Description:

The ExternalScalar tool is a data tool which holds state information, in form of a floating point value.

Like other tools from the 'Data Tools' tool category, the ExternalScalar tool does not do any processing. It is used for holding state. The ExternalScalar tool can be accessed from other tools defined in the profile, and the scripts configured in the Scorpion, for getting or setting a floating point value.

All the tools from the 'Data Tools' category are used primarily for -

• Holding one or more states. This is very similar to variables used in Python script which are used for holding states. Data tools however have more settings, inline with the Scorpion architecture, for more control on the states they hold. Other tools and the scripts defined in the profile can query current value and can also set the value for any state held by a data tool.

• Interfacing with user interface elements. The Scorpion Vision Software support very useful feature of customized user interface, for controlling the processing at run-time, by setting values for different processing parameters. Though it is possible to directly link the user interface elements to the processing tools, it is a recommended practice to use data tools as intermediate layer to interface with the user interface elements and actual processing tools linking to the data tools. This provides better separation of user interface and processing, and hence helps in reducing the setup, fine-tuning and maintenance time.
  
  
  

User Interface:

(A) Tool Configuration dialog box – Setup Tab



1. The ‘Set to initial value before inspection’ check-box can be used to reset the value of the state held by the ExternalScalar tool, to the configured initial value, before every inspection cycle.
2. The ‘Make external changes permanent’ check-box can be used to make the value persistent, which means that the value of the state is remembered across the session. The last value if remembered when the profile is closed and the value of the tool is reset to this remembered value when the profile is loaded next time.
3. The ‘Initial value’ text-box can be used to specify the initial value for the state held by the ExternalScalar tool. It can be any floating point value.
4. The ‘Transfer initial value to result’ button can be used to set the result of the tool to the configured initial value. The result value of the tool does not get updated, unless processing happens. It is a recommended practice to click this button to set the result value to the initial value during the ExternalScalar tool configuration.
5. The ‘Transfer results to initial value’ button can be used to set the initial value of the tool to the current tool result value.

Results