VisionPro ToolBlock Editor

The VisionPro ToolBlock Editor inserts a VisionPro ToolBlock Edit Control into a Page, which provides operators access to a CogToolBlock.

In order to have the VisionPro ToolBlock Edit Control available, it must first be exposed as a tag:

  1. Go to the desired Tool Block in the Task, and double click the Tool Block to open the ToolBlock Edit Control.
  2. Press the Edit Tags button.

  3. From the VisionPro Tag Manager, enable the Expose ToolBlock checkbox.

  4. Go back to the Page, and, using the Expression Builder, set the Subject property to the tool, i.e. $Tasks.Task.Task.<ToolBlockName>.ToolBlock.
Note:
  • To save edits made to the ToolBlock during runtime, there are two options: manually saving changes to the .vpp file, or using a recipe.

    Manually Saving Changes

    1. Add a Button element, and for the Button's On Click script, use the following script (if the script needs to be called from different places within the project, create and use a User Script instead of the Button's On Click script):

      Cognex.VisionPro.CogSerializer.SaveObjectToFile($Tasks.<TaskName>.<TaskName>.<BlockName>.Toolblock, "C\\Toolblock.vpp")
    2. To load the ToolBlock at startup, use the following script for the OnStartup script:

      $Tasks.<TaskName>.<TaskName>.<BlockName>.Toolblock = (Cognex.VisionPro.CogSerializer.LoadObjectFromFile("C:\\Toolblock.vpp");

    Using a Recipe

    1. Create a new Recipes, and add the ToolBlock tag to the recipe.
    2. Add a Button element, and for the Button's On Click script, use the following script (if the script needs to be called from different places within the project, create and use a User Script instead of the Button's On Click script):

      $System.Recipes.Recipe.Save("Default","");
    3. To load the ToolBlock at startup, use the following script for the OnStartup script:

      $System.Recipes.Recipe.Load("Default");
  • When making changes to the ToolBlock at runtime, the list of inputs and outputs should not be changed. Making changes to the inputs and outputs could result in a link being broken in the Task, and stop the Task from executing correctly.
  • For the best performance during runtime deployment, Cognex recommends that users be prevented from accessing any Pages with a VisionPro ToolBlock Editor. Simply disabling the Visible property will not work; the Page that contains the VisionPro ToolBlock Editor must be closed, because they both execute on the same UI thread, so timing is not predictable. For example, a VisionPro ToolBlock Editor on an inactive Page would take ~25ms, while a VisionPro ToolBlock Editor on an active Page would take ~90ms, as would a VisionPro ToolBlock Editor with the Visible property disabled.