plug-ins, and additional plug-ins in the MERLIC Communicator manual.

• The accessibility of the "TCP Socket Plug-in" manual has been improved. Previously, the documentation for the additional Communicator plug-in was difficult to find because it could only be accessed after installing the respective installation package. In addition, it was not mentioned in the standard MERLIC documentation. Now, the MERLIC Communicator manual contains information on additional plug-ins and provides a link to the online documentation on the MVTec website.

• In the MERLIC manual, the documentation of the MERLIC installation has been improved. It now describes the installation via the new version of the MVTec Software Manager and focuses on the information that is relevant for MERLIC.
  

• Fixed Problems
  

• Some hyperlinks in the MERLIC Tool Development manual did not work or lead to the wrong page. This problem has been fixed.

• The description of the ini option "RTEStartupISMConfiguration" was missing in the MERLIC documentation. This problem has been fixed.

• In the documentation of the tool "Detect Anomalies", the description of the training parameters "Training Image Height" and "Training Image Width" were not correct. It mentioned that the value can be optionally set to a multiple of 32 for best performance. However, this is not an optional setting because it is required to set these parameter to a multiple of 32. Otherwise, an error occurs. This problem has been fixed.

• The table of contents on the "Read Me" page of the MERLIC manual was missing some of the sections on that page. This problem has been fixed.

• The description of the file structure of the MERLIC installation directory in the topic "Installation and Licenses > Installed File Structure" in the MERLIC manual was incomplete. This problem has been fixed.

• When opening the context-sensitive help by pressing F1 directly after opening the MERLIC Creator, the documentation for the "Image Source" tool was opened. This problem has been fixed. Now the overview topic for the MERLIC Creator is opened instead.

• The description of the system requirements in the MERLIC manual and the release notes were not consistent. This problem has been fixed. The description has been revised and updated for MERLIC 5.6.0. It is now provided in the MERLIC manual in a new topic "System Requirements". This way, they can be found more easily. In addition, the description has been extended by the system requirements for MERLIC RTE on Linux systems.

• In the MERLIC manual, some hyperlinks in the topic "AI2 Interfaces for Tools with Deep Learning" were broken or led to the wrong website. This problem has been fixed.
  

Licensing

• Enhancements
  

• Some virus protection suites falsely warned that a component of MERLIC may be malicious. This problem has been fixed. The license protection tools have been updated.
  

Miscellaneous

• To profit from the improvements of the new HALCON version, the HALCON libraries used by MERLIC have been upgraded to the HALCON 24.05 Progress version. Note that this change affects the compatibility. Read more.

• In some cases, loading MERLIC Vision Apps with a large number of nested "Branch on Condition" tools or complex tool flows took very long because of the long duration required for checking the Tool Flow graph. This problem has been fixed.

• When the execution of a tool in a MERLIC Vision App produces a tool state other than "OK", the tool state message is now logged with the corresponding severity. This can be helpful to monitor and debug tool-related issues, particularly during "headless" operation using MERLIC RTE.

• When the "Collect Support Information" utility encountered an unexpected problem, the error was sometimes reported only to the terminal. The respective error information as well as the results from other tests were not collected into a zip archive for inclusion in an MVTec support ticket. This problem has been fixed.
  Please note that in such cases, some hardware information may not have been collected and, therefore, is not archived.

• Several error messages in the MERLIC RTE Setup and the MVApp Preview Settings dialog were not translated. This problem has been fixed.

• The AI2 interfaces that are optionally used for MERLIC tools with deep learning technology are updated. MERLIC now contains the following versions of the interfaces:
  

• OpenVINO: Revision 21.05.3.2 (Using OpenVINO 2023.3.0)

• TensorRT: Revision 23.11.3.0 (Using TensorRT 8.6.1.6)
  

Release Notes for Windows Systems Only

In this section, you can find the release notes that apply only for Windows systems.

• In the MERLIC Designer, the style of the buttons for the image workspace adjustment differed from the style of other buttons. This problem has been fixed.

• If the Windows username contained characters that cannot be represented in the native narrow encoding, i.e., have no entry in the system's active codepage, the driver installation for USB3Vision devices failed. This problem has been fixed.

• After loading a MERLIC Vision App (MVApp) containing any tool from the category "Deep Learning - AI" in the Tool Flow, or after inserting such a tool into the current MVApp, MERLIC failed to connect to additional cameras, either by adding a camera image source using the Image Source Manager or by adding the "Acquire Image from Camera" tool. This problem has been fixed.

• When a tool was deleted from the Tool Flow, both the main memory and the graphics memory used by the tool were not freed. This problem has been fixed.

• If the file name of a recipe contained characters that cannot be represented in the user's native narrow encoding, i.e., have no entry in the system's active codepage, MERLIC RTE would crash as soon as a Communicator plug-in attempted to query the recipe list from it as most plug-ins do during startup. This problem as been fixed. Non-ASCII codepoints are now correctly provided to the plug-ins as multi-byte UTF-8 sequences.

• Log messages containing non-ASCII characters sometimes produced mojibake in the command-line window running MERLIC RTE or the MERLIC Communicator on Windows. This problem has been fixed. Such log messages are now printed correctly, provided that the font used by the console window is not missing glyphs for these characters.
  

Release Notes Linux Systems Only

In this section, you can find the release notes that apply only for Linux systems.

• If a license error occurred when running MERLIC RTE on a Linux system, sometimes no message was displayed and MERLIC RTE quietly terminated itself. This problem has been fixed.
  

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.

• When an instance of MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE of version 5.0 is remotely configured using a MERLIC RTE Setup 5.1 or newer, removing an image source from a configuration will cause the Creator or RTE application to crash. We recommend to upgrade Creator/RTE to the current version or, in lieu of that, to use RTE Setup 5.0 to configure Creator/RTE 5.0.

• When an instance of MERLIC Creator or MERLIC RTE of version 5.2 (or newer) is remotely configured using a MERLIC RTE Setup 5.1, it is not possible to rename image sources or configurations, despite the fact that this feature has been added in MERLIC 5.1. We recommend upgrading the MERLIC RTE Setup to version 5.2.
  

Legal Notes :

Modicon® is a registered trademark of Schneider Electric USA, Inc.

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