# Behavior Changes and Known Issues

Cognex Designer 4.5.0 introduces multiple new or changed capabilities since 4.4.3.

The following tables describe all known issues and notable changes in Cognex Designer behavior.

#### Changes in Behavior

Behavior | Description
Continuous task triggers are deprecated | As of release 4.4.2, the Continuous task trigger mode is deprecated. Existing projects that used this task trigger will be automatically converted to a default Timer Interval task trigger.
Warning when task trigger queue is full | As of release 4.4.2, task trigger queues have a size limit. A warning is displayed when a task trigger fires while the task queue is full. Tasks that use a Timer Interval task trigger with an interval that is shorter than its execution time, will quickly fill up the queue and result in a lot of warnings in the Designer log.
Rounding used by the touchscreen | As of release 4.4.1, the rounding at midpoints used by the touch keypad has been changed from Bankers' rounding / half to Round-away-from-zero. Some examples:
Input | 4.4.0 | 4.4.1
--- | --- | ---
1.4 | 1 | 1
1.5 | 2 | 2
1.6 | 2 | 2
2.4 | 2 | 2
2.5 | 2 | 3
2.6 | 3 | 3
OPC UA Server certificates expiration dates | As of release 4.4.1, Cognex Designer OPC UA Server certificate expiration has increased from one year to 10 years.
Saving Images with the Image Recorder Block | As of release 4.4.1, Recording to a remote CDB file is no longer supported as an option on the Image Recorder Block when storing files remotely.
ViDi Plugin not supported | As of release 4.3.1, Cognex Designer does not support ViDi Plugin but supports a new DeepLearning plugin (VPDL) replacement. See the topic Product and Upgrade Codes for compatibile versions.
Warning if AVX2 instruction set is not supported on PC | As of release 4.3.1, once a project is loaded, the Output window shows the following warning if the CPU of the computer running Cognex Designer does not support the Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2) instruction set: AVX2 instruction set is not supported on this machine: VisionPro 3D functionality will not be available. In such cases, the 3D features of VisionPro will not be supported, and using them in the project can result in crashes or errors.
Warning appears when license is about to time out | As of release 4.3.1, when using a Development License, Cognex Designer provides a warning 30 minutes before license expiration, allowing users to properly test and save their project in time.
Updated .NET Framework version for Plugin development | As of release 4.3, developing plugins for Cognex Designer requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 to be installed.
Change in the default behavior of the VisionPro Display element | As of release 4.3, the VisionPro Display control element has been enhanced to auto-fit the images and graphics appearing on it.
Changed image format shown on WebHMI | As of release 4.3, Cognex Designer sends 8-bit grayscale images to Web Pages instead of 24-bit grayscale images to improve performance.
New Garbage Collection Method | As of release 4.1, Cognex Designer employs a background Garbage Collection technique by default for all new projects. This may result in longer task execution time in Test Mode than in earlier versions, such as 2.x. Therefore, always benchmark using a deployed application. See Scheduling Garbage Collection for more information.
New Garbage Collection Method | As of release 4.1, Cognex Designer employs a background Garbage Collection technique by default for all new projects. This may result in longer task execution time in Test Mode than in earlier versions, such as 2.x. Therefore, always benchmark using a deployed application. See Scheduling Garbage Collection for more information.
Legacy project sequences replaced with Sub Tasks | As of release 4.0, legacy Cognex Designer 2.x project sequences are replaced with a Sub Task.

#### Known Issues

Issue | Description
Startup Error: Need Admin Access to Create HTTPS Certificates | On startup, an error may occur with "A post-display action failed to run" relating to exception "System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException". If this error occurs, next time Designer is started, right-click and select "Run as Administrator".
BouncyCastle.dll Already Exists in Designer | If you upgrade from an earlier version of Designer and use the OPC Plugin in your project, you must upgrade the OPC Plugin to version 1.1.6 to avoid an issue involving duplicate DLLs. See the topic Optional Communications Plugins for more information.
Block Associated with 3D-A5000 Sensor Missing Output Pins | The Block associated with a 3D-A5000 acquisition sensor lacks output pins for any AcquisitionMode other than PointCloud.
VisionPro Deep Learning Plugin and ViDiEL Tools | Using this Designer release with the VisionPro Deep Learning (VPDL) plugin and the VisionPro 9.10 ViDiEL Tools (CogClassifyTool or CogSegmentTool) requires you install both: VPDL 3.1.1 (earlier versions of VPDL are not compatible) The VisionPro 9.10 supplemental GPU installer, which you can find in the same location on MyCognex as the VisionPro 9.10 installer. In some instances it has been seen that on Windows 10 (even with the supplemental installer) the user may get the error "Cannot get Cartel wrapper factor creator function" when trying to train one of the ViDiEL Tools. To resolve this, copy all .dll and .cbd files from the "VisionPro\bin" folder, to the "Designer\4.4.3" folder.
ViDiEL tool edit controls not supported | The ViDiEL Tools can not be used within Designer's "VisionPro Tool Editor" control. This includes the ViDiEL ClassifyTool and the ViDiEL CogSegmentTool. Access to configuration for these tools can still be provided indirectly by using Designer's "VisionPro ToolBlock Editor" control to host the ToolBlock containing either the Classify or Segment tool.
OxyPlotViewer Plugin not supported | There are issues preventing the OxyPlotViewer plugin working with Cognex Designer release 4.4.3.
OPC UA Plugin | Designer crashes on close, if OPC certificate has expired. The Security certificate (located at: "C:\ProgramData\Cognex\Designer\Certificates\own\certs") used by the Cognex Designer Plugin OPC UA Server should be an open certificate that accepts all connections. Deleting the folder C:\ProgramData\Cognex\Designer\Certificates should force it to be re-created.
Designer projects cannot be opened by multiple users on a shared drive | Designer project file permissions do not allow access by other user accounts. To work around this issue, choose either of the following actions: Make a copy of the project file and replace it in the same directory and replace it in the same directory from the user account attempting to access it Explicitly add a suitable user group to the file permissions with Full Control.
Designer crashes after 1 hour when using a DSMax camera with Web HMI enabled | Using a DSMax in a Designer project will crash after one hour if the Web HMI is enabled. To work around this issue, choose either of the following actions: Disable the WebHMI. Add the environment variable COGNEX_LOG_APG_FG1_DLL_LEVEL and set the value to 5.
Unsupported ports when accessing the WebHMI with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox | The Enable Web Server setting (available through Project > Settings > Web HMI) does not work with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox if the port is set to 79. Configure a different port number to solve this problem.
WebHMI Inactivity Timeout does not work in Test Mode | The Inactivity Timeout setting (available through Project > Settings > Web HMI) currently only works when accessing a deployed project through a web browser, and does not work in Test Mode.
Handling Database files while creating, importing or deleting Databases | When creating, importing or deleting Databases in Cognex Designer, the following limitations apply: Removing a Database from a Cognex Designer project does not remove the underlying Database file. When you create or import a new Database, using the name that matches an existing *.db3 file will result in having the new Database loaded with the table structure of the previous database.
Auto-Camera detection limitation | Auto-Camera Detection only functions when Creating a New Project with Project Types.
Errors when handling large recipe configurations | In Recipes, when loading a large configuration (for example, the file size of the corresponding .json file is greater than 550M), an error such as Array dimensions exceeded supported range results.
Anti-Virus software | If anti-virus software is enabled for real-time protection it may also perform disk scans at a user-specified time. The disk scans may interfere with busy vision software applications. If so, consider disabling anti-virus software, or managing behavior in a manner appropriate for the application.
Expression Builder function does not get updated. | When an ItemAt($index, $array) function is constructed in the Expression Builder, it will only update the returned value when the value of the $index tag changes, or a new array is assigned to the $array tag. The following C# script statements illustrate how to trigger a value change event:
    $index++;
    $array = { "one", "two", "three" };
The following C# script statement will not trigger a value change event:
    $array[1] = "new value";
Test Mode changes on Pages persist in Program Mode | If an element on a Page (e.g. CheckBox, TextBox, etc.) is modified while in Test Mode, after exiting Test Mode, the element will not return to its state prior to entering Test Mode. To do so, the Designer OnStartup Script must be used to explicitly set the default values of Page elements. For example, if a Page contained a TextBox which should be blank at startup, the script would be:
    $Pages.Page.TextBox.Text = string.Empty;
Uninstalling/Reinstalling software on a Cognex vision controller | In the event that the default installations of VisionPro or Designer need to be uninstalled and then newer versions installed, if a black desktop (no Cognex wallpaper) and a blank, blue Taskbar is encountered after the initial reboot after uninstalling/reinstalling, press the Windows Logo key to return to the Start screen, and then select the Desktop tile/icon to return to the correct Desktop.
Changing the primary language of the operating system on a Cognex vision controller | If the primary language of the Operating System on a Cognex Vision Controller is changed (e.g. from English, the default language, to Simplified Chinese), the Vision Controller will need to be restarted. In the event that the desktop appears without the Cognex wallpaper and a blank, blue Taskbar is encountered after the reboot, press the Windows Logo key on your keyboard to return to the Start screen. Next, select the Desktop tile/icon to return to the correct Desktop.
Startup Issue resulting in incorrectly firing Precision I/O Events | A startup issue incorrectly firing Precision I/O Events can occur in Industrial Communications if the following conditions are met: The output mapping of the configured industrial communications connection is set to falling-edge trigger. The bit state is low. Another signal transition causes the industrial communications protocol to push an update through the logic. In such cases, the mapping will false-trigger one time and incorrectly fires the discrete event. This only occurs when the bit state starts low, and the mapping is set to falling-edge trigger, or the bit state starts high, and the mapping is set to rising-edge trigger.
Modifying VisionPro and Tool Block Editor Page Controls while a Task is running | If a Page contains a VisionPro Tool Editor or VisionPro ToolBlock Editor element, they should be configured to not allow user interaction while the application sequence is running. Changes to these two types of controls can be made when the application is being modified at design time in the development environment, or in a deployed application, but only when the sequence using the tools is not running.
Unsupported database data types | Cognex Designer does not support the decimal, geography, hirachyid, image, money, numeric, smallmoney , sql_variant, time, timestamp and xml data type parameters. When creating a database, ensure that these types are not used for columns, otherwise Designer will be unable to connect to the database. Cognex Designer only supports a sub-set of data types: bigint, binarybit, char, date, datetime, datetime2, datetimeoffset, float, int, nchar, ntext, nvarchar, real, smalldatetime, smallint, text, tinyint, uniqueidentifier, varbinary, varchar. Use Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Management Studio or later to create and edit SQL Server databases.
Return statements in Script Editor | When wanting to use a return statement to exit a script function, use the return null; statement, instead of the return; statement. In the Script Editor, scripts must always return an object, even though the signature of the script function returns void.
FFP Offline requested Task Triggers for "Online" and "Offline" status | When implementing industrial communications protocols, consider that within Cognex Designer, the OfflineRequested event is mapped into both a scriptable point called FFP Offline Requested and a Task Trigger called Devices.{CommCardName}.FfpOffineRequested. During execution, if the OfflineRequested event is fired, it will run the script registered to the scriptable point called FFP Offline Requested. At this point, the user can access the ReturnToPreviousState member of the argument, and determine the state of the device (False = Offline and True = Online). After this has occurred, the event triggers the FfpOfflineRequested Task Trigger. However, in this case, there is no way to determine the requested state, so any Task registered to run as a result of this trigger will be executed, regardless of the state.
OPC UA Plugin compatibility with older Windows versions | If Cognex Designer 4.5.0 is used on a machine running Windows 7 or Windows Embedded 8, the OPC UA Plugin works only if the .NET Framework 4.7.2. Runtime package has been installed for the operating system. This limitation does not impact machines running on Windows 10.
Updating property page for Tags inside the Tag Editor | When a row is selected in the Tag Manager and the user changes the state of properties in the Property Editor, the change in state will be lost if the user clicks on a different row within the Tag Manager and then clicks back into the row for which the property was changed.
DateTime Entry element can crash on increment/decrement | When the comma is highlighted in the DateTime Entry text (for example, Monday, 27 February 2023 12:00:00 am), Designer will crash if the user clicks the increment or decrement button.