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Changes and Fixed Issues in VisualApplets 3.1#

Operators#

Three Operators no Longer Available for mE5 and eVA Platforms#

The following three operators are no longer available in designs for microEnable 5 or eVA (embedded VisualApplets) platforms. They can still be used in designs for target platforms of the microEnable 4 series (including PixelPlant):

  • ImageBuffer_JPEG_Gray
  • ImageBufferSpatial
  • ImageSequence

Parameters Library#

  • Enhanced formula editor: The formula editor of the Parameters library has been enhanced. It offers now syntax highlighting and autocompletion of operator paths and variable names.
  • In the operators of the Parameters library, entering a slash at the end of the value for parameter DisplayHierarchy during design time is inhibited. This avoids problems during runtime, as during runtime, a slash at the end of parameter DisplayHierarchy makes the parameter inaccessible (read only), even when the parameter is a dynamic parameter (read/write). (8262)
  • Various improvements of error handling.
  • Changing parameter type via display parameter: Fixed changing the parameter type between DYNAMIC and STATIC from a display parameter of a HierarchicalBox (parameter generated by a Parameters operator when DisplayName has been specified). Before, this operation could lead to side effects leading to errors in the runtime environment. (8232)

MULT#

  • Operator MULT now supports asymmetric arithmetic types on its inputs, i.e., SIGNED and UNSIGNED may be mixed up so that you can multiply an unsigned multiplier with a signed multiplicand or a signed multiplier with an unsigned multiplicand (as well as a signed multiplier with a signed multiplicand or an unsigned multiplier with an unsigned multiplicand). (2729)

RamLUT#

  • Operator RamLUT supports kernels on the output. (4091)

StreamAnalyzer#

  • Operator StreamAnalyzer now also supports LINE1D and PIXEL0D formats. (7120)

ImageInjector#

  • Incoming links with a bit width up to 64 bit are supported. In earlier versions, when bit width on the the incoming link of ImageInjector was set to more than 32 bit, the operator didn't insert correct image data. This has been fixed. (7366)
  • The operator ImageInjector will not create additional phantom frames anymore. In earlier versions, under special circumstances it was possible that a single injected frame caused several frames. This has been fixed. (7247)
  • Operator ImageInjector works correctly now. In version 3.0.6, there occurred problems loading an image. This has been fixed. (8201)
  • Parameter mode has a new mode Inject. In mode Inject, the operator immediately blocks the input and you can inject an image from file. (6877)

MediumRgbCamera#

  • Order of color components matches now Camera Link Specification 2.1. In earlier versions, green and blue were swapped in modi Tap3x10bit and Tap3x12bit. This has been fixed. (7476)

Blob_Analysis_1D / Blob_Analysis_2D#

  • Operator works as expected also when the line marker is disabled. In earlier versions, when parameter line_marker was set to not_used, an error message occurred during design rules check (DRC 2). This has been fixed. (7595)

IsLastPixel#

  • Operator IsLastPixel now creates correct images also if its output ports are connected to asynchronous sinks, i.e., also if its output ports receive differing data flow signals (for example, if only one of the output ports was stopped). In earlier versions, all output ports of IsLastPixel needed to be connected to the same sink (M operator) to make the operator work stable. This has been fixed. (7731)
  • The operator link IsEmptyO works now as expected. In earlier versions, under specific circumstances a data loss could occur on this link. This has been fixed. (7729)

Synthesis of Designs Containing Multiple SQRT Operators#

  • Synthesis of designs containing multiple instances of the SQRT operator works now as expected. In earlier versions, synthesis was not successful when multiple SQRT operator instances in the same design used differing bit depth configurations. This has been fixed. (7739)
  • SDK code generated out of a design containing operator RxImageLink is correct now. (In earlier versions, the generated code contained invalid syntax for the parameter definition of RxImageLink which led to compiler errors. Fixed.) (7757)

Insert Port Above/Below for all Operators with Variable Number of Ports#

  • All operators with a variable number of ports now offer a context menu "Insert Port Above/Below". (Only Exception: Operator SignalToEvent) (7786)

EnumParamTranslator#

  • Enumeration names in operator EnumParamTranslator may contain now ','. In earlier versions, during runtime it came to problems when an enumeration name contained a comma. This has been fixed. (7860)

Using comma in enumeration names is not allowed

Using comma in enumeration names is not allowed when generated GenICam API code shall be used for eVA platforms (platforms working with embedded VisualApplets).

SelectBitField allows Color Input#

  • Operator SelectBitField (Library Base) now also allows color input. (8076)

Color support of RND, MergePixel, SelectBitField, ShiftLeft, ShiftRight / New Round (RND) implementation#

  • The following operators now also support color formats. Each color component is processed separately. (6973)
  • RND has a new Implementation which requires only about the half of the LUTs that have been required for rounding operations before. The behavior of the operator is identical to previous versions. (6973)
  • Affected operators:
    • RND (library Arithmetics)
    • MergePixel (library Base)
    • SelectBitField (library Base)
    • ShiftLeft (library Arithmetics)
    • ShiftRight (library Arithmetics)
  • Operators that can be used to modify the maximum image dimensions on a Link
  • These operators now verify that the new image dimensions do not exceed the absolute maximum image dimensions (maximum image width: 2\^31-1, maximum image height: 2\^31-1). (4764)
  • Link parameter / operator parameter collisions leading to an MaxImgWidth overflow are detected now and marked red in the VisualApplets GUI to inform the user instantly. (4764)
  • Affected operators:
    • CastParallel (library Base)
    • PARALLELdn (library Base)
    • PARALLELup (library Base)
    • SampleUp (library Base)
    • PackbitsRLE (library Prototype)
    • InsertPixel (library Synchronization)

GUI#

VisualApplets Base License contains FPGA Resource Estimation on Module Level#

  • The Feature FPGA Resource Estimation on Module Level is now available to all users of VisualApplets. In earlier versions, it was available only to users of the VisualApplets Expert extension. This has been changed.

New Settings Option: Number of Undo-Steps#

  • In menu Settings -> System Settings -> Design, you can define the number of Undo steps for working with the VisualApplets GUI.
  • If you set the number of Undo steps to 0, option Undo is de-activated.
  • De-activation of Undo leads in complex designs to an enhanced GUI performance. However, if Undo is de-activated, a design cannot be restored after a crash. (7427)

Highlighting of selected elements in Module Info window#

  • The selected elements in the currently active design window are highlighted in the Module Info window. In earlier versions, this worked only for selections in the Process0 window. This has been fixed. (7356)

Browsing the Design while Dialogs are open#

  • You can browse (but not change) your design now while the following dialogs are open (7124):
    • Resources
    • FPGA Resource Usage
    • Bandwidth Analysis
    • Simulation
    • Build Hardware Applet

Zooming the Help Window via Strg + Mouse Wheel#

  • You can zoom in and out the content of the help window via Strg + mouse wheel. In earlier versions, only the headings of the help where zoomed. This has been fixed. (6978)
  • After the parameters of a link have been changed, the changed link is highlighted in green. Closing the Link Properties dialog doesn't change the highlighting. The highlighting disappears as soon as you click on an empty area of the design window.

Simulation#

Paths to Simulation Images#

  • New option for saving paths for images in simulation sources relative to a given folder. In menu Settings->System Settings in category Design after Paths for Simulation Source Images it can be specified whether the paths shall be absolute, relative to design location, relative to the VisualApplets installation directory or relative to the default simulation image path specified in category Simulation.

Simulation Settings#

  • The simulation settings (menu Settings-> System Settings -> Simulation) for the I/O Image Library are set per default to TIFF compression = LZW. This reduces the size of the TIFF images. (7693)

Deleting Simulation Probe Modules in H Boxes#

  • Deleting simulation probe modules located at links connected to H box input nodes now works as expected. In earlier versions, deleting such simulation modules could lead to errors or program crash. This has been fixed. (7795)

Simulation Probe Viewer#

  • Simulation results are displayed properly now also for image sequences containing images with multiple kernel components and varying image width. In earlier versions, simulation results from image sequences that had multiple kernel components and varying image width where not displayed correctly in the Viewer. However, this was a mere display bug, simulation itself was not affected. This has been fixed. (7705)

Simulation of 64-bit Images#

  • Simulation now handles source images with 64-bit components as expected. In earlier versions, under specific circumstances, after simulating 64-bit images the simulation probe only contained 0 values. This has been fixed. (7862)

MCF Files#

  • Saving the MCF file now also works when there is no file name defined in operator CoefficientBuffer. In earlier versions, writing the MCF file stopped as soon as there was an empty string detected where a file name was expected in an instance of CoefficientBuffer. This led to incomplete MCF files. This has been fixed. (7939)
  • MCF files generated for a design containing operator CLHSDualCamera (VF2) by microDiplay can be loaded in the runtime using functions Fg_loadConfig / Fg_InitConfig or in microDisplay itself. In earlier versions, under rare circumstances loading such a file during runtime was not possible. This has been fixed. (6158)

Created SDK Code#

DMA channel status GRAB_ACTIVE#

  • The DMA channel status GRAB_ACTIVE can be retrieved using Fg_getStatus/Ex. It is 1 only when a DMA channel was successfully started and has not yet been stopped again. In all other cases it is 0. In the VisualApplets version prior to 3.1 this was not the case. This has been fixed. (6865)

Other Features#

Build#

  • Build flow works correctly also when LED and/or GPO operators are used in designs for microEnable 5 platforms. In earlier versions, using LED and/or GPO operators in designs for microEnable 5 platforms led in some cases to build flow errors (step Optimize Design). This has been fixed. (8427)

Error Message System#

  • The set of error messages for the Design Rules Checks (DRC1 and DRC2) has been enhanced. (8086)
  • When VisualApplets during simulation cannot write image data to hard disc because the hard disk is full, an according error message occurs that provides the path to the intended saving location. In earlier versions, a message "File access denied" was displayed. This has been fixed.(7919)

Unlimited Number of Design Elements#

  • Internal limit for the number of allowed design elements has been removed. (In earlier versions, this limit led in extremely complex designs to the following CHDL error message during Design Rule Check 2:
Error: -1 chdl2.cxx:2677:computeOMLatency-Range error

This has been fixed. (8084)

TCL Export/Import#

  • LUT values are saved very efficiently now so that saving to Tcl and loading a Tcl file works much faster. (7790)
  • Floating-point values are now saved to Tcl script absolute precisely.

GenAPI XML Generation#

  • The generation of GenAPI XML content for embedded VisualApplets designs has been improved concerning the compliance with 3rd party tools. For embedded VisualApplets platforms new properties may be defined with allow for generating default \<Visibility> and \<ImposedAccessMode> entries for features which don't specify these tags. (7024)

Unicode Characters in Directory Names supported#

  • For naming directories in paths, unicode characters can be used. However, for naming *.va files, only ASCII characters can be used; this means that, e.g., Asian, Cyrillic, Greek, or Arabic characters are not supported for file names.

Operators RamLUT and CoefficientBuffer on px200#

  • Operators RamLUT and CoefficientBuffer can be used freely on px200 again. This is a fix of the known issue no. 23 in Release Notes VisualApplets 3.0.6, issue 8045.
    • Px200 is only supported on mE4VD4-CL. Support for px200 on mE4VD1 and mE4VQ4 is discontinued.
    • Support for px100 on mE4VD4-CL is discontinued.

Documentation#

  • In Tutorial and Examples, all sections and subsections of the documentation are contained. (In the last version, in section Processing Examples, the subsections Advanced, Binarization, Blob Analysis, Color, and Debugging and Test were missing. Fixed.) (7327)