Vision Camera

Use the Vision Camera command to create an alternate camera view that lets you more easily view a specific area and apply position-based calculations during a simulation.

You can use the camera to:

• Display areas of interest in a dedicated window that is independent of the graphics window.
• Capture images of the camera view during a simulation.
• Detect rigid bodies.

Displaying areas of interest

You can position and determine the size of the camera's field of view prior to a simulation. During a simulation, you can watch the camera view to more closely monitor the simulation from specific angles and perspectives.

Example: You can orient a camera to display a specific stamping process in a larger assembly.

You can associate a vision camera to a rigid body that is intended to move during a simulation.

Example: You can attach a vision camera to a robot arm and integrate it with a computer vision library for real-time object detection.

You can orient a view by setting the distance between the plane and the vision camera to place the view.

Capturing images

You can use the Vision Camera command to capture images of the camera's view during a simulation using a time interval or event-based triggers.

Example: You can use an operation to trigger the "capture image once" runtime parameter every time a sensor detects a part during a simulation.

When you create a vision camera, you can select the image's file type and browse to select a location to save the images.

Detecting parts

You can use the Vision Camera command to detect rigid bodies if you select a shape property in the Rigid Body command.

Example: During a simulation, you can automate a system to detect and sort different parts with a material-handling robot.

When you create a vision camera, you can enable part detection and specify the maximum number of parts it can detect to create a stable simulation.

Use shared memory mapping to communicate with OpenCV to export the MCD vision camera image data to an external image control system.

Example: Create a communication loop to export images from MCD, identify shapes based on templates externally, then return shape information to MCD. You can use this to develop systems in which shape and position are important, such as material-handling systems.

Integration examples

You can access Mechatronics Concept Designer integration examples and information in the Designcenter NX installation files. Use the %USER_BASE_DIR%\mechatronics folder to access use cases, such as configuring Modbus TCP signals for image processing in the %USER_BASE_DIR%\mechatronics\virtualcommissioning_examples\MCD-NonSIEMENS-Connection\MCD-ZDevelop_ZVision-SIL-with_Modbus.pdf file.

Where do I find it?

Application	Mechatronics Concept Designer
Command	Vision Camera

Accessing virtual commissioning examples

Application	Mechatronics Concept Designer
Directory path	%USER_BASE_DIR%\mechatronics folder

Related Tasks

• View a specific perspective of an assembly during a simulation.