Chapter 1
Introduction
©
National Instruments Corporation
1-3
Software Overview
Programming the NI 1429 requires the NI-IMAQ driver software to control
the hardware. National Instruments also offers the following application
software packages for analyzing and processing your acquired images.
•
NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection
—Allows you to
configure solutions to common inspection tasks.
•
NI Vision Development Module
—Provides customized control over
hardware and algorithms.
The following sections provide an overview of the driver and application
software. For detailed information about individual software packages,
refer to the documentation specific to each software package.
NI-IMAQ Driver Software
The NI 1429 ships with NI Vision Acquisition Software, which includes
the NI-IMAQ driver software. NI-IMAQ has an extensive library of
functions—such as routines for video configuration, continuous and single
shot image acquisition, memory buffer allocation, trigger control, and
device configuration—you can call from the application development
environment (ADE). NI-IMAQ handles many of the complex issues
between the computer and the image acquisition device, such as
programming interrupts and camera control.
NI-IMAQ performs all functions required for acquiring and saving images
but does not perform image analysis. Refer to the
section for image analysis functionality.
NI-IMAQ also provides the interface between the NI 1429 and LabVIEW,
LabWindows
™
/CVI
™
, or a text-based programming environment. The
NI-IMAQ software kit includes a series of libraries for image acquisition
for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio, which
contains libraries for Microsoft Visual Basic.
NI-IMAQ features both high-level and low-level functions. Examples
of high-level functions include the sequences to acquire images in
multi-buffer, single-shot, or continuous mode. An example of a low-level
function is configuring an image sequence, since it requires advanced
understanding of image acquisition.
