Advanced.Search

On this page you can create a set of polygon sets from the original - scaled, rotated and moved. During processing, each set is scanned, and the best fit is taken used as the final result.

Enable search - you can disable the whole search process by unchecking this.

Scale

Set a range of scales to test, making your polygons smaller or larger. You can optionally scale the polygons separately in the X and Y directions.

• Separate scale factors, X and Y - check to enable separate scaling in the two directions

• Enable (-/X/Y) - enable scaling in the given direction

• Minimum scale (-/X/Y) - step from this value

• Maximum scale (-/X/Y) - step to this value (included)

• Scale step (-/X/Y) - scale step size

Rotation

Set a range of angles to test, rotating your polygons

• Enable - enable/disable rotation

• Minimum angle - step from this value

• Maximum angle - step to this value (included)

• Angle step - angle step size

Positions

Set a range of positions to test, moving your polygons across the image to find a match

• Enable - enable/disable positions

• You can ctrl-click several positions in the image and press Paste

• Regular grid - helps create a regular grid of positions

Rotation /scale center

• To rotate or scale a polygon, a center is needed. You most likely want to do this automatically by using the center of gravity (default).

Search result strings

• Gives insight in the search process by returning Python dictionaries with search results




Advanced 2

Result acceptance ( constraints )

• Min match percentage - any of these constraints may make a match invalid

• Max RMS value

• Max angle (abs)

• Max distance

• Max offsetX (abs)

• Max offsetY (abs)

• Hide polygon match items if not accepted - only show polygons if a match is found

The result acceptance is reflected in the OK result - can be use to easily validate the found polygon.

Trace line samples dialog - a helper window to set trace line filter parameters and thresholds

• Middle - show the middle traceline
• Middle+edges - shows the first, middle and last traceline
• Selection - show the selected tracelines
• Line indices - traceline selection
  • example: 2,3,12-15
  • example: 1 3 5 7
• Show trace line popup - activates a modeless traceline window

•         
           Example tracelines - Middle+edges is selected

  Include in description

  Include in the onscreen description of valid/invalid match

  • Percent
  • Offset
  • Angle
  • Scale

  String results

  Create Python tuples describing the fitted model:

  • Fitted points - the edge points
  • Fitted model - the changed model
  • Simplify - attempt to simplify the string.
    • Tol (pix) - allow up to this deviation in the simplified polygon

  

  
  Polygons

  Line definition file - The paths to be searched are initially read from a text file (see the StrVec format). The name of that file is also stored, for possible future reload. The path information, however, is stored directly in the system, without need for the external file.
  You can browse for or manually edit the filename; by clicking "Load", the file is read and its contents stored internally. 

  • Always read file at startup (overwrite SPB) - With this selection, the file is always loaded at startup.

  Polygon properties

  • Closed polygons - Select this box if the polygons are closed by default. Individual polygons can be customised separately.

  Polygon Editor

  • Numbered list - ordered list of polygons. Each polygon can be made active/inactive by clicking the checkbox in front of the number
  • Contents - the points of the selected polygon
  • New - add polygon
  • Delete - remove selected polygon
  • Up - moves polygon up in list
  • Down - moved polygon down in list
  • Paste new - creates a new polygon, pastes the polygon from the clipboard and presses apply  - this is the quickest way to create many polygons
  • Highlight selection - highlights the selected polygon in the image
    • used to identify a polygon in the image
  • Copy - copies the selected polygon to the clipboard
  • Paste - pastes the clipboard to the selected polygon - will overwrite an existing polygon
    • Copy can be used to transfer polygon to the image for editing and modification. The edited polygon is pasted back to the tool using Paste. More on Point and Click Operations

            

    Vector mouse menu - activate by right mouse clicking in the Vector list

    • New - creates a new vector
    • Delete - deletes the selected vector
    • Custom trace... - open dialog to define traceline settings for a single polygon
    • Custom match... - open dialog to define polygon match settings for a single polygon
    • Default trace - remove custom traceline settings for a polygon
    • Default match - remove custom polygon match settings for a polygon
    • Paste new - paste clipboard as new polygon
    • Up - moves polygon up in list
    • Down - moved polygon down in list
    • Grid... - activate dialog for defining polygon grid
    • Delete all - removes all polygons from list
    • Delete empty vectors - remove all empty polygons

    
    Autofit - Polygon Model Wizard

    Using the Polygon Model Wizard Scorpion helps you create optimal edge polygons for Polygonmatch.

    • Autofit polygons
      • When active Ctrl LMouse will make a edge contour along a path or an object

    The traceline settings are defined under the Setup tab except:

    • Step length
    • Start and End of trace lines

    Visualize will display the trace line - see image to the right

    Note: If Edge trace is difficult - verify wizard settings - long trace lines may cause problems around edge or in corners.

    Polygon properties dialog - vector list custom trace choice:

    Each polygon can have its own settings, overriding the default values. The custom settings include open/closed, tracelines and edge detection.

    Hint: Use individual polygon traceline setting to improve the model

            

    Polygon

    • Closed polygon - polygon is closed

    Trace lines

    • Use Traceline Count - selects to specify the traceline count
      • Count - number of trace lines
      • Step length - distance between traceline
        • Ref coord
        • Pixels
    • Start point - position of starting point on trace line given in reference coordinates
    • End point - position of end point on trace line given in reference coordinates
      • Inverted the sign of start and stop point will change the direction of the trace comb
    • Trace step (pixels) - normally 1 - given in pixels
    • Line width (pixels) - 0 - trace line is not averaged - a higher value will average N pixels perpendicular to the trace comb

    Edge detection

    • Smooth base - 3 is normally a good value
    • Smooth counter - 1 default - given i pixels
      • The smoothing increasing with higher values
    • Differentiation
      • 0 - give threshold
      • 1 - 1. order differentiation - the derivative - default normally used
      • 2 - 2. order differentiation
    • Threshold - the threshold or sensitivity of the edge detector - a lower value increases the sensitivity
      • Percent threshold activates adaptive - threshold is set to N % of maximum values of edges
      • Minimum treshold define minimum value of threshold to accept when adaptive treshold is active
      • Max threshold (peak only) - when active, peaks above this value are ignored. The high peaks are also ignored when the percent threshold is calculated.
    • Polarity - All transitions | Light to dark | Dark to light
    • Mode - Peak | Threshold
    • Edge choice - First | Largest | Last | Nearest - Largest is default and normally the best choice
    • Set default - reset all custom values

    Polygon properties dialog - vector list custom polygon match choice:

    Each polygon can have its own settings, overriding the default values. This can be very useful to e.g. verify very small details in an image.

    • Min match percent - match will succeed only if this particular polygon has this match percent. This can be a small detail that must be present in the image
    • Exclude from total match - use this polygon in the fit process, but ignore its results
    • Set default - reset all custom values

    

    
    Add polygon

    Rectangle and Circle can be added as polygon using this tab. This is valuable when working with these shapes.

            

    Point & Click Support

    Two points will define a circle - first point is circle center and the seconds defines the radius. Four points will define a rectangle. Ctrl-Z will paste the clipboard to the tool. Ctrl-A will add the object to the polygon vector list

    
    Visualisation

    Center	The match center
    CenterAxes	The match reference axes
    Description	Description of accepted polygon (see Advanced2 page)
    Description (invalid)	Description of non-accepted polygon (see Advanced2 page)
    EdgePoints	Edge points, final iteration
    EdgePointsOrig	Edge points, first iteration
    FittedPoints	Fitted points final iteration
    FittedPointsOrig	Fitted points first iteration
    MatchedPolygon	The best fitted polygon
    MissingPoints	Tracelines without edgepoints, final iteration
    MissingPointsOrig	Tracelines without edgepoints, first iteration
    NonAcceptedPolygon	The original model is visualised when no match
    OriginalPolygon	The original model
    OutlierPoints	Points too far from polygon, final iteration
    OutlierPointsOrig	Points too far from polygon, first iteration
    SearchEdgePoints	Edge points from the search step
    SearchPolygon	All polygons from the search step
    SearchTraceLines	Trace lines from the search step
    TraceLines	Tracelines, final iteration
    TraceLinesOrig	Tracelines, first iteration

    
    Results 

    Iterations	Number of performed iterations (less than specified if no match)
    Fit percent	Percent of tracelines that has a point that is accepted
    RMS	RMS value of the fitted polygons
    OK	1 if fit OK, 0 otherwise
    Offset X	Movement of fitted polygon, x
    Offset Y	Movement of fitted polygon, y
    Distance	Total movement of fitted polygon
    Angle	Rotation of fitted polygon
    Scale X	Scaling of fitted polygon, x
    Scale Y	Scaling of fitted polygon, y
    Skew	Axis skew
    Saerch scales	Python dictionary: all scales used
    Search rotations	Python dictionary: all angles used
    Search positions	Python dictionary: all positions used
    Search results	Python dictionary: match result for all search combinations
    Best scale.x	Best scale used, x
    Best scale.y	Best scale used, y
    Best rotation	Best angle used
    Best position.x	Best position used, x
    Best position.y	Best position used, y
    Origin.x	Position of base, x
    Origin.y	Position of base, y
    Fitted points	The final fitted edge points
    Fitted model	The original model, moved to best position

    
    ExecuteCmd support (see also executeCmd)

    Command	Parameters	Return values	Comments
    Set	Object=ROI;Value=<polygon>	ok,None	Sets the first ROI polygon. See Copy/paste ROIs for details. (*)
    Set	Object=ROI;Number=<number>; Value=<polygon>	ok,None	Sets the numbered ROI polygon. See Copy/paste ROIs for details. (*)
    Add	Object=ROI;Value=<polygon>	ok,None	Adds ROI polygon to the end of the list. See Copy/paste ROIs for details.
    Get	Object=ROI;Number=<number>	ok,<polygon>	Gets numbered polygon, as Scorpion polygon (StrArr format).
    Get	Object=Tuple;Number=<number>	ok,<tuple>	Gets numbered polygon, as Python tuple
    Clear	Object=ROI;Number=<number>	ok,None	Clears numbered polygon (makes empty)
    DeleteAll	-	ok,None	Deletes all polygons

    (*) Note: Polygon properties are not supported by these methods, although existing properties will be kept when the SET command is used.

    
    Example 1: Copy a polygon from the clipboard

    tool =  GetTool('PM')
    tool.executeCmd('Set','Object=ROI;Number=1;source=clipboard')

    
    Example 2: Copy a polygon to the clipboard

    tool =  GetTool('PM')
    tool.executeCmd('Get','Object=ROI;Number=1;destination=clipboard')

    Keyboard shortcuts - More information

    Shortcut	Command	Comments
    Ctrl-Z	Set ROI	Sets the selected polygon to points marked in the image. If only a single point is marked, the polygon is moved, centered around the point. If the tool dialog is not open, the first polygon is set.
    Ctrl-1 - Ctrl-0	Set polygon 0-10	Sets the numbered polygon to points marked in the image. If only a single point is marked, the polygon is moved, centered around the point. If a new polygon is defined this way, any missing polygons in between are set as empty.
    Ctrl-Shift-1 - Ctrl-Shift-0	Clear polygon 0-10	Clears the numbered polygon (sets empty).