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Installation Guide
MVTec Software GmbH
Building Vision for Business
All about installing and licensing HALCON, Version 10.0.4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Edition 1
Edition 1a
Edition 1b
Edition 2
Edition 2a
Edition 2b
Edition 3
Edition 3a
Edition 3b
Edition 4
Edition 4a
Edition 4b
Edition 5
Edition 5a
December 2003
July 2004
April 2005
July 2005
April 2006
December 2006
June 2007
October 2007
April 2008
December 2008
June 2009
March 2010
October 2010
April 2011
(HALCON 7.0)
(HALCON 7.0.1)
(HALCON 7.0.2)
(HALCON 7.1)
(HALCON 7.1.1)
(HALCON 7.1.2)
(HALCON 8.0)
(HALCON 8.0.1)
(HALCON 8.0.2)
(HALCON 9.0)
(HALCON 9.0.1)
(HALCON 9.0.2)
(HALCON 10.0)
(HALCON 10.0.1)
Copyright © 2003-2013 by MVTec Software GmbH, München, Germany
MVTec Software GmbH
Protected by the following patents: US 7,062,093, US 7,239,929, US 7,751,625, US 7,953,290, US
7,953,291, US 8,260,059, US 8,379,014. Further patents pending.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Microsoft .NET, Visual C++, Visual Basic, and ActiveX are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Borland and Delphi are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland Software Corporation.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.
RedHat is a trademark of RedHat, Inc.
SuSE is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
Ubuntu is a trademark of Canonical Ltd..
Sun and Solaris are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.
AMD and AMD Athlon are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices,
Inc.
Intel„ and Pentium are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.
FLEXlm and FlexNet Publisher are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Flexera Software.
Sentinel HASP is a trademark of SafeNet, Inc.
All other nationally and internationally recognized trademarks and tradenames are hereby recognized.
More information about HALCON can be found at: http://www.halcon.com/
About This Manual
The manual provides the necessary information to install HALCON and setup the licensing mechanism successfully. It is divided into the following chapters:
• Introduction
A short overview of the different HALCON versions, available licensing schemes, and the system requirements.
• Installing HALCON
How to install HALCON, either for the first time or in form of an update or upgrade.
• All About HALCON Licenses
Detailed information about the different types of licenses and how to obtain and install them.
• Troubleshooting
Possible problems and how to solve them.
• Appendix
Details like the installed file structure, the relevant environment variables, and information for users of ActivVisionTools.
For further information about HALCON, please consult the Quick Guide, section 1.5
on page 9 , which gives an overview of the available documentation.
Notation
Except for Linux/UNIX-specific sections, file paths and environment variables are printed in the Windows convention, e.g.,
%HALCONEXAMPLES%\extension_package\halconuser to denote the subdirectory halconuser containing an example package within the HALCON examples directory referenced by the environment variable HALCONEXAMPLES (see
on page
for more information on environment variables). The same expression in Linux/UNIX convention would look like
$HALCONEXAMPLES/extension_package/halconuser
Contents
7
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
1.2 Releases and HALCON Versions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8
1.3 Supported Platforms and System Requirements
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
13
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Installing HALCON for the First Time
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Installing Additional Parts of HALCON
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Manual Runtime Installation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.7 HALCON Installer Switches under Windows
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9 Managing Multiple HALCON Versions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.10 Switching between Different HALCON Platform Versions under Windows
. . . . . . . . 26
2.11 Installing HALCON Image Acquisition Interfaces
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.12 Installing HALCON Extension Packages
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.12.1 Using an Extension Package Within HDevelop
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.12.2 Using an Extension Package in a Stand-Alone Application
. . . . . . . . . . . . 27
29
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.1 Node-locked License Bound to a Network Card
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3.2 Node-locked License Bound to a Dongle
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3.3 Floating License Bound to a Network Card or Dongle
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
43
4.1 Problems During Installation (Windows)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Problems During Uninstallation (Windows)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 Problems Concerning Licenses
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.3.3 The License Manager Daemon
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.4 Troubleshooting in HDevelop or HALCON Applications
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
59
A.1 The Installed File Structure
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
A.2 HALCON’s Environment Variables
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A.2.1 Setting Environment Variables Under Windows
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A.2.2 Setting Environment Variables Under Linux/UNIX
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A.2.3 HALCON-Specific Environment Variables
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A.2.4 General Environment Variables
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
A.3 Information for Users of ActivVisionTools
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
69
Introduction 7
Chapter 1
Introduction
To use HALCON on a computer, you must
1. install HALCON on this computer and
2. obtain a license (except for the demo version).
Before looking into the details of these two steps in
on page
and
on page
chapter gives an overview of the different HALCON versions and licensing methods. Finally, it describes the system requirements for running HALCON.
1.1
HALCON Configurations
You can use HALCON in three configurations:
1. Development version
The development version (sometimes also denoted as full version) includes the full spectrum of HALCON, i.e., language interfaces to C, C++, .NET, and COM, interfaces to more than
50 frame grabbers and hundreds of industrial cameras, the Extension Package Interface, which allows you to integrate your own HALCON operators, and, of course, the interactive development environment HDevelop. You need this version whenever you want to develop applications based on HALCON.
2. Runtime version
If you have finished developing an application based on HALCON, you only need a runtime version of HALCON for each computer where the application is to be run. Since the runtime version is not determined for developing applications it does not include the interactive development environment HDevelop. Furthermore, you can obtain runtime versions that include only parts of the functionality (so-called modules); please contact your local distributor for more information.
3. Demo version
The demo version is basically a special version of HDevelop with the full image processing
8 Introduction
functionality but some limitations, e.g., without interfaces to image acquisition devices or programming languages. Using the demo version, you can test all HALCON operators within the
HDevelop environment for an unlimited amount of time.
1.2
Releases and HALCON Versions
The term version has a second meaning: It denotes the major HALCON releases, e.g., HALCON 10.0
or HALCON 9.0, to differentiate them from so-called maintenance releases like HALCON 9.0.2. The main differences between these two types of releases are:
• Functionality
A new HALCON version always represents a major step in the functionality. This means that it contains a significant number of new operators, but possibly also new functionality in HDevelop, e.g., new assistants. Furthermore, the functionality of individual operators may be extended or operators have been sped up. Of course, all currently known bugs in the preceding release will have been fixed.
In contrast, the main intention of a maintenance release is to fix all currently known bugs. Nevertheless, such a release typically also brings some speed-ups and minor functional extensions of existing operators.
• Compatibility
A new HALCON version is not downward compatible, with the following implications: First, you must upgrade your HALCON license (see
on page
41 ). Second, if you want to run
applications created with an older release under the new version, you must regenerate the applications, as the new HALCON library is not binary compatible to the old one. The term ’applications’ includes also image acquisition interfaces and extension packages you created yourself based on an older release. Note that a new version may also be source-code incompatible in some parts, e.g., the signature of an operator or a class method may have been changed. These changes are indicated in the release notes of the HALCON version. In such a case, you must adapt the source code of your application before regenerating it. Finally, an ActivVisionTools release based on an older HALCON release cannot be directly used with a new HALCON version.
In contrast, a maintenance release is in most cases fully downward compatible to its corresponding version. This compatibility includes the license. Please note, however, that some maintenance releases may not be fully binary or source-code compatible because of technical reasons. In such cases, the release notes will contain corresponding warnings and describe how to proceed.
1.3 Supported Platforms and System Requirements
1.3
Supported Platforms and System Requirements
You can use HALCON under Windows, Linux, and Solaris. The summary of system requirements is listed in
Operating System
Windows
Windows x64
Linux
Linux x86_64
Solaris
Processor
Intel Pentium or compatible
(with and without SSE2)
Intel EM64T or AMD64
Intel Pentium or compatible
(with and without SSE2)
Intel EM64T or AMD64
SPARC
Compiler / Environment
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 or higher
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 or higher gcc 4.x
gcc 4.x
Sun Studio
Table 1.1: Platforms supported by HALCON.
Additional Linux Requirements
The Linux distribution has to be LSB compliant. The corresponding packages have to be installed, e.g., redhat-lsb (Fedora, RedHat), lsb (SuSE), lsb-base + lsb-core (Ubuntu).
Furthermore, an XServer has to be installed. This is required even for command-line tools provided with
HALCON.
Platform-Specific HALCON Versions
For each of the operating systems listed in
, platform-specific versions of HALCON’s executa-
bles and libraries are provided. But in fact there are even more platform-specific versions: For Windows and Linux systems on processors that support the SSE2 instruction set, there is a corresponding, optimized HALCON version.
lists all platform-specific versions with detailed system requirements. The name of the currently used version is stored in the environment variable HALCONARCH.
Note that HALCON should also run on newer versions of the operating systems than the ones listed; however, we cannot guarantee this.
HALCONARCH appears in several directory paths: Executable HALCON programs like hdevelop, and
DLLs like halcon.dll (Windows only), reside in %HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%. On Windows systems, this path is therefore automatically included in the environment variable PATH; on a
Linux/UNIX system, you must include it in your login script.
The libraries that you need for linking programs, e.g., halcon.lib (Windows) or halcon.so
(Linux/UNIX) reside in the directory %HALCONROOT%\lib\%HALCONARCH%.
9
10 Introduction
HALCONARCH x86-win32 x86sse2-win32 x64-win64 x86-linux2.4-gcc40 x86sse2-linux2.4-gcc40 x64-linux2.4-gcc40 sparc-sun-solaris9
Operating System, Processor
Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8, on Intel Pentium or compatible
Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8, on x86 processor with SSE2 extension, e.g., Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon64 or newer
Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8 x64
Edition, on Intel EM64T or AMD64
Linux, Kernel 2.4 or higher, libc.so.6 (GLIBC_2.3.4 or higher), libstdc++.so.6 (GLIBCXX_3.4 or higher), on Intel Pentium or compatible
Linux, Kernel 2.4 or higher, libc.so.6 (GLIBC_2.3.4 or higher), libstdc++.so.6 (GLIBCXX_3.4 or higher), on x86 processor with SSE2 extension, e.g.,
Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon64 or newer
Linux x86_64, Kernel 2.4 or higher, libc.so.6 (GLIBC_2.3.4 or higher), libstdc++.so.6 (GLIBCXX_3.4 or higher), on Intel EM64T or AMD64
Solaris 9, on UltraSPARC Workstations
Compiler
Visual Studio 6.0 or higher
Visual Studio 6.0 or higher
Visual Studio 2005 or higher gcc 3.4/4.x
gcc 3.4/4.x
gcc 3.4/4.x
Sun Studio 11 or higher
Table 1.2: Values of HALCONARCH and detailed system requirements.
Please note that when creating a 64-bit application, both the development computer and the computer on which the application will run must be 64-bit platforms. Similarly, when using one of the SSE2optimized HALCON versions, both development and runtime computer must provide SSE2 instructions.
If you run an SSE2-optimized application on a computer without SSE2, the application crashes.
On the other hand, you can use a 32-bit HALCON version on a 64-bit platform, and a non-SSE2optimized HALCON on an SSE2 platform without problems.
Further note that in order to create .NET applications under UNIX you need Mono.
Platform-Independent Applications
Even when using a platform-specific version of HALCON, you can still create platform-independent applications, in two ways:
• With HDevelop
, HALCON’s integrated development environment (IDE). HDevelop programs are stored in a platform-independent format, thus, you can run them on any supported platform.
1.4 Licensing
• With HALCON/.NET
, HALCON’s interface to .NET programming languages. Applications written in .NET languages are stored in a platform-independent intermediate language, which is then converted by the so-called common language runtime into platform-specific code.
Note that this platform independency is only true when using .NET Framework 2.0 or higher, because lower versions do not support 64-bit platforms.
You can combine both methods by using HDevEngine/.NET to run HDevelop programs from a HAL-
CON/.NET application.
1.4
Licensing
To run HALCON on a computer, you need a license. The only exception to this rule is the HALCON demo version, i.e., the demo version of the development tool HDevelop, which can be run without a license. The license itself is typically stored in a file named “license.dat” and resides in the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON.
Licenses are always issued for a certain HALCON version (i.e., major release, see
on page
e.g., for HALCON 10.0. However, a license is not exclusively bound to this version: It is upward compatible within the version number
, i.e., licenses for HALCON 10.0 are also valid for HALCON 10.0.1.
If you want to use different HALCON versions at the same time, from version 7.1 on the name of the license file is not restricted to “license.dat” anymore. Now, it has to begin with “license” and end with
“.dat”, but in between other information can be included. Thus, different licenses for different versions
(e.g., license-10.0.dat for version 10.0) can be stored in the same directory.
The three possible licensing types mainly correspond to the different HALCON versions described in
on page
7 . Detailed information about HALCON licenses can be found in
on page
• Evaluation license
To evaluate the full power of HALCON, you can obtain an evaluation license from your local distributor free of charge. This type of license is not bound to any computer hardware, i.e., you can use HALCON on any computer you installed it on; however, it is only valid for a limited time, typically for a month. Note that you may not use this license to develop commercial applications.
• Development license
To develop HALCON applications, whether in HDevelop or via a programming language, you need a development license. In contrast to the evaluation license, this license is permanent. Furthermore, this license is bound to a certain hardware component (network card or dongle, see
on page
If you want to use HALCON on multiple computers simultaneously, you need a license for each of them. You can either obtain multiple node-locked licenses, or, if the computers are connected via a network, you can also use a floating license. The main point of using floating licenses is that you do not need to specify on which computers you want to run HALCON, but only on how many of them simultaneously. Floating licenses are described in detail in
on page
• Runtime license
If you finished developing your application based on HALCON and now want to install and run it
11
12 Introduction
on a customer’s computer, you only need a runtime license. Like development licenses, runtime licenses are permanent and bound to a certain hardware component (network card or dongle); note, however, that there are no floating runtime licenses.
As already noted, you can obtain runtime licenses that cover only parts of the functionality (socalled modules). Please contact your local distributor for more information.
Installing HALCON 13
Chapter 2
Installing HALCON
In this chapter, we show how to
• install HALCON for the first time ( section 2.2
• install additional parts ( section 2.3
on page
• manually install a runtime version of HALCON ( section 2.4
on page
• update HALCON to a newer maintenance release ( section 2.5
on page
• upgrade HALCON to a newer version ( section 2.6
on page
Furthermore, this chapter explains how to
• uninstall HALCON ( section 2.8
on page
• manage multiple versions in parallel ( section 2.9
on page
• switch between HALCON for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows or vice versa ( section 2.10
on page
• install updates of image acquisition interfaces ( section 2.11
on page
• install extension packages ( section 2.12
on page
2.1
How to Obtain HALCON
You can obtain HALCON in form of a DVD from your local distributor, or by downloading it from http://www.halcon.com/download
. The DVD includes all HALCON configurations (see
) while the download provides separate files for the different configurations. Note that main-
tenance releases are typically not available on DVD.
14 Installing HALCON
2.2
Installing HALCON for the First Time
!
In the following sections, we explain how to install HALCON for the first time
• from DVD on Windows systems:
• from DVD on Linux/UNIX systems:
on page
• via WWW:
on page
Please note, that you need administrator privileges to install HALCON under Windows.
2.2.1
Installing HALCON from DVD under Windows
To install HALCON on Windows systems, simply insert the DVD. This should automatically start the setup program. If the setup program doesn’t start automatically, execute the program setup.exe
located in the directory install-windows of the DVD.
Step 1: Internal checks, license agreement, maintenance releases
First, the setup program checks whether your system meets the requirements for running HALCON (see
on page
9 ). Besides, it checks whether you already installed HALCON on this computer. If
not, a license agreement is displayed; its text is stored in the file eula.txt, which will be installed in the folder you select for the installation.
If you are using ActivVisionTools, the setup program checks whether the installed version is compatible to the current HALCON version. Please refer to
on page
for more information.
By default, the installer also checks for available maintenance releases. You can disable this check, e.g., if the computer is not connected to the internet.
Step 2: Select installation architecture
Depending on your system, multiple HALCON architectures may be supported. The installer will preselect the most appropriate architecture, but you may want to select another option, e.g., 32-bit binaries on a 64-bit system.
Step 3: Select installation type
Then, you are asked to select between the following installation types which correspond to the HALCON configurations described in
on page
7 . Note that you can install additional parts of HALCON
at a later time by starting the setup program again and selecting the parts you need (see
on page
Full
This installs the complete development version of HALCON, i.e., the full set of libraries and executables including interfaces to image acquisition devices and programming languages. Furthermore, it installs the full documentation including the Solution Guide I , the Solution Guide II, the
Solution Guide III, the Reference Manuals, and the full set of example programs (see
on page
for an overview), including all necessary images and image sequences.
2.2 Installing HALCON for the First Time
Compact
This installs a minimal development version of HALCON, i.e., besides the full set of libraries and executables including interfaces to image acquisition devices and programming languages the installation encompasses only the User’s Manuals and the Reference Manual. Note that neither examples nor images are installed.
This installation type is also recommended if all you want to do is install the license manager daemon for floating licenses but prefer not to do it manually. If HALCON will never be used on the floating license server and disk space does not permit the extra overhead of a minimal HALCON installation, the recommended method is to install the license manager daemon manually. This is described in
on page
Runtime
This installs the runtime version of HALCON, i.e., only the set of libraries including interfaces to image acquisition devices and programming languages that are necessary to run a HALCON application. Naturally, this type of installation encompasses neither documentation, examples nor images. However, it contains HDevEngine and the provided external procedures.
Demo
This installs the demo version of HALCON, i.e., the demo version of HDevelop without interfaces to image acquisition devices or programming languages. The installed documentation encompasses the User’s Manuals, the Solution Guide I , and the Reference Manual. Furthermore, two introductory tutorials, the HDevelop example programs and the images and image sequences used by these examples are installed.
Custom
Like the Full and the Compact installation, this type installs the development version of HAL-
CON. As its name suggests, it lets you select which parts of the documentation, examples, and images you want to be installed. Note that some HALCON experience is required to handle this type of installation.
Step 4: Additional drivers concerning licensing
After this selection, the setup program asks whether to install the driver programs that are necessary if you want to use a dongle-bound license.
on page
provides detailed information about these dongle drivers, including how to install them manually if you do not let the setup program install them.
The next dialog asks whether the computer is to act as the so-called floating license server. In this case, the setup program installs the so-called license manager daemon, a system service that manages your floating licenses. Note that when using floating licenses, you need to install the license manager daemon only on one computer: the license server. Please refer to
on page
for more information about floating licenses, e.g., how to install the license manager daemon manually.
Step 5: Additional drivers for GigE Vision
The installer offers to install a GigE Vision streaming filter driver. This option is recommended if you intend to acquire images from GigE Vision compliant cameras because it increases the performance significantly.
15
16 Installing HALCON
Step 6: Documentation language
Parts of the documentation are also available in languages other than English. You can select the desired language of these parts. Currently, English, German and Japanese versions are available.
Step 7: Select installation destination
After these checks you can choose a folder where HALCON is to be installed, e.g., C:\Program Files\
MVTec\HALCON
.
Step 8: Example programs
For Windows Vista and higher, the installer will install example programs as shared user documents by default, i.e., in a location which is writable by all users. This is highly recommended because some of the example programs require write access to run properly. Alternatively, you can install these example programs inside the installation destination specified in the previous step. After the installation, the environment variable %HALCONEXAMPLES% points to the actual location of the example programs.
Step 9: The actual installation
Finally, the actual installation starts, which includes copying files from the DVD to the destination folder
(see
on page
for an overview of HALCON’s fileset), entering information in the Windows registry, and setting environment variables (see also
on page
installation type and content, it may be necessary to reboot the computer after the installation is finished.
Apart from that, no further action on your part is required. You can immediately use HALCON, e.g., experiment with the demo version of HDevelop if you have not obtained a license yet. A good starting point is the Windows start menu, via which you can read the manuals or the release notes, or start
HDevelop. In case that you have already obtained a license from your local distributor, you can now proceed with the installation of the license file license.dat (or similar) which has to be placed in the directory %HALCONROOT%\license.
Optionally, you can optimize HALCON’s automatic operator parallelization to your computer as described in the Programmer’s Guide, section 2.1.1
on page 17 . The optimization program may be started from the Windows start menu.
2.2.2
Installing HALCON from DVD under Linux/UNIX
To install HALCON on Linux or UNIX systems, mount the DVD, e.g., on the directory /cdrom. On some systems, you need root rights to do so. Note that on some systems, most notably Linux, the default mount entry, in /etc/fstab, does not allow users to execute programs on a DVD. In such cases, you have to mount the DVD explicitly with a command similar to the following (consult your operating system documentation for details): mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /media/dvd
To start the installation, execute the shell script install-unix.sh, which is located in the top-level directory of the DVD, e.g. by calling
2.2 Installing HALCON for the First Time 17
sh install-unix.sh
Step 1: Internal checks, license agreement
First, the setup program checks whether your system meets the requirements for running HALCON (see
on page
9 ). Then, a license agreement is displayed; its text is stored in the file eula.txt,
which will be installed in the directory you select for the installation.
Step 2: Select installation destination
The script will ask you in which directory you want to install HALCON; the environment variable HAL-
CONROOT must be set to this directory later; see below. If the directory does not exist yet, the script offers to create it. On the other hand, if HALCON was already installed in the selected directory, the script asks whether to remove the old installation completely or replace existing files with the new ones.
Step 3: Select installation type
Then, you are asked to select between different installation types, which correspond to those described in
on page
14 . Note that you can install additional parts of HALCON at any time by mounting
the DVD again and copying the corresponding directories and files to the directory where you installed
HALCON (see
on page
19 ). You can also execute the shell script install-unix once again
to install additional parts of HALCON.
Step 4: The actual installation
Now, the actual installation starts, i.e., the requested parts are copied from the DVD to the destination directory.
Step 5: Set environment variables
After the installation, the following environment variables must be set or modified in order for HAL-
CON to work (see
on page
for more information about these and other environment variables):
• HALCONROOT
: directory you installed HALCON in
• HALCONEXAMPLES
: directory the example programs are installed in ($HALCONROOT/examples).
• HALCONIMAGES
: directory the example images are installed in ($HALCONROOT/images).
• HALCONARCH
: select value corresponding to the used platform (see
on page
• PATH
: this system variable should include $HALCONROOT/bin/$HALCONARCH and $HALCON-
ROOT/FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH
: this system variable should include $HALCONROOT/lib/$HALCONARCH
It is recommended to set the environment variables in a login script or a shell resource script, e.g.,
.cshrc
or .profile. The installation script automatically creates two example shell scripts
.cshrc_halcon and .profile_halcon
in $HALCONROOT which contain the necessary settings in
!
18 Installing HALCON
#!/bin/sh
# Sample shell script for HALCON environment settings
# (sh syntax) export HALCONARCH=x86-linux2.4-gcc33 export HALCONROOT=/opt/halcon export HALCONEXAMPLES=/opt/halcon/examples export HALCONIMAGES=/opt/halcon/images export PATH=${PATH}:${HALCONROOT}/bin/${HALCONARCH}:\
${HALCONROOT}/FLEXlm/${HALCONARCH} if [ $LD_LIBRARY_PATH ] ; then export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${HALCONROOT}/lib/${HALCONARCH} else export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HALCONROOT}/lib/${HALCONARCH} fi
Figure 2.1: Example for a shell script with environment variables in sh syntax, generated when installing
HALCON into the directory /opt/halcon on a Linux system.
csh and sh syntax, see
. The suitable shell script can be used to be included in your lo-
gin script. Note that different shells offer different commands to set environment variables, e.g., setenv <variable> <value> or export <variable>=<value>. Please consult your shell’s documentation for further information. If a value consists of multiple items, those items must be separated by colons
.
Make sure LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set correctly after a reboot, e.g., with: echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Some systems disallow setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH in .profile. If the variable is not set after reboot, you should try to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH in other initialization files like .bashrc. Consult the documentation that comes with your operating system.
Step 6: Further configuration
If you are using floating licenses, you must install and start the license manager daemon as described in
on page
If you want to use a dongle-bound license (Linux only), see
on page
for information how to install the USB dongle driver.
Optionally, you can optimize HALCON’s automatic operator parallelization to your computer as described in the Programmer’s Guide, section 2.1.1
on page 17 .
Apart from that, no further action on your part is required. You can immediately use HALCON, e.g., experiment with the demo version of HDevelop if you have not obtained a license yet. In case that you have already obtained a license from your local distributor, you can now proceed with the installation of the license file license.dat which has to be placed in the directory $HALCONROOT/license.
2.3 Installing Additional Parts of HALCON
2.2.3
Installing HALCON via WWW
All HALCON releases can be downloaded from http://www.halcon.com/download. Note that you must first register yourself before downloading software. How to download and install HALCON via
WWW is described in detail on the web pages themselves.
2.3
Installing Additional Parts of HALCON
Windows systems
On Windows systems, you can install additional parts of HALCON at any time by starting the setup program another time, e.g., by inserting the DVD.
If you downloaded the full version of HALCON via WWW as described in
similar behavior by starting the downloaded executable again.
Linux/UNIX systems
On Linux/UNIX systems, you can install additional parts of HALCON at any time by mounting the DVD again and copying the corresponding directories and files to the directory where you installed HALCON.
To copy directories, open a shell, change into the root directory on the DVD, and type tar -cf - <directory_to_be_copied> | ( cd $HALCONROOT; tar -xf - )
19
20 Installing HALCON
2.4
Manually Installing a Runtime Version of HALCON on
Windows
Usually, when a machine vision application is finished it has to be set up at a production site. This involves installing HALCON runtime versions on a number of computers. Depending on that number, single installations from DVD can become a nuisance. Quite often, a software distribution tool or scriptbased solution is used to install required programs on the client computers. This section shows the relevant steps of installing a HALCON runtime version manually. With this knowledge, the task of software distribution can be automated.
As an alternative, a separate runtime installer is available for download. This stripped-down installer features a silent installation mode. See
on page
for download information.
1. Set the environment variables HALCONROOT and HALCONARCH. See also
on page
2. Copy the required runtime DLLs to, e.g., C:\%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH% (see
on page
for values of the environment variable HALCONARCH). The following DLLs are required: halcon.dll, the relevant HALCON language interface used by the application, e.g., halconcpp.dll, and, if used, the appropriate image acquisition device interface, e.g., hAcq1394IIDC.dll
.
If you want to use HALCON/.NET, you must also copy the corresponding assemblies to the directory %HALCONROOT%\bin\dotnet10, %HALCONROOT%\bin\dotnet20, or %HALCONROOT%\ bin\dotnet35
(also see the Programmer’s Guide, section 10.1
on page 86 ).
If the application uses HALCON XL, the relevant DLLs or assemblies with the suffix xl must be copied instead.
The HALCON DLLs must never be found in the %PATH% twice or even multiple times. Additionally, it is highly recommended not to copy the HALCON DLLs into the Windows system directories (C:\%WINDIR%, C:\%WINDIR%\system, and C:\%WINDIR%\system32).
3. Add the directory with the HALCON DLLs to the %PATH% environment variable, e.g., C:\
%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%
. This step is not required if the application resides in the same directory as the DLLs.
4. Register halconx.dll (or halconxxl.dll) if the application uses the HALCON/COM interface. To do this, execute regsvr32 halconx.dll in the directory where the file resides.
5. Register hdevenginex.dll (or hdevenginexxl.dll) if the application uses HDevEngine. To do this, execute regsvr32 hdevenginex.dll in the directory where the file resides.
6. Copy the HALCON help files to %HALCONROOT%\help.
7. Copy the license file license.dat (or similar, see
on page
license
.
8. If you are using dongle-based licensing, the corresponding dongle driver needs to be installed as well.
9. Depending on the application, one or more of the following directories need to be copied to
%HALCONROOT% as well: calib, filter, lut, ocr, procedures.
2.5 Updating HALCON
10. If you intend to use the GenICam interface, copy the directory genicam to %HALCONROOT% as well.
2.5
Updating HALCON
With HALCON, the term “update” means to install a newer maintenance release over a release based on the same HALCON version, e.g., HALCON 9.0.1 over 9.0. As described in
on page
can update HALCON without needing a new license.
Typically, maintenance releases are not available as a DVD, i.e., you must install them via WWW as described in
on page
19 . When updating an existing HALCON installation under Windows
the setup program will ask you whether you want to replace the already installed components with the updated ones.
2.6
Upgrading HALCON
With HALCON, the term “upgrade” means to install a newer version over an older one, e.g., HALCON
10.0 over 9.0 or 9.0.1. As described in
on page
8 , new versions are not compatible to older
ones. Therefore, we recommend to uninstall the older HALCON release before installing the new one
. On Windows systems, this is especially important in order to clean up the registry.
The easiest way to uninstall the older version on Windows is to start the installation of the new version, because the setup program offers to perform the uninstallation for you if it detects an older version. More information regarding uninstalling HALCON can be found in
. If you want to keep the older
version, please refer to
on page
The installation process itself is the same as the first-time installation described in
on page
Please note that after installing the new version you must upgrade the license as described in
on page
!
2.7
HALCON Installer Switches under Windows
The installation process under Windows can be customized by calling the setup program with designated switches. This can be done from a Windows command prompt, or from a custom batch file. The following switches are recognized:
/CPU=
[x86 | x86sse2 | x64] Force architecture.
/LANG=
[english | german | japanese] Force language selection.
Also, a silent runtime installer exists which provides additional options for automated installations. It can be downloaded from http://www.halcon.com/download.
21
22 Installing HALCON
2.8
Uninstalling HALCON
2.8.1
Uninstalling HALCON under Windows
The preferred method to uninstall HALCON is to use the automatic uninstallation program as described in the following section. In case you want to keep track of what is happening to your system, you may want to follow the instructions given in
!
2.8.1.1
Uninstalling Automatically
There are multiple ways to uninstall HALCON; please note that not all are available for older versions of HALCON:
1. Select Start . Programs . MVTec HALCON 10.0 . Uninstall HALCON in the Windows start menu.
2. Choose Add/Remove Programs in the system control panel.
3. When installing HALCON, the setup program checks whether there is an old version of HAL-
CON and allows you to uninstall it. Note that during updating an existing HALCON installation under Windows the setup program will ask you whether you want to replace the already installed components with the updated ones.
Typically, this is all you have to do. If you encounter any problems, please refer to
on page
Note that the uninstallation removes exactly those files that were installed. This has two implications:
If you added files after the installation manually, e.g., new image acquisition interfaces, extension packages, images, or manuals, these files and the corresponding directories will “survive” the uninstallation.
On the other hand, if you only modified a file, e.g., an example, without changing its name the uninstallation will remove it nevertheless. Therefore you might want to copy such files to another directory before starting the uninstallation.
The uninstallation process will not remove any user-specific settings. This means that entries concerning, e.g., the layout of HDevelop or its file history, will be left in the file %APPDATA%\MVTec\HDevelop.ini.
If you have run the utility hcheck_parallel, AOP information has been stored in %ProgramData%\
MVTec\HALCON 10.0\.aop_info
(or %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\MVTec\HALCON 10.0\.aop_info on
Windows XP/2003). You may remove these files manually without risk. Furthermore, the uninstaller does not remove the dongle drivers as they might be needed by another application;
on page
describes how to remove them manually.
2.8.1.2
Uninstalling Manually
The commands given in the following description should be entered in a Windows command prompt, which can be obtained by entering cmd.exe in the dialog Start . Run. You need administrator privileges to perform the uninstallation.
2.8 Uninstalling HALCON
1. Unregister the HALCON/COM interface and the COM version of HDevEngine. If you have been using HALCON XL, append the suffix xl to the .dll files in the following commands
(thus, halconx.dll becomes halconxxl.dll, for example).
regsvr32 /u "%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\halconx.dll" regsvr32 /u "%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\hdevenginex.dll"
If you are using Windows x64, the corresponding commands are slightly different:
64-bit version:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 /u "%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\halconx.dll"
C:\WINDOWS\system32\regsvr32 /u "%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\hdevenginex.dll"
32-bit version:
C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\system32\regsvr32 /u
"%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\halconx.dll"
C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\system32\regsvr32 /u
"%HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH%\hdevenginex.dll"
2. For extensive cleaning of the Windows registry you can optionally run the program misc\%HALCONARCH%\clean_reg_halconx.exe
from the HALCON installation DVD.
3. Delete the installation directory. You can also use Windows Explorer to do this. Please note that the license file and any local additions to this directory will be lost
. A backup of these files is highly recommended.
rmdir /S "%HALCONROOT%"
!
4. Delete all HALCON registry keys. Replace x.x at the end of the following command with the version number you are uninstalling. Alternatively, start regedit.exe to use the Windows registry editor to delete the keys.
reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\MVTec\HALCON\x.x
You can query all installed versions of HALCON using this command: reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\MVTec\HALCON
5. Delete all environment variables set by HALCON. The indented lines must be appended to the preceding lines separated by a space character. See
on page
on how to edit environment variables using the Windows GUI. Please also use the GUI to manually remove the
HALCON binary directory from the environment variable PATH.
23
24 Installing HALCON
reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
/V HALCONROOT reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
/V HALCONARCH reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
/V HALCONEXAMPLES reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
/V HALCONIMAGES
6. Delete the uninstall information created when HALCON was installed. Replace <ID> with the actual HALCON GUID, which depends on the installed version:
HALCON 6.1 → BBEC9F40-4A36-11D6-A14C-00E0296C2846
HALCON 7.0 → 47F424B4-1077-11D8-A0D3-00E01883F42C
HALCON 7.1 → 0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C
HALCON 8.0 → 096CE3F7-2FD9-4460-A270-F9F4740DB91B rmdir /S "%ProgramFiles%\InstallShield Installation Information\{<ID>}" reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{<ID>}
For HALCON 9.0, please use the following key: reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
MVTec HALCON 9.0
For HALCON 10.0, please use the following key: reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
MVTec HALCON 10.0
!
2.8.2
Uninstalling HALCON under Linux/UNIX
HALCON provides no uninstallation script for Linux/UNIX systems, therefore you must perform the uninstallation manually. In case that you are using a floating license you have to uninstall the floating license daemon as well (see
on page
Please note: The following procedure will delete your local additions to the HALCON base directory
. To check for any local additions and changes beforehand, mount the HALCON DVD, e.g., on
/media/dvd and run diff -q -r /media/dvd $HALCONROOT | grep $HALCONROOT
The actual uninstallation consists of simply removing the content of the HALCON base directory $HAL-
CONROOT and all its subdirectories, e.g., by executing rm -rf $HALCONROOT
2.9 Managing Multiple HALCON Versions
Furthermore, remove the subdirectory .hdevelop of the directory referenced by the environment variable HOME (see
on page
63 ); HDevelop creates this directory to save options, window posi-
tions, and the file history. If you have run the utility hcheck_parallel, AOP information has been stored in $HALCONROOT/.aop_info. This file can also safely be deleted.
Finally, delete references to HALCON from the environment variables (see
on page
To remove the dongle driver, refer to
on page
2.9
Managing Multiple HALCON Versions
Linux/UNIX systems
On Linux/UNIX systems, you can switch between different HALCON versions by setting the environment variable HALCONROOT accordingly. Note that in order for this method to work, paths based on
HALCONROOT in other environment variables like PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH must use the variable and not its content. See
on page
for an example.
Windows systems
Under Windows, you must adapt those environment variables that are set during the installation, i.e.,
HALCONROOT
, HALCONARCH, PATH, HALCONEXAMPLES, and HALCONIMAGES, and those you set yourself
(e.g., HALCONEXTENSIONS). Please refer to
on page
for more information about setting environment variables.
If you are using the HALCON/COM interface or the COM version of HDevEngine, you must also reregister the corresponding DLLs halconx.dll or hdevenginex.dll, for example as follows: Open a
Windows Command Prompt and change into the subdirectory bin\%HALCONARCH% of the root directory of your “old” HALCON installation (please note that versions older than HALCON 8.0 did not set the environment variable HALCONARCH and used different names for the platform-specific subdirectories!).
Unregister halconx.dll or hdevenginex.dll by typing regsvr32 /u halconx.dll
regsvr32 /u hdevenginex.dll
Then change into the corresponding subdirectory of your other HALCON installation and register its halconx.dll
or hdevenginex.dll by typing regsvr32 halconx.dll
regsvr32 hdevenginex.dll
With the same method, re-register hdevenginex.dll, i.e., the DLL of the COM version of HDevEngine.
If you are using HALCON/COM XL, you must re-register halconxxl.dll and hdevenginexxl.dll
instead.
As an alternative to the Command Prompt, you can unregister and register halconx.dll or hdevenginex.dll
via the dialog Start . Run together with the Windows Explorer: In the latter, “open”
25
26 Installing HALCON
the directory bin\%HALCONARCH% of the root directory of your old HALCON installation. Now, type regsvr32 /u in the dialog Run and then drag and drop halconx.dll or hdevenginex.dll from the
Windows Explorer into the dialog, where it automatically appears with the full path. To execute the command, click OK. Then, open the directory bin\%HALCONARCH% of the root directory of the other
HALCON installation in the Windows Explorer, type regsvr32 in the dialog Run, drag and drop halconx.dll
or hdevenginex.dll from the Windows Explorer into the dialog, and again click OK.
Please note that if you are using ActivVisionTools, you may have to register another ActivVisionTools
OCX (see
on page
2.10
Switching between Different HALCON Platform Versions under Windows
As described in
on page
9 , HALCON is provided for different platforms. However, only the
first installation sets the environment variable PATH (see
on page
e.g., from Windows 32-bit to Windows 64-bit or from a non-SSE2 platform to one supporting SSE2, you must adapt the environment variable HALCONARCH accordingly (see
on page
referenced in PATH.
2.11
Installing HALCON Image Acquisition Interfaces
With every HALCON installation (except the demo version), you automatically obtain the latest release of the currently available image acquisition interfaces (see also
on page
HALCON releases, however, image acquisition interfaces might be updated by MVTec or the manufacturer of an image acquisition device. Such updates are indicated on MVTec’s WWW server, to which you can connect by selecting HDevelop’s menu entry Help . HALCON News (WWW). You can then download the interface together with its documentation and HDevelop example programs, and install it as described on the corresponding web pages.
2.12
Installing HALCON Extension Packages
The HALCON Extension Package Interface enables you to integrate newly developed image processing algorithms into HALCON in the form of so-called extension packages. The same mechanism is used by MVTec to extend the current HALCON release with additional functionality. Which extensions packages are currently available can be checked by selecting HDevelop’s menu entry Help . HALCON
News (WWW)
, which connects to MVTec’s WWW server.
This section describes how to integrate a (downloaded) package named newextpkg in order to use it within your HALCON system.
First, move the package to the directory %HALCONROOT% and unpack it there. Then, add the complete path of the package, e.g.,
%HALCONROOT%\packages\newextpkg
2.12 Installing HALCON Extension Packages
to the environment variable HALCONEXTENSIONS. Note, that the delimiter between paths in an environment variable is a semicolon on Windows systems and a colon on Linux/UNIX systems.
Never change the name of an extension package or the corresponding names of the libraries or
DLLs contained in it.
These names are encoded within the libraries/DLLs. If you change the names this information will no longer match. Thus, the loader of the operating system will fail to open the dynamic libraries.
If the package contains images used, e.g., within example programs we recommend to include the (complete) path to the corresponding directory images within the package in the environment variable HAL-
CONIMAGES
(see
on page
63 ) to access those images without specifying a complete path.
!
2.12.1
Using an Extension Package Within HDevelop
In order to use a new package within HDevelop under Windows, you just need to restart the program.
HDevelop automatically integrates all extension packages specified in HALCONEXTENSIONS, i.e., the operators contained in a package can be accessed and used like any other HALCON operator.
Under Linux/UNIX, you must include the package library subdirectory (i.e., lib/$HALCONARCH) in the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH before starting HDevelop the first time (see
on page
for the possible values of HALCONARCH).
2.12.2
Using an Extension Package in a Stand-Alone Application
If you want to generate a stand-alone application that uses an extension package, you have to link the package libraries (DLLs under Windows, shared libraries under Linux/UNIX) to the application code, in addition to the HALCON library.
2.12.2.1
Using an Extension Package Under Windows
In order to create new application programs you have to link the corresponding language interface library, e.g., packagecpp.lib for a C++ application, to your objects. Furthermore, you will need the HALCON interface library, in the example of a C++ application halconcpp.lib, as for any HALCON application.
To be able to link the package DLL to your application program, the complete DLL file path of the new package, e.g.,
%HALCONROOT%\packages\newextpkg\bin\%HALCONARCH% must be added to the environment variable PATH (see
on page
for the possible values of
HALCONARCH
).
Do not copy a package DLL into the Windows system directories
, as it would be loaded twice in this case!
!
27
28 Installing HALCON
2.12.2.2
Using an Extension Package Under Linux/UNIX
In order to create new application programs, you must link libnewextpkg.so and the corresponding language interface library, e.g., libnewextpkgcpp.so for a C++ application, to your objects (besides libhalcon.so
and the HALCON interface library, in the example of a C++ application libhalconcpp.so
, as for any HALCON application).
Furthermore, you have to add the path to the package library subdirectory lib/$HALCONARCH to the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH, otherwise the loader will fail to access the libraries.
All About HALCON Licenses 29
Chapter 3
All About HALCON Licenses
on page
already contained an overview of the possible licensing schemes. In this chapter, you will find detailed information about how to obtain and install
• evaluation licenses ( section 3.2
on page
• development licenses ( section 3.3
on page
• runtime licenses ( section 3.4
on page
Finally,
on page
shows how to upgrade a license.
3.1
What is a License?
HALCON’s licensing mechanisms are based on the license manager software FlexNet Publisher (formerly named FLEXlm) from Flexera Software. The licenses themselves are stored in so-called license files
; example files are depicted in the following sections. The content of these files specifies
• what is licensed (e.g., development version, runtime version, etc.)
• whether the license is temporary (evaluation license) or permanent
• the hardware to which the license is bound (see below)
• additional information for floating licenses.
License files are named license.dat (or license-10.0.dat or similar, see
on page
and reside in the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON. Note that HAL-
CON will not run if you modify the license keys within the license file manually!
!
30 All About HALCON Licenses
Available Licenses
evaluate HALCON e va lua t io n lic e ns e
You want to deploy HALCON develop HALCON applications d e ve lo p me nt lic e ns e run HALCON applications r unt ime lic e ns e floating
(networked, license server) node-locked
(stand-alone)
USB dongle*
Parallel Port network card
[* s ee table 3.1]
#1 #2 #3 #4
...
license file license file installed on this computer license bound to dongle or network card on this computer
Figure 3.1: Individual node-locked licenses.
Node-Locked Versus Floating Development Licenses
You can choose between two types of development licenses. They differ in the number of computers that can run HALCON applications simultaneously and in their method of license validation.
3.1 What is a License?
31
#1 #1 #1 #1 #1
...
license server
TCP/IP
Figure 3.2: Floating license: License server approves remote HALCON instances.
Firstly, there are node-locked licenses. Such a license allows to run exactly one installation of HALCON at a time. The license validation is done on the local computer. To have additional people use HALCON on different computers at the same time, additional node-locked licenses have to be purchased (see
). However, node-locked licenses can travel between computers by moving the hardware they
are bound to (see below).
Then, there are floating licenses which require participating computers to be networked. When ordering a floating license, you have to specify the number of concurrently running HALCON instances (see page
to specify the participating computers. When the ordered license file arrives it is copied to the license server and each HALCON installation. The license validation is performed on the license server, which monitors concurrently running instances of HALCON in the network (see
In contrast to development licenses, runtime licenses are always node-locked.
Network Card Versus Dongle Binding
As noted in
on page
11 , development and runtime licenses are bound to a certain hardware
component. This is either the network card (see
on page
systems, a dongle (see
on page
and
Dongle-bound node-locked licenses allow to use HALCON on different computers by moving the dongle. Of course, network cards can also be switched between computers, but in practice they can be regarded as fixed. Thus, if you want to develop applications with HALCON on more than one standalone computer at different times, the easiest solution is to obtain a dongle-bound node-locked license on
Windows and Linux systems. Please note that USB dongles are not supported via Windows Terminal
Server or Remote Desktop on Windows systems.
If you are developing applications based on HALCON in a team on different computers in a network, you can use a floating license. This license is bound to the network card or dongle which is attached to the license server. The license server may be changed by moving the dongle and altering the server entry in the license file. Floating licenses also are an option if a single person wants to use HALCON on different computers within a network at different times. For more details about floating licenses see
on page
!
32 All About HALCON Licenses
Hardware Binding of the License on the Supported Platforms
Consult
to find out which hardware is supported for binding your license to on your operating system.
License can be bound to
Operating system network card parallel port dongle USB port dongle
Windows
Windows x64
Linux x86
Linux x86_64
Solaris yes yes yes yes yes yes no no no no
∗ yes yes
∗∗
∗∗ yes no
∗ no
* unless running the corresponding 32bit version of HALCON on this platform.
** not supported via Windows Terminal Server or Remote Desktop
Table 3.1: License binding options on the supported platforms.
Identifying the Hardware
The license manager software FLEXlm identifies a network card by a so-called host ID and a dongle by a so-called dongle ID. A valid host ID is the unique, immutable, machine-readable identification of an actual piece of ethernet hardware as devised by the hardware vendor. You can execute the following commands from a Windows Command Prompt or a UNIX shell to get the host ID and the dongle ID, respectively. See
on page
for a detailed description on solving problems extracting the host ID. The utility lmhostid is located in %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH% (see
on page
for the possible values of HALCONARCH).
lmhostid -ether lmhostid -flexid
HDevelop, both in the full and in the demo version, automatically checks whether any network cards or dongles are present and displays their IDs in the menu item Help . About. For an example see
which was generated on a computer equipped with a network card and a dongle.
3.2
Evaluation Licenses
As already noted in
on page
11 , with an evaluation license you can evaluate the full function-
ality of HALCON free of charge on any computer. The only restrictions are that evaluation licenses are valid only for a limited time (typically a month), and no commercial applications may be developed.
3.2 Evaluation Licenses 33
network card ID dongle ID
Figure 3.3: Identifying information in the HDevelop window About.
Step 1: Obtain the license
You can obtain an evaluation license from your local distributor. The distributor will send you a license file that looks similar to the one depicted in
: The lines starting with # are comments; the date
10/2010 indicates that the evaluation license is valid until the end of October 2010.
##############################################
# Evaluation License for 10/2010 (ID: DEMO) #
##############################################
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-nov-2010 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=DEMO SIGN="133D C45D 66E3 BF26 3AFD 1860 FB2E 7C50 A0EE F2EE \
A324 E9EF FF57 9DD0 4EA7 094A 1D3D 19C2 1678 F817 327E 1DC2 004C \
8825 2D5E C7A8 A397 5F91 7A5E 98E2"
FEATURE MVTec_HDevelop mvtecd 10.0 01-nov-2010 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=DEMO SIGN="0AF4 67D3 3674 9B07 9E53 1894 681E E3A0 5275 A60A \
78B2 2304 A6AC BB4A 87C1 090F B47E 70D2 3231 C571 BA53 FB84 D9A0 \
4AE6 3A7A 20C5 9F24 A737 8A3D A27C"
Figure 3.4: Example evaluation license for October 2010.
The lines starting with FEATURE contain the actual license data; they are called license keys. Evaluation licenses contain two license keys: MVTec_HALCON includes those HALCON parts that are necessary for running HALCON, while MVTec_HDevelop includes additional parts for developing, e.g., HDevelop.
As you can see, the license keys contain the licensed version number of HALCON ( figure 3.4
noted in
on page
11 , the license is upward compatible within the version number, i.e., licenses
for HALCON 10.0 are also valid for all maintenance releases of HALCON 10.0, e.g., HALCON 10.0.1.
01-November-2010
).
Step 2: Install the license
“Installing” the license simply means placing the license file into the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON. If necessary, rename the file to license.dat (or license-10.0.dat
34 All About HALCON Licenses
or similar, see
on page
Note that you can evaluate HALCON on any computer where you installed HALCON just by copying the evaluation license file into the corresponding subdirectory license. You can also evaluate HALCON under different operating systems.
3.3
Development Licenses
Like the evaluation license, a development license allows you to use the full functionality of HALCON including the development tools like HDevelop (see also
on page
evaluation license, a development license is permanent, i.e., there is no temporal restriction. However, it must be bound to a certain hardware component (see also
on page
describe how to proceed to obtain and install a
•
node-locked license bound to a network card ( section 3.3.1
•
node-locked license bound to a dongle ( section 3.3.2
•
floating license bound to a network card or dongle ( section 3.3.3
on page
3.3.1
Node-locked License Bound to a Network Card
Step 1: Extract the host ID
Start HDevelop (full or demo version) and select the menu item Help . About. This dialog displays the host ID of the network card, e.g., the string "00270e0ac34a" in
on page
If HDevelop fails to detect a host ID although your computer does have a network card, please try to extract the host ID manually as described in
on page
49 . This section also describes what
to do if IDs like "ffffffff" or "0", or multiple IDs are displayed.
Step 2: Obtain the license
Send the host ID of the network card to your local distributor. The distributor then sends you a license file that looks similar to the one depicted in
Like the evaluation license depicted in
on page
33 , it contains two license keys (lines starting
with FEATURE), one for the runtime parts of HALCON (MVTec_HALCON) and one for the development parts (MVTec_HDevelop). The differences to the evaluation license show up as follows:
•
The expiration date is set to 01-jan-0000, which means that the license is permanent (alternatively, the entry may contain the string permanent).
•
Both license keys are bound to the HOSTID you extracted in the first step (in the example:
00e02958e3b6
).
If the FEATURE line contains the additional keyword TS_OK, then this license allows also the checkout from a terminal server (Windows only).
3.3 Development Licenses 35
###########################################
# MVTec Software GmbH (ID: 00270e0ac34a) #
# Development License #
###########################################
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=00270e0ac34a TS_OK SIGN="1672 CF90 D9E1 BDCE 3B6F 1008 1062 \
0FC1 0214 C5EB FG1B 9B3C 49C4 1CD3 DA0F 0F5D B870 36C4 D91A 2B21 \
169F 26BC 5915 383E 71C7 153B 5440 5H4A 5458 5E1D"
FEATURE MVTec_HDevelop mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=00270e0ac34a TS_OK SIGN="19C8 0F4A 8D52 4CF4 A0CB D4A9 D443 \
8B22 4DC8 6734 3190 A4D9 047A 7261 B123 06A1 D0A2 3012 6D8F 9E49 \
1438 ECD9 3AF8 9978 7924 4E92 4D94 C248 0262 3FA1"
Figure 3.5: Example node-locked development license, bound to network card.
Step 3: Install the license
Place the license file into the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON. If necessary, rename the file to license.dat (or license-10.0.dat or similar, see
on page
3.3.2
Node-locked License Bound to a Dongle
Dongles are available for selected platforms (see
on page
32 . Note that for Windows systems
we assume that you let the setup program install the driver programs necessary for using dongles as described in
on page
14 . If you did not install the drivers, please refer to
on page
50 . On Linux systems, the dongle driver has to be installed manually, which is described in
on page
Step 1: Obtain dongle and license
Please note that you cannot use any dongle but only those supplied by MVTec via your local distributor
. Currently, HALCON supports dongles connected to the parallel port and USB dongles.
The distributor will send you the dongle together with a corresponding license file, which looks similar to the one depicted in
. The only difference to the network card license depicted in
is that the entry HOSTID now contains the ID of the dongle (in the example: FLEXID=6-a6305af4).
This ID is also printed on the back of the dongle. Dongles for the parallel port have IDs starting with
’FLEXID=6-’ or ’FLEXID=7-’, while USB dongles have IDs starting with ’FLEXID=9-’.
!
Step 2: Install the license
Place the license file into the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON. If necessary, rename the file to license.dat (or license-10.0.dat or similar, see
on page
If you want to use HALCON on more than one computer by switching the dongle between them, repeat this step for every computer.
36 All About HALCON Licenses
###############################################
# MVTec Software GmbH (ID: FLEXID=6-a6305af4) #
# Development License #
###############################################
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=FLEXID=6-a6305af4 TS_OK SIGN="016D 9000 4BE3 30D0 F631 13D5 \
D694 ED77 D4D8 2A35 AA31 6672 1651 EC07 C392 031E 197A CF39 005A \
4811 6DE3 3BA5 0549 CA11 FE97 68C3 15F9 62E4 DA06 3E96"
FEATURE MVTec_HDevelop mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=FLEXID=6-a6305af4 TS_OK SIGN="07F0 5BED 3C77 2773 63B0 79B6 \
B1B7 4D56 C16E 749E D959 37DB DD11 EBA9 906B 0C6E 0E99 C20E 91E7 \
9037 A47A 37A8 B010 84BE D518 480B 5318 EE81 DCE4 5A6D"
Figure 3.6: Example development license, bound to dongle.
!
3.3.3
Floating License Bound to a Network Card or Dongle
on page
already briefly described the basic concept of floating licenses; now, we take a closer look:
•
With a floating license, you can use HALCON on multiple computers in a network without having to identify each of these computers.
•
When ordering a floating license via your local distributor you have to specify how many HALCON instances are allowed to run simultaneously.
To determine this number, add the number of users per computer:
• single user runs many HALCON applications on the same computer: 1 instance,
• single user runs HALCON applications on two computers: 2 instances,
• two users run HALCON applications on the same computer: 2 instances,
• two users on computer A, three users on computer B: 5 instances, and so forth...
•
Only one computer must be identified: the license server. On this computer, the license manager daemon is installed, a program that keeps track of the HALCON applications currently being run
(see
on page
for details).
As already described for non-floating licenses, the computer which acts as the license server can be identified via network card or dongle.
•
Note that only development licenses are available as floating licenses.
Floating licenses are well-suited especially in the following scenarios:
•
A single person wants to develop HALCON applications on different computers within a network, and does not want to use a dongle-bound license.
•
A group of persons wants to develop HALCON applications simultaneously in a computer network.
3.3 Development Licenses
Step 1: Choose the computer acting as the license server
In principle, any computer can be chosen as the license server; it need not be a “server” in the sense that it must provide special functionality or have a special kind of operating system, e.g., Windows 2008
Server, installed. The only requirement is that the computer must be accessible whenever HALCON is to be used in the network.
You can even use different architectures for the license server and for the HALCON applications, respectively, e.g., a Linux workstation for the license server and Windows for developing HALCON applications. The license server can also be used for developing HALCON applications; but even if not,
HALCON must be installed on it.
Step 2: Extract the host ID of the license server
Like all development licenses, floating licenses must be bound to a hardware component. Here, it is the computer acting as the license server that must be identified, be it via a network card or a dongle. Please refer to
on page
(network card). If you choose a dongle-bound license, no further action is required as you get the dongle together with the license (see
on page
Step 3: Obtain the license
Send the desired number of licenses (i.e., the maximum number of HALCON applications that should run simultaneously per user on different computers), the hostname of the computer which acts as the license server, and – except in case of a dongle-bound license – the extracted host ID of the license server to your local distributor.
The distributor then sends you a license file, which looks similar to the one depicted in
requested a dongle-bound license, you will also receive the dongle.
Step 4: Adapt the license
In contrast to the license types described in the previous sections, you may need to adapt parts of the floating license file. Therefore, we take a closer look at the example floating license depicted in
It is bound to the same network card as the example node-locked license depicted in
on page
37
38 All About HALCON Licenses
#################################################
# MVTec Software GmbH (ID: 00270e0ac34a) #
# Development License #
#################################################
SERVER myservername 00270e0ac34a 27000
VENDOR mvtecd "C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON-10.0\FLEXlm\x64-win64\mvtecd"
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 7 VENDOR_STRING=511 \
DUP_GROUP=UH SIGN="1649 6254 749D 6F3A 986E 93F9 754F EAFE 0B78 \
B20A 9319 AFEF A7FC 9CAC B75C 049D 2ED5 F54F 3778 A8E5 6C61 4F01 \
9C2A 84AB 1B2D 4D36 66A1 215C 6935 64E9"
FEATURE MVTec_HDevelop mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 7 VENDOR_STRING=511 \
DUP_GROUP=UH SIGN="16BD B3AD B31A 7CB4 0195 73D9 0463 0416 43B9 \
9E42 7CCC DB72 CEB9 A6B6 2283 0D24 0A80 97FC 3775 6022 008A 01CB \
65F1 21C9 9698 7A8C 2277 7DD3 EEA4 9140"
Figure 3.7: Floating license with 7 licenses, bound to network card.
!
The license consists of the following parts:
• Description of the license server
The line starting with SERVER describes the computer acting as the license server by stating its hostname (in the example: myservername), its host ID (00270e0ac34a), and the number of the TCP/IP port (27000), over which the HALCON applications connect to the license manager daemon running on the license server.
Please note that the hostname must be specified correctly. The reason is that the HALCON applications need the name to connect to the license server (even if they are started on the license server itself).
This means that if you did not send the name of the computer acting as the license server to your distributor when requesting the license, you must adapt this entry. The same holds if you decide to switch the dongle to another computer.
You may also need to adapt the port number, e.g., if the default port number 27000 is already used by another software in your computer network. Note, that on many systems all ports < 1024 are privileged and can only be used by privileged accounts!
• Path to the license manager daemon
The line starting with VENDOR (or DAEMON) contains the path of the daemon mvtecd (see also
on page
52 ). This program resides in the subdirectory FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH% of
the folder where you installed HALCON on the license server (see
on page
for possible values of the environment variable HALCONARCH). In most cases, you must adapt this path.
Unfortunately, you cannot use environment variables in the license file.
If the path name of the daemon contains spaces, it will have to be enclosed in double quotes.
Note that the daemon mvtecd opens a second port. By default, this port is selected by the operating system, and thus its number can change. Especially when using a firewall, you might need to specify the port number explicitly. For this, append the string port=number to the line starting with
VENDOR
, for example as follows (if necessary, replace x64-win64 by the value of the environment variable HALCONARCH):
3.4 Runtime Licenses 39
VENDOR mvtecd "C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON-10.0\FLEXlm\x64-win64\mvtecd" port=28000
• The license keys
Like the node-locked network card license depicted in
on page
contains two license keys (lines starting with FEATURE), one for the runtime parts of HALCON
(MVTec_HALCON) and one for the development parts (MVTec_HDevelop). In contrast to the nodelocked version, the floating license keys do not contain the entry HOSTID , of course, because with a floating license HALCON applications can be started on any computer in the network. Instead, the keys specify how many applications can run simultaneously in the entry after the expiration date (in the example: 7). This part of the license file must not be modified.
!
Step 5: Install the license
As in the previous sections, installing the license file means to rename the file to license.dat, if necessary, and then to place it into the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON.
Unlike the possibility described in
on page
11 , where you can choose a similar name as well
(e.g., license-10.0.dat), for floating licenses only license.dat is valid (but you can apply changes manually via installs.exe, see
on page
53 ). Note that you must place a copy of the
license file on all computers you installed HALCON on, i.e., on the license server and on all those computers you want to use HALCON on.
Step 6: (Re-)start the license manager daemon
Finally, you must start the license manager daemon, or restart it if it is already running. Please refer to
on page
for further information.
Note that whenever you get a new floating license you must copy it to all computers and then restart the license manager daemon. The same is true if you modify parts of the license file while the license manager daemon is running. Only for HALCON releases < 7.1: If you use different HALCON versions at the same time, you have to start the different license manager daemons on different servers.
3.4
Runtime Licenses
In contrast to a development license, a runtime license only allows to run HALCON applications. Like a development license, a runtime license is permanent, but must be node-locked (see also
on page
Step 1: Extract the required modules
To extract the modules that are used by an application proceed as follows:
1. If the application is running in HDevelop, select the menu item File . Properties, which will open a dialog. In its tab Used Modules the used modules are listed (see the HDevelop User’s
Guide, section 5.2.1.13
on page 58 , for more information).
shows the result for an
OCR application.
40 All About HALCON Licenses
If you click Copy to Clipboard, the required modules are saved in the clipboard, from where you can insert them in other applications.
Please note that this method determines the list of used modules by inspecting all operators of the current program, no matter if they can be reached or not. If the program contains operator calls that are never executed, it is recommended to deactivate the corresponding program lines using F4 before opening this dialog to get a correct list of used modules.
!
Figure 3.8: Used modules for an OCR application.
2. If the application is written in a programming language (C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, etc.), insert the operator get_modules
(see the corresponding entry in the HALCON Reference Manuals for more information) at the end of the program. Note that the operator get_modules will only return the correct modules if all HALCON operators used in the application are executed at least once
.
Step 2: Extract the host ID
Please refer to
on page
(network card) for information about how to extract the host ID.
If you choose a dongle-bound license, no further action is required as you get the dongle together with the license (see
on page
Step 3: Obtain the license
Send the determined module names and – except in case of a dongle-bound license – the extracted host
ID to your local distributor.
The distributor then sends you a license file, which looks similar to the one depicted in
requested a dongle-bound license, you will also receive the dongle.
If you compare the depicted license with the corresponding development license in
on page
time parts of HALCON (FEATURE MVTec_HALCON). Secondly, the entry VENDOR_STRING contains a different number (1 instead of 511). In this entry the licensed modules are stored; in the example, only
’Foundation’ is licensed.
3.5 How to Upgrade a License 41
##########################################
# MVTec Software GmbH (ID: 00270e0ac34a) #
# Runtime Module: Foundation #
##########################################
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=1 \
HOSTID=00270e0ac34a TS_OK SIGN="06B1 EEED EB14 D4A6 5557 C450 4217 \
885A 6B02 AD22 6F1C 74DF C152 97E7 26A0 1F43 C4E2 BD29 FF44 7790 \
2D5F 5AD1 B33C 3EF0 8DF5 DBCF 75CF D7AB 428F ACC5"
Figure 3.9: Runtime license for the module ’Foundation’, bound to network card.
Step 4: Install the license
Place the license file into the subdirectory license of the folder where you installed HALCON. If necessary, rename the file to license.dat (or license-10.0.dat or similar, see
on page
11 ). In case of a dongle-bound please make sure that the dongle driver is installed (see
on page
3.5
How to Upgrade a License
Node-locked Licenses
If you upgrade a HALCON node-locked license to a newer version, e.g., from HALCON 9.0.x to HAL-
CON 10.0, your distributor provides you with a new license file which contains new license keys. This new license file should replace the old one in %HALCONROOT%\license\license.dat. Note that the comments at the beginning of the license file reflect the history of the license, see
for an example upgrade from HALCON 9.0 to HALCON 10.0.
################################################################
# MVTec Software GmbH #
# License history:
# 02-oct-2009: new license, HALCON 9.0, ID: 00270e0ac34a
# 10-oct-2010: free upgrade, HALCON 10.0, ID: 00270e0ac34a
#
#
#
################################################################
FEATURE MVTec_HALCON mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=00270e0ac34a SIGN="1649 6254 749D 6F3A 986E 93F9 754F EAFE 0B78 \
B20A 9319 AFEF A7FC 9CAC B75C 049D 2ED5 F54F 3778 A8E5 6C61 4F01 \
9C2A 84AB 1B2D 4D36 66A1 215C 6935 64E9"
FEATURE MVTec_HDevelop mvtecd 10.0 01-jan-0000 uncounted VENDOR_STRING=511 \
HOSTID=00270e0ac34a SIGN="16BD B3AD B31A 7CB4 0195 73D9 0463 0416 43B9 \
9E42 7CCC DB72 CEB9 A6B6 2283 0D24 0A80 97FC 3775 6022 008A 01CB \
65F1 21C9 9698 7A8C 2277 7DD3 EEA4 9140"
Figure 3.10: Upgrading a node-locked license from HALCON 9.0 to HALCON 10.0.
42 All About HALCON Licenses
Floating Licenses
If you are upgrading a floating license from HALCON 7.1 or later to a newer version, e.g., HALCON
10.0, your distributor provides you with a so-called upgrade license file, which contains upgrade license keys (lines start with UPGRADE). The contents of this file have to be appended to the end of the old license file.
If you are upgrading HALCON versions older than 7.1 to a newer version, e.g., HALCON 10.0, no specific upgrade license for a floating license is available anymore. Therefore, if you want to use an older version of a floating license simultaneous to the new one, you have to start the corresponding license manager daemons on separate servers.
If the number of simultaneous users exceeds the number specified in the floating license, you can order an increment license from your distributor (lines start with INCREMENT). The contents of this file have to be appended to the end of the old license file.
Troubleshooting 43
Chapter 4
Troubleshooting
This chapter offers help for problems encountered during installing or uninstalling HALCON on Win-
and
, respectively), with the licensing mechanism ( section 4.3
on page
), or when starting HDevelop or your own HALCON applications ( section 4.4
on page
other miscellaneous problems.
Note that throughout the chapter the environment variable HALCONARCH is referenced. See
on page
for the possible values of this variable.
4.1
Problems During Installation (Windows)
• Registration of halconx.dll or hdevenginex.dll failed
On some systems you might get a warning message that the HALCON/COM interface library halconx.dll
or hdevenginex.dll failed to self-register. A possible cause for this may be that the Microsoft library atl.dll was not registered properly. This library resides in the directory
%SystemRoot%\system32
, e.g., C:\WINNT\system32. To register the library, open a Windows
Command Prompt, change into the directory misc\%HALCONARCH% on the DVD and execute the supplied program reg_halconx twice as follows: reg_halconx atl.dll
reg_halconx
The first call of reg_halconx registers atl.dll, the second one registers halconx.dll.
As an alternative to the Command Prompt, you can use the dialog Start . Run; here, you can select the program via the button Browse or drag and drop reg_halconx from the Windows
Explorer, followed by the library name if necessary. Note that by default the Windows Explorer does not show DLL files, unless you explicitly tell it to do so.
• Installer fails to detect SSE2
In rare cases the installer fails to detect the SSE2 capabilities of the processor. Therefore, HAL-
CON will be installed in the non-SSE2 version. You can force the installation of the SSE2 version by calling the installer with the command line option /CPU=x86sse2. For example:
44 Troubleshooting
E:\install-windows\setup.exe /CPU=x86sse2
See
on page
for information about installer switches.
4.2
Problems During Uninstallation (Windows)
• Patch for uninstalling HALCON 7.1.2
Unfortunately, the uninstallation of HALCON 7.1.2 under Windows contains a bug that prevents the uninstallation of all installed files: As soon as you try to start the actual uninstallation, the setup program will show the wrong version number “7.0.2” and exit without any further action.
To enable the correct uninstallation of HALCON 7.1.2, please download the zip file halcon-
7.1.2-uninstall-patch.zip
containing the three correct installer files from the HALCON download area.
Unzip the file and replace the three erroneous files in the directory
%ProgramFiles%\InstallShield Installation Information\
{0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C} with the new ones from the zip file.
Note that all other versions of HALCON besides HALCON 7.1.2 are not affected. In particular, the bug will be fixed automatically as soon as you update from HALCON 7.1.2 to HALCON 7.1.3
or HALCON 7.1.4.
• Unregistration of halconx.dll
If you had to register the HALCON/COM interface library halconx.dll manually as described in
on page
43 , you must unregister it manually before you can uninstall HALCON. To
do so, insert a HALCON DVD, then open a Windows Command Prompt, change into the directory misc\x86-win32 on the DVD, and execute the supplied program reg_halconx as follows: reg_halconx /u
As an alternative to the Command Prompt, open the dialog Start . Run, select the program reg_halconx via the button Browse, append the option /u, and then click OK.
• “Internal Error” (does only occur when using HALCON versions prior to 9.0)
If the uninstall process terminates with a message like
“Internal Error, unable to load or call external DLL. Please contact your distributor for more information.” the most likely reason is that a new HALCON version was installed over an existing one without completely removing the old files first.
Other possible reasons might be that the whole HALCON directory was moved to another position on the hard disk, or the environment variable HALCONROOT was changed manually. You have to follow the following steps to recover from the error:
4.2 Problems During Uninstallation (Windows)
1. Check whether the environment variable HALCONROOT matches the location of your HAL-
CON installation. You can check this via the system control panel System (look for Environment
) or in a Windows Command Prompt via echo %HALCONROOT%. If the variable contains nothing or the files are in some other location, you have to set HALCONROOT manually via the System control panel.
2. Check whether the following files / directories are present:
•
In the directory %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%: HalconUninst.dll
Note that by default the Windows Explorer does not show DLL files, unless you explicitly tell it to do so.
HalconUninst.dll
is a HALCON specific DLL for the uninstallation process. If this file has been removed, you can get a copy of the file from the directory FLEXlm\
%HALCONARCH% on the HALCON DVD.
• Only for HALCON 8.0
In the directory C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information
: the directory {096CE3F7-2FD9-4460-A270-F9F4740DB91B} with a set of files. This directory has been created during the installation. If it has been removed, an automatic uninstallation is not possible.
• Only for HALCON 7.1
In the directory C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information
: the directory {0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C} with a set of files. This directory has been created during the installation. If it has been removed, an automatic uninstallation is not possible.
• Only for HALCON 7.0
In the directory C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information
: the directory {47F424B4-1077-11D8-A0D3-00E01883F42C} with a set of files. This directory has been created during the installation. If it has been removed, an automatic uninstallation is not possible.
• Only for HALCON 6.1
In the directory C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information
: the directory {BBEC9F40-4A36-11D6-A14C-00E0296C2846} with a set of files. This directory has been created during the installation. If it has been removed, an automatic uninstallation is not possible.
• Only for HALCON releases < 6.1
In your %HALCONROOT%directory: Uninst.isu
This file has been created during the installation. If it has been removed, an automatic uninstallation is not possible.
3. Check whether the registry entry for the uninstaller is set properly: Start regedit.exe in a Windows Command Prompt or in the dialog Start . Run.
• Only for HALCON 9.0 or higher
Please look for uninstall.exe under %HALCONROOT%/misc/x86-win32.
• Only for HALCON 8.0
Go to
45
46 Troubleshooting
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{096CE3F7-2FD9-4460-A270-F9F4740DB91B}
There, you should find a key named UninstallString. The value of this string should be something like this:
RunDll32 C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\INSTAL~1\engine\6\INTEL3~1\Ctor.dll,
LaunchSetup "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{096CE3F7-2FD9-4460-A270-F9F4740DB91B} setup.exe" -l0x9 UninstallHALCON
• Only for HALCON 7.1
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C}
There, you should find a key named UninstallString. The value of this string should be something like this:
RunDll32 C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\INSTAL~1\engine\6\INTEL3~1\Ctor.dll,
LaunchSetup "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C}\ setup.exe" -l0x9 UninstallHALCON
• Only for HALCON 7.0
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{47F424B4-1077-11D8-A0D3-00E01883F42C}
There, you should find a key named UninstallString. The value of this string should be something like this:
RunDll32 C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\INSTAL~1\engine\6\INTEL3~1\Ctor.dll,
LaunchSetup "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{47F424B4-1077-11D8-A0D3-00E01883F42C}\ setup.exe" -l0x9 UninstallHALCON
• Only for HALCON 6.1
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{BBEC9F40-4A36-11D6-A14C-00E0296C2846}
There, you should find a key named UninstallString. The value of this string
4.2 Problems During Uninstallation (Windows)
should be something like this:
RunDll32 C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\INSTAL~1\engine\6\INTEL3~1\Ctor.dll,
LaunchSetup "C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{BBEC9F40-4A36-11D6-A14C-00E0296C2846}\ setup.exe" -l0x9 UninstallHALCON
• Only for HALCON releases < 6.1
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall -> HALCON <Version-Number> with <Version-Number> being the version number of the HALCON version that you want to uninstall. There, you should find a key named UninstallString. The value of this string should be something like this (the option -c... is only included if you have chosen an installation with floating licenses):
C:\WINNT\IsUninst.exe
-f"C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON\Uninst.isu"
-c"C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON\FLEXlm\i586-nt4\
HalconUninst.dll"
Make sure that the path C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON (or equivalent) in the above example points to the folder where you installed HALCON. Note that file names that contain blanks must be quoted as in the above example. If you encounter unquoted path names containing blanks, please insert the quotation marks yourself.
4. Close the registry editor and try to run the uninstaller again.
• Uninstallation failed
If the automatic uninstallation fails for another reason, proceed as follows:
•
For floating licenses only: Uninstall the license manager daemon as described in
on page
•
Start regedit and delete the following key:
On 32-bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> MVTec -> HALCON -> x.x
On 64-bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Wow6432Node -> MVTec -> HALCON -> x.x
!
• For recent versions (HALCON 9.0 or higher)
Also delete the following key:
On 32-bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall -> MVTec HALCON x.x
47
48 Troubleshooting
On 64-bit Windows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Wow6432Node -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall -> MVTec HALCON x.x
• Only for HALCON 8.0
Also delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{096CE3F7-2FD9-4460-A270-F9F4740DB91B}
• Only for HALCON 7.1
Also delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{0B2DE0B7-FD31-11D9-A19F-00E01883F42C}
• Only for HALCON 7.0
Also delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{47F424B4-1077-11D8-A0D3-00E01883F42C}
• Only for HALCON 6.1
Also delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall ->
{BBEC9F40-4A36-11D6-A14C-00E0296C2846}
• Only for HALCON releases < 6.1
Also delete the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Uninstall -> HALCON
•
Using, e.g., the Windows Explorer, delete the directory
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\MVTec HALCON x.x
•
Delete the environment variables
HALCONROOT and
HALCONIMAGES in
Start . Settings . Control Panel . System
(Windows Vista and Windows 7: ...
. System . Advanced System Settings
).
•
Finally, delete the contents of the HALCON directory and all its subdirectories.
4.3 Problems Concerning Licenses
4.3
Problems Concerning Licenses
If you encounter problems with your HALCON license even though your license file exists and is located in the correct directory, a first step is always to check if the information identifying your network card or dongle matches the entries in the license file (see the corresponding sections in
on page
the two do not match, please send the new identifying information to your distributor. See
if you encounter problems with extracting the identifying information.
contains information all around dongle drivers, e.g., how to check whether they are installed correctly.
If you have problems with a floating license, the first step is to check whether the entries in the license file that can be customized contain the correct information, especially the port number for the license manager daemon (see
on page
36 ). If the license file is correct, please refer to
on page
52 , which explains how to check whether the floating license manager daemon was installed
successfully and how to install it manually.
The FLEXlm End User’s Guide can be obtained from http://www.flexera.com.
4.3.1
Extracting Host IDs
• The dialog Help . About HDevelop does not show any host IDs
If HDevelop fails to detect any host IDs although your computer does have a network board or a dongle, please try to extract the host IDs manually using the program lmhostid shipped together
with the license manager FLEXlm. Under Windows, open a Windows Command Prompt
Linux, open a shell, change into the directory $HALCONROOT/FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH.
•
To identify a computer by its network card, type lmhostid -ether (or just lmhostid).
The output might look like this on a Windows system:
> lmhostid -ether lmhostid - Copyright (c) 1989-2012 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXnet host ID of this machine is "00270e0ac34a"
If lmhostid returns "ffffffff" or "0" please see below.
•
To check the dongle ID, type lmhostid -flexid. The output now might look like this:
> lmhostid -flexid lmhostid - Copyright (c) 1989-2012 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXnet host ID of this machine is "FLEXID=9-1135eb58"
The host ID must be identical to the one printed on the back of the dongle. If this is not the case, please see below.
• lmhostid -ether returns "ffffffff" or "0"
If lmhostid returns "ffffffff" or "0", this usually indicates that you do not have a network card. Check whether the client for Microsoft networks is installed in the dialog
1
Do not start the program from the Windows Explorer. You must use a Command Prompt.
49
50 Troubleshooting
Start . Settings . Network Connections . Local Area Connections . Properties
. If the client for Microsoft networks does not appear in the list install it by clicking Install and then selecting it from the list of clients.
Also make sure the Workstation service is started. See
on page
for how to check if a service is running.
Then, call lmhostid again or open HDevelop’s dialog Help . About (see
on page
to check whether a correct host ID is found now.
• Multiple IDs for only one network card
Sometimes more than one ID is returned even if there is only a single network card. In this case, use the ID that remains when both the NetBEUI and IPX/SPX protocols are disabled. Alternatively, use the ID that does not change when you reboot your computer.
• Licensing via network card does not work when network is not connected
You must disable Media Sense (DHCP) when no network is connected to the network card. Usually, it is sufficient to disable the DHCP protocol in this case. Further details can be found under http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q239/9/24.asp
.
• lmhostid -flexid does not return the dongle ID
If lmhostid does not return the ID that is printed on the back of the dongle, check whether the dongle driver is installed and configured correctly as described in
If the driver is installed but lmhostid still does not return the correct ID, please check the corresponding port (parallel or USB) of your computer, before requesting a new dongle.
4.3.2
Dongle Drivers
4.3.2.1
Dongles for the Parallel Port (Windows only, except Windows x64 editions)
As described in
on page
14 , you can let HALCON install the driver programs necessary
for using dongles. You can check the success of this installation in the following system dialog, which should contain an entry called sentinel.
• Start . Programs . Accessories . System Tools . System Information . Software Environment
, then select Drivers (or System Drivers).
You can install, configure, and uninstall the dongle driver manually using an auxiliary program that is part of each HALCON installation. Open a Windows Command Prompt or the dialog Start . Run and start the program
%HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\flexid6-7\SentinelProtectionInstaller-7.6.4.exe
!
and follow the instructions. Afterwards, reboot your computer. Then, the driver should appear in the dialog described above. Please note that you need administrator privileges to install the driver! If you try to install the driver without administrator privileges, the setup program might falsely state that the installation was successful.
You might need to configure the driver if your computer has more than one parallel port.
4.3 Problems Concerning Licenses
Note that the HALCON uninstallation process does not uninstall the dongle driver as it might also be used by another application. However, the uninstallation removes the auxiliary program. Therefore, if you want to uninstall the driver, do so before uninstalling HALCON; of course, the program can still be found on the HALCON DVD in the directory FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\flexid6-7.
4.3.2.2
Dongles for the USB Port (Windows)
As described in
on page
14 , you can let HALCON install the driver programs necessary for
using dongles. You can check the success of this installation in the system dialog given in
on page
50 , which should contain two entries called hardlock and haspnt.
Depending on your operating system, you can install, configure, and uninstall the dongle drivers manually using an auxiliary program that is part of each HALCON installation. Open a Windows Command
Prompt or the dialog Start . Run and execute the program %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\ flexid9\haspdinst.exe
in one of the following ways: haspdinst haspdinst -info haspdinst -i haspdinst -remove opens a dialog explaining how to use haspdinst shows the status of the drivers installs the drivers removes the drivers
Please note that you need administrator privileges to install the drivers!
Note that in order to execute command line tools with administrator privileges under Windows Vista and higher
, you will need to open a command shell using “Run as Administrator” and execute the tool from there (even if you are already logged in as administrator).
Note that the HALCON uninstallation process does not uninstall the driver as they might also be used by another application. However, the uninstallation removes the auxiliary program. Therefore, if you want to uninstall the drivers, do so before uninstalling HALCON; of course, the program can still be found on the HALCON DVD in the directory FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\flexid9.
See %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\flexid9\readme.html for further information.
!
!
4.3.2.3
Dongles for the USB Port (Linux)
In order to install the USB dongle daemon on Linux, issue the following commands as root:
# cd $HALCONROOT/FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH/flexid9
# ./dinst .
The installation script will install the dongle daemon and the corresponding start-up scripts.
51
52 Troubleshooting
---------------------------------------
Copy AKSUSB daemon to /usr/sbin ...
Copy WINEHASP daemon to /usr/sbin ...
Copy HASPLMD daemon to /usr/sbin ...
Copy start-up script to /etc/init.d ...
Link HASP SRM runtime environment startup script to system startup folder
Starting HASP SRM runtime environment ...
Starting AKSUSB daemon:
Starting WINEHASP daemon:
Starting HASPLM daemon:
Done
---------------------------------------
[ OK ]
[ OK ]
[ OK ]
To test, if the dongle daemon is running, enter the following command as root (where /etc/init.d is to be replaced by the directory reported when installing the dongle daemon):
# /etc/init.d/aksusbd status
AKSUSB daemon is running!
WINEHASP daemon is running!
HASPLM daemon is running!
To uninstall the dongle daemon, enter the following command as root:
# ./dunst
Stopping HASP SRM RTE ...
Stopping HASPLM daemon:
Stopping WINEHASP daemon:
Stopping AKSUSB daemon:
Removing files ...
Done
[ OK ]
[ OK ]
[ OK ]
See $HALCONROOT/FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH/flexid9/readme.html for further information.
4.3.3
The License Manager Daemon
The license manager daemon (which is used in case of floating licenses) consists of two programs:
1. lmgrd: This is the main license manager daemon, which is provided by the licensing software
FLEXlm. It handles the connections from the HALCON applications and passes them on to the second daemon.
2. mvtecd: This is the so-called vendor daemon, which is charged with keeping track of the HAL-
CON applications currently being run.
The following sections explain how to install, (re-)start, and uninstall the license manager daemon on
) and Linux/UNIX ( section 4.3.3.2
on page
55 ) platforms. Only for HALCON
releases < 7.1
: Note that if you use different HALCON versions simultaneously you have to start the corresponding license manager daemons on separate servers.
4.3 Problems Concerning Licenses
4.3.3.1
Windows
How to Check Whether the License Manager Daemon is Running
To check whether the daemon was installed and started successfully, open the Windows dialog showing the state of the installed services:
•
Windows XP: Open the dialog Start . Settings . Control Panel . Administrative
Tools . Services
.
•
Windows Vista: Open the dialog Start . Control Panel . System and Maintenance
. Administrative Tools . Services
.
•
Windows 7: Open the dialog Start . Control Panel . System and Security . Administrative Tools . Services
.
If the daemon was installed successfully by the setup program, the dialog contains the entry HALCON
Licenses
.
How to Install the License Manager Daemon
If you did not install the license manager daemon via the setup as described in
on page
or if its installation failed, you can install it manually at a later time as described below. Note that you need administrator privileges for this procedure.
Note that in order to execute command line tools with administrator privileges under Windows Vista and higher
, you will need to open a command shell using “Run as Administrator” and execute the tool from there (even if you are already logged in as administrator).
Open a Windows Command Prompt, change into the directory %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\
%HALCONARCH%
, and type (one long command line): installs -n "HALCON Licenses"
-c "%HALCONROOT%\license\license.dat"
-l "%HALCONROOT%\license\license.log"
-e "%HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH%\lmgrd.exe"
!
!
The environment variable HALCONROOT points to the folder where you installed HALCON (see also
on page
63 ). The quotes are necessary to handle paths that contain blanks. As mentioned in
on page
36 , here you can change the name of the license file manually (replace license.dat,
e.g., by license-10.0.dat or similar).
To check whether the installation succeeded, (re-)open the Windows dialog showing the state of the installed services (see above), which now should contain the entry HALCON Licenses (or, to be more exact, an entry with the name you specified with the option -n or FLEXlm license manager if you leave out this option).
Note that if you installed the license manager daemon manually, you must also uninstall it manually before you uninstall HALCON. Otherwise it remains installed.
53
54 Troubleshooting
How to Start the License Manager Daemon
After the installation, the daemon is not started automatically. You can start it by rebooting the computer.
If you have administrator privileges, you can start it directly in the dialog which shows the state of the installed services (see above) by selecting it and then clicking the start button or icon; if this fails, please check whether the entries in the license file are correct.
If the License Manager Daemon Fails to Start
Recent versions of the license manager daemon fail to start if no floating license is available. The following error dialog will be displayed while booting:
After login, the following message may be displayed in a notification window:
LMGRD encountered a problem and needed to close.
If you do have a floating license, make sure it is correctly installed on the license server as described in
on page
36 . Otherwise, it is recommended to uninstall the license manager daemon as
described below.
How to Restart the License Manager Daemon
Whenever you replace a floating license or modify it you must restart the license manager daemon.
Another reason for restarting the license manager daemon is when you update to a HALCON release that uses a newer version of the FLEXlm license manager software. One possible method is to reboot the computer acting as the license server. If you have administrator privileges, you can also restart the daemon manually: Open the dialog showing the state of the installed services (see above), select the entry HALCON Licenses and then stop and start it again.
!
How to Uninstall the License Manager Daemon
Please note that for the following procedure you need administrator privileges.
Before you can uninstall the license manager daemon, you must first stop it: Open the Windows dialog showing the state of the installed services (see above), select the entry HALCON Licenses and then click the stop button or icon. Note that under Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 an error message may appear, which can safely be ignored.
Now, open a Windows Command Prompt, change into the directory %HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\
%HALCONARCH%
, and type:
4.3 Problems Concerning Licenses 55
installs -r -n "HALCON Licenses"
To check whether the uninstallation succeeded, re-open the services dialog, which should not contain an entry HALCON Licenses anymore.
How to Avoid License Errors with Floating Dongle Licenses
A race condition might occur if a HALCON application starts up immediately after booting the license server: The license manager might be running before the dongle driver is loaded, resulting in a license error. To avoid this problem, it is sufficient to define dependencies for the services started on the license server at boot time.
To do this, you need to edit the registry. Run regedt32, and navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HALCON Licenses
Add the value DependOnService (of type REG_MULTI_SZ) if it does not exist already. Double-click the value and enter the following dependencies (one entry per line): akshasp aksusb
Hardlock
Haspnt
4.3.3.2
Linux/UNIX
How to Install the License Manager Daemon
On Linux/UNIX systems, the license manager daemons lmgrd and mvtecd are automatically “installed” in the subdirectory FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH of the directory you installed HALCON in.
How to Start the License Manager Daemon
The license manager daemon lmgrd must be started from the appropriate startup file (called, e.g., /etc/init.d/boot.local, /sbin/init.d/boot.local, /etc/rc.boot, /etc/rc.local, or
/etc/localrc
, please consult your system’s documentation). Add the following (long) line to this file, replacing the environment variables with their content (see
on page
$HALCONROOT/FLEXlm/$HALCONARCH/lmgrd -c $HALCONROOT/license/license.dat
> $HALCONROOT/license/license.log 2>&1 &
If you copied lmgrd to another location, you must of course adapt the path to it accordingly. Please note, that you should not start lmgrd with root privileges!
lmgrd automatically starts the vendor daemon mvtecd.
!
56 Troubleshooting
How to Restart the License Manager Daemon
Whenever you replace a floating license or modify it you must restart the license manager daemon.
Another reason for restarting the license manager daemon is when you update to a HALCON release that uses a newer version of the FLEXlm license manager software.
One possible method is to reboot the computer acting as the license server. If you have administrator privileges, you can also restart the daemon manually by stopping the process lmgrd and then restarting it with the line used in the startup file (see above).
How to Uninstall the License Manager Daemon
To uninstall the license manager daemon you must remove the corresponding entry in the startup file (see above) and stop the currently running lmgrd and mvtecd processes. This can be achieved by rebooting the computer that acts as the license server or by use of the kill command (please see your system’s documentation or ask your system administrator for advice).
4.4
Troubleshooting in HDevelop or HALCON Applications
This section explains miscellaneous error messages when starting HDevelop or your own HALCON applications and their reasons.
• Error using license file
This error message might have several reasons:
-
The file %HALCONROOT%\license\license.dat is missing and/or not readable.
-
Your license is not valid on this machine.
-
In case of floating licenses: There are too many applications using HALCON active, i.e., the maximum number of simultaneous HALCON applications (which is specified in the floating license) has been exceeded.
• Lost connection to license server
Verify that the license server is running. You may also check whether your machine is properly connected with the server. For this you may need to contact your system administrator.
• No license for this operator
The operator which you try to execute belongs to a HALCON module that is not licensed (see
on page
39 . Obtain a new license including this module.
• hdevelop: Command not found
(Linux/UNIX)
Check your system environment variable PATH. It must include the path $HALCON-
ROOT/bin/$HALCONARCH
.
• lib* : can’t open file
(Linux/UNIX)
Check the system variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH (see
on page
• No help files for package <package-name> in directory <directory>
Possible reasons for this error message are:
4.4 Troubleshooting in HDevelop or HALCON Applications
•
No files %HALCONROOT%\help\* (if the package name is “system”) or no help files in one of the user packages.
•
If the package name is “system”: Wrong HALCONROOT.
•
Check the file permissions. Probably HDevelop cannot access important files.
• Help file for package <package-name> is corrupt
Possible reasons for this error message are:
•
If the package name is “system”: Inconsistent version of %HALCONROOT%\help\* or wrong
HALCONROOT
.
•
If the package name is that of a user package: Inconsistent version of the help files of this package.
• Can’t open display
(Linux/UNIX)
If you see an error message like this you may have a wrong system variable DISPLAY and/or your program is not allowed to open a window by the specified X-server.
• No refresh of window content on a Linux/UNIX system
On some Linux/UNIX systems the default behavior regarding occluded windows may be set in an inconvenient way for HALCON. The result is that if a window is temporarily occluded by another window, its content is not saved and restored anymore, i.e., windows remain “black” after uncovering. An example for this are all SuSE Linux distributions ≥ 7.0. The corresponding property is called “backing-store”; you can check the current setting of this property by typing (the following example corresponds to a SuSE 8.2 Linux system): xdpyinfo | grep backing-store which should result in the output like options: backing-store YES, save-unders YES if the window content is saved and restored. You can change this behavior by changing the configuration file of your X server. It usually resides in /etc/X11/xorg.conf if you are using Xorg, or in /etc/X11/XF86Config if you are using XFree86. Consult your system’s documentation if in doubt.
You will probably need to become root to modify this file. Open the file in a text editor, find the section named “Device”, and add the following option to this section:
Section "Device"
...
Option
EndSection
"BackingStore" "True"
Alternatively, you can modify the file Xservers residing in the directory /usr/lib/X11/xdm (or
/opt/kde3/share/config/kdm in case of newer Linux versions), see your system’s documentation. Note, that you probably need root privileges to modify this file. Append the option +bs (i.e.,
“plus backing-store”) to the line that starts the local X server:
57
58 Troubleshooting
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 vt07 +bs
Now, stop and start the X server again (by using the appropriate commands or by rebooting your computer); the command xdpyinfo now should yield the output shown above.
Appendix A
More on the Installation
This appendix contains information about
• the installed file structure ( section A.1
• the relevant environment variables ( section A.2
on page
• special information for users of ActivVisionTools ( section A.3
on page
More on the Installation 59
60 More on the Installation
A.1
The Installed File Structure
Let’s take a look at the installed file structure in the directory %HALCONROOT%. In the following, the most important directories and files are described briefly. Please note that, depending on your installation, not all directories may be present.
• FLEXlm:
This directory contains programs used for licensing in subdirectories corresponding to the different platforms (see
on page
and
on page
installers.
• bin:
This directory contains HALCON programs, for example HDevelop (Windows: hdevelop.exe
; Linux/UNIX: hdevelop), again in subdirectories corresponding to the different platforms. For Windows, this directory also contains the DLLs of the HALCON libraries and the DLLs for the supported image acquisition interfaces. The subdirectories dotnet20, and dotnet35 contain the HALCON/.NET assemblies based on .NET Framework 2.0, and .NET Framework 3.5, respectively.
• calib:
This directory contains description files for the calibration plates, which you can use to calibrate your camera.
• doc\html:
Here, you find the HTML documentation of the HALCON Image Acquisition Interfaces (subdirectory reference\acquisition), some of the User’s Manuals (subdirectory manuals
), and the Reference Manual (subdirectory reference\operators) including the API reference of the HALCON Codelets (subdirectory reference\codelets).
• doc\pdf:
Here, you find the PDF version of the User’s Manuals (subdirectory manuals), the
Solution Guide I , the Solution Guide II, and Solution Guide III (subdirectory solution_guide), and of the Reference Manual in HDevelop syntax (subdirectory reference).
• filter:
This directory contains predefined filter masks.
• genicam:
This directory contains the underlying GenAPI runtime software for the GigEVision and GenICamTL image acquisition interfaces.
• help:
The files in this directory act as the HALCON database, i.e., they provide information about
HALCON to HDevelop and to all HALCON applications. In particular, they contain the operator database. The XML files starting with index_manuals contain the index data of the manuals while those starting with index_examples contain the data for the Browse Examples dialog in
HDevelop.
• images:
This directory contains example images and, in subdirectories, image sequences. These images are used by the example programs described above.
• include:
This directory contains the header files that are necessary to use HALCON within the programming languages C or C++.
• lib:
This directory contains the HALCON libraries and under Linux/UNIX also the libraries for the supported image acquisition interfaces (Windows: file extension .lib; Linux/UNIX: file extension .so), again in subdirectories corresponding to the different platforms.
• license:
The license file must be placed here (see
on page
• lut:
This directory contains predefined look-up tables.
A.1 The Installed File Structure
• misc:
This directory contains miscellaneous files for the installer, e.g., the GigE Vision filter driver.
• ocr:
This directory contains pretrained fonts.
• procedures:
This directory contains the external procedures for HDevelop.
The subdirectories of the directory %HALCONEXAMPLES% contain example programs for the different parts of the HALCON system. If %HALCONEXAMPLES% is not set, %HALCONROOT%\examples will be used as a fallback.
• c:
Examples for using HALCON within the programming language C (see also the Programmer’s
Guide, chapter 18 on page 159 ).
• c#:
Examples for using HALCON within the programming language C# (see also the Programmer’s Guide, section 11.2
on page 110 ).
• codelets:
HALCON Codelets (see the Programmer’s Guide, section 11.1
on page 105 , for more information).
• cpp:
Examples for using HALCON within the programming language C++ (see also the Programmer’s Guide, chapter 7 on page 71 ).
• cpp.net:
Examples for using HALCON within managed C++ (see also the Programmer’s Guide, section 11.2
on page 110 ).
• delphi:
Examples for using HALCON within Borland Delphi.
• ia_integration:
Example for an image acquisition interface (see also the Image Acquisition
Interface Programmer’s Manual ).
• extension_package:
The example user package halconuser (see also the Extension Package
Programmer’s Manual ).
• hdevelop:
Examples for using HALCON in HDevelop:
. Applications:
Examples that show how to realize machine vision applications.
. 1D-Measuring . . . XLD:
Examples for the HALCON operators, in subdirectories following the operator hierarchy as in the Reference Manual or in HDevelop’s menu Operators.
• hdevengine:
Examples for using HDevEngine.
• mfc:
Examples for using HALCON together with MFC (see also the the sections in the Programmer’s Guide mentioned above).
• motif:
Examples for using HALCON together with Motif (see also the Programmer’s Guide, chapter 7 on page 71 ).
• qt:
Examples for using HALCON together with Qt (see also the Programmer’s Guide, chapter 7 on page 71 ).
• solution_guide:
Examples referenced in the Solution Guide I , the Solution Guide II, and the
Solution Guide III.
• vb6:
Examples for using HALCON within Visual Basic, together with the example programs described in the Programmer’s Guide, chapter 14 on page 135 .
61
62 More on the Installation
• vb.net:
Examples for using HALCON within Visual Basic .NET (see also the Programmer’s
Guide, section 11.2
on page 110 ).
To experiment with the examples without modifying the distributed versions, you can create a private copy in your own working directory. Note, however, that the .NET examples reference the HAL-
CON/.NET assembly with a local path, thus after copying you must restore the reference (see the Programmer’s Guide, page 87 ). You can also modify the environment variable HALCONEXAMPLES to point to the new location.
A.2 HALCON’s Environment Variables
A.2
HALCON’s Environment Variables
Most of the configuration necessary to work with HALCON amounts to setting environment variables, e.g., to tell HALCON the directories where to find images or extension packages etc. These environment variables are described below, after some information regarding the different platforms.
A.2.1
Setting Environment Variables Under Windows
The installation program setup.exe automatically sets the necessary environment variables, e.g., HAL-
CONROOT
, HALCONEXAMPLES, HALCONIMAGES, and PATH (see below). To take a look at these settings, open the dialog Start . Settings . Control Panel . System (Windows Vista: ... . System . Advanced System Settings
) and select Environment. Under Windows 7/Windows 8, search for “Environment” using the system search, and select the search result “Edit the system environment variables” which appears in the category “Control Panel” (Windows 7) or “Settings” (Windows 8). You can add or modify a variable by entering the name of a variable and the desired value. If a value consists of multiple items, e.g., the variable PATH, which may contain multiple directories, those items must be separated by semicolons
. Please note that in order to modify variables set during the HALCON installation you need administrator privileges!
A.2.2
Setting Environment Variables Under Linux/UNIX
As described in
on page
16 , you must set the necessary environment variables in a login
script or a shell resource script.
A.2.3
HALCON-Specific Environment Variables
• HALCONROOT
This is the most important environment variable. It designates the directory where HALCON is installed. A typical path is, for example, C:\Program Files\MVTec\HALCON (Windows) or
/opt/halcon
(Linux/UNIX).
If this variable is unset at the time HDevelop is run, or when the HALCON library is loaded, its value will be inferred from the path the executable or the library resides in, respectively. From this path the trailing part bin\%HALCONARCH% or lib\%HALCONARCH% will be removed. The variable
HALCONROOT will then be set to the resulting path temporarily.
Based on this variable, the system switches to subdirectories, which are important for running
HALCON. Some of them are listed below; the HALCON file structure is described in
on page
- %HALCONROOT%\help
The files in this directory act as the HALCON information database (see
on page
for more information).
- %HALCONROOT%\doc\html\reference\operators
HDevelop expects the HTML files of the operator reference in this directory.
63
64 More on the Installation
- %HALCONROOT%\license
This directory contains the license file necessary for using HALCON (see
on page
- %HALCONROOT%\examples
If the variable HALCONEXAMPLES (see below) is not set, the system looks for example programs in this directory.
- %HALCONROOT%\images
If the variable HALCONIMAGES (see below) is not set, the system looks for image files in this directory.
• HALCONEXAMPLES
This environment variable designates the directory where HALCON example programs are installed.
• HALCONIMAGES
The system uses this environment variable to search for image files specified by a relative path.
As a rule it contains several directory names and possibly including the CD ROM or DVD drive, separated by semicolons (Windows) or colons (Linux/UNIX).
• HALCONARCH
This variable designates the used platform. More details can be found in
on page
• HALCONEXTENSIONS
This is a list of directories in which user-defined extension operators (so-called extension packages) are kept. Each package consists of a number of operators linked into a shared library, plus the additional operator documentation in help files and HTML files. See
on page
for information on how to install an extension package, and the Extension Package Programmer’s
Manual for details on creating your own extension packages.
• HALCONSPY
If this environment variable is defined (regardless of the value) before you start a HALCON program, the HALCON debugging tool HALCON Spy is activated. This corresponds to call the HAL-
CON operator set_spy with the parameters "mode","on" within a HALCON program. The main difference between the two modes for activating HALCON Spy is that by defining HALCONSPY it is possible to monitor an already linked HALCON program during runtime without modifications.
For further information on how to use HALCON Spy and how to parameterize it via this environment variable please refer to the Programmer’s Guide, section 3.1
on page 25 .
A.2.4
General Environment Variables
• PATH
Windows
: During the installation, the directories %HALCONROOT%\bin\%HALCONARCH% and
%HALCONROOT%\FLEXlm\%HALCONARCH% are automatically added to the system variable PATH.
Linux/UNIX
: If you want to start HDevelop from an arbitrary directory, you must include the
HALCON program path $HALCONROOT/bin/$HALCONARCH in the system variable PATH.
• LD_LIBRARY_PATH
(Linux/UNIX only)
Please include the HALCON library path $HALCONROOT/lib/$HALCONARCH in the system vari-
A.2 HALCON’s Environment Variables
able LD_LIBRARY_PATH. This is necessary both for running HDevelop and for creating stand-alone applications.
• DISPLAY
(Linux/UNIX only)
The system uses this environment variable to open windows. It is used in the same way as for other
X applications.
• HOME
(Linux/UNIX only)
This system variable points to your home directory.
65
66 More on the Installation
A.3
Information for Users of ActivVisionTools
ActivVisionTools are based on HALCON, to be more exact on HALCON/COM. What makes matters more complicated is that the used HALCON functionality is not compiled into ActivVisionTools; instead,
ActivVisionTools use HALCON in the same way as any other HALCON application, i.e., they expect
HALCON to be installed (if not already installed, the ActivVisionTools setup installs it), locate the corresponding DLL halconx.dll via the registry and use it.
As only one instance of halconx.dll can be registered, this means that ActivVisionTools and HALCON applications use the same HALCON installation. This must be kept in mind when you want to use both
HALCON and ActivVisionTools on the same computer. Of course, as long as you want to use the
HALCON release that your ActivVisionTools release is based on, there is no problem. However, when you update or upgrade HALCON or ActivVisionTools, the issue of compatibility gets more complicated.
Therefore, the HALCON setup program checks whether there is an ActivVisionTools installation on the computer before installing HALCON on it and informs you about its compatibility.
shows which ActivVisionTools releases are compatible to which HALCON releases. In principle, the same rules as described in
on page
for the HALCON releases themselves apply, with some differences:
• Same HALCON version
If an ActivVisionTools release is based on a certain (maintenance release of a) HALCON version, it should also be compatible to all other maintenance releases based on the same HALCON version. For example, ActivVisionTools 3.1, which is based on HALCON 7.1, is compatible to
HALCON 7.1.1 and 7.1.2.
Sometimes, however, new HALCON maintenance releases are not fully downward compatible because of technical reasons. For example, HALCON 6.0.2 introduced a change that limited the compatibility of ActivVisionTools 1.0 - 2.0.
To fix such incompatibilities, contact your local distributor.
• Higher HALCON version
An ActivVisionTools release is by default not compatible to HALCON versions that are higher than its base. For example, ActivVisionTools 3.1, which is based on HALCON 7.1, is not compatible to HALCON 8.0 or higher.
When you install such a higher HALCON version, the setup program warns that by continuing you will disable your ActivVisionTools installation. If you still want to use your ActivVisionTools installation, you must also keep your old HALCON installation and switch back to it as described in
on page
25 . Note that if you only want to evaluate the new HALCON version, you
can minimize the switching effort by installing only the demo version: In this case there is no need to re-register the HALCON/COM interface library halconx.dll.
• Lower HALCON version
An ActivVisionTools release is not compatible to HALCON versions that are lower than its base.
For example, ActivVisionTools 3.1, which is based on HALCON 7.1, is not compatible to HAL-
CON 7.0.x.
When you install such a lower HALCON version, the setup program warns that by continuing you will disable your ActivVisionTools installation. If you still want to use your ActivVisionTools
A.3 Information for Users of ActivVisionTools
Compatibility
AVT 1.0 - 1.3
AVT 2.0
AVT 2.1
AVT 2.2
AVT 3.0
AVT 3.1
AVT 3.1.1
AVT 3.2
HALCON 6.0
based on
×
HALCON 6.0.1
HALCON 6.0.2
HALCON 6.0.3
HALCON 6.0.4
×
(×)
(×)
(×) based on
(×)
×
×
∗)
∗)
HALCON 6.1
HALCON 6.1.1
HALCON 6.1.2
HALCON 7.0
HALCON 7.0.1
HALCON 7.0.2
×
×
×
∗)
∗)
∗) based on
HALCON 7.1
HALCON 7.1.1
HALCON 7.1.2
HALCON 8.0
HALCON 8.0.1
HALCON 8.0.2
HALCON 9.0
(or higher)
(*) via replacement OCX
(**) contact your distributor for detailed information
×
×
(×) based on
×
×
×
×
∗)
∗)
∗) based on
×
×
∗∗)
×
∗∗)
×
∗∗) based on
×
×
×
×
×
∗∗)
∗∗)
∗∗) based on
×
×
×
×
∗∗)
∗∗)
∗∗) based on
×
∗∗)
Table A.1: Compatibility between the different HALCON and ActivVisionTools releases.
installation, you must also keep your its HALCON installation and switch back to it as described in
on page
How to Replace the ActivVisionTools OCX Manually
Open a Windows Command Prompt and change into the subdirectory bin\x86-win32 of the root directory of your ActivVisionTools installation. Unregister ActivVTools.ocx by typing regsvr32 /u ActivVTools.ocx
Then delete the OCX (or rename it) and replace it by the new one. Register the new OCX by typing regsvr32 ActivVTools.ocx
67
68 More on the Installation
As an alternative to the Command Prompt, you can unregister and register the OCX via the dialog Start
. Run together with the Windows Explorer: In the latter, “open” the directory bin\x86-win32 of the root directory of your ActivVisionTools installation. Now, type regsvr32 /u the dialog Run and then drag and drop ActivVTools.ocx from the Windows Explorer into the dialog, where it automatically appears with the full path. To execute the command, click OK. Then, replace the OCX with the new open, type regsvr32 in the dialog Run, drag and drop ActivVTools.ocx from the Windows Explorer into the dialog, and again click OK.
If you decide to switch back to an older HALCON version as described in
on page
must also unregister the new OCX and register the old one; if you deleted it you can recover it from the corresponding directory on the ActivVisionTools CD.
Index 69
Index
bin (HALCON directory),
calib (HALCON directory),
compatibility (HALCON),
customize HALCON installation,
demo version,
development license,
development version,
DISPLAY (environment variable),
doc (HALCON directory),
dongle driver for parallel port,
dongle driver for USB port
Linux,
Windows,
environment variables (general),
environment variables (HALCON),
evaluation license,
examples (HALCON directory),
filter (HALCON directory),
FLEXlm (HALCON directory),
floating development license,
get host ID manually,
get host ID of network card,
get required HALCON modules,
HALCONARCH (environment variable),
HALCONEXAMPLES (environment variable),
HALCONEXTENSIONS (environment variable),
HALCONIMAGES (environment variable),
HALCONROOT (environment variable),
HALCONSPY (environment variable),
help (HALCON directory),
HOME (environment variable),
images (HALCON directory),
include (HALCON directory),
install additional HALCON parts,
install extension package,
install HALCON,
install HALCON for the first time,
install image acquisition interface,
install runtime version,
installation troubleshooting,
installed file structure,
LD_LIBRARY_PATH (environment variable),
lib (HALCON directory),
license,
overview,
license (HALCON directory),
license file,
license for terminal server,
license manager daemon,
licensing troubleshooting,
lut (HALCON directory),
maintenance release,
misc (HALCON directory),
nodelocked development license bound to dongle,
nodelocked development license bound to network card,
ocr (HALCON directory),
PATH (environment variable),
procedures (HALCON directory),
register halconx.dll (HALCON/COM),
runtime license,
runtime version,
70 Index
set environment variables
Linux/UNIX,
Windows,
supported hardware for license binding,
switch between HALCON platform versions,
switch between HALCON versions,
system requirements,
troubleshooting (miscellaneous),
troubleshooting for get host ID,
uninstall HALCON,
uninstallation troubleshooting,
unregister halconx.dll (HALCON/COM),
update HALCON,
upgrade HALCON,
upgrade license,
use ActivVisionTools and HALCON,
version (HALCON),
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