Plugins¶
One of the most important features of itom is its plugin system. Using plugins, itom is able to communicate with many hardware components, such as framegrabbers, cameras, motor stages or other devices. Furthermore it is possible to develop user defined algorithms in C/C++ and put them into an algorithm plugin. The call to these algorithms is then possible via the Python scripting language or other plugins.
The itom setup already comes with many exemplary plugins. Other plugins are available as source files in the corresponding Plugins repository. Furthermore, the SDK of itom provide some template files for creating your own plugin using CMake and the development environment of your choice (see CMake Plugin).
Add a plugin to itom¶
Requirements to load a plugin library at startup of itom:
The plugin library is contained in any subfolder of the folder plugin contained in the application (root) directory of itom
If itom is build in debug, the plugin must be compiled in debug as well. The same holds for the default release versions.
If the plugin depends on further 3rd party libraries, these libraries must be accessible by your operating system (on Windows: Their path must be contained in the PATH environment variable OR the necessary DLLs must be in the lib subfolder of itom or in the root directory of itom). Only if the plugin is able to load further libraries by means of a delay load mechanism, it is possible to also put 3rd party libraries in arbitrary folders.
If your plugin depends on 3rd party libraries, please make sure that all plugins use exactly the same version of the same library.
Available plugins¶
The following plugins are contained in the open source Plugins repository (and some of them are also already included in the setup of itom):
Cameras |
|
|---|---|
AndorSDK3 |
Andor Cameras supported by their SDK3 |
AvantesAvaSpec |
Avantes AvaSpec Spectrometer |
AvtVimba |
AVT Cameras driven by Vimba interface |
CMU1394 |
Firewire cameras supported by CMU1394 driver |
CommonVisionBlox |
GenICam via Common Vision Blox |
DummyGrabber |
Virtual camera providing random noise images |
FileGrabber |
Virtual file camera (grabbing from image files) |
FireGrabber |
Cameras supported by FirePackage from Allied Vision |
Genicam |
Camera control of devices that support the GenICam standard |
IDSuEyeCamera |
All IDS Imaging cameras |
MSMediaFoundation |
USB Plug&Play Cameras, Webcams, including cameras from The Imaging Source |
NITWidySWIR |
Cameras from company NIT (tested with USB2 WidySWIR 640U-S) |
OceanOpticsSpec |
OceanOptics Spectrometer |
OpenCVGrabber |
USB Plug&Play Cameras and further cameras supported by OpenCV |
PCOCamera |
PCO Cameras supported by the pco.sdk |
PCOPixelFly |
PCO Pixelfly qet cameras with frame grabber board |
PCOSensicam |
PCO Cameras supported by the pco.sensicam SDK |
PGRFlyCapture |
Point Grey cameras (USB3) supported by Fly Capture driver |
PmdPico |
pico flexx, pico maxx, pico monster |
QCam |
Cameras from company QImaging |
ThorlabsCCS |
|
Vistek |
Cameras from company Vistek |
VRMagic |
USB Cameras from company VRMagic (tested with framegrabber VRmAVC-2) |
Ximea |
Cameras from company Ximea (tested with various xiQ USB3 cameras, mono & color) |
Motors/Actuators |
|
|---|---|
AerotechEnsemble |
Axes from company Aerotech that can be driven using the Aerotech Ensemble interface |
DummyMotor |
Virtual dummy motor with axis |
FirgelliLAC |
One axis motor controller FirgelliLAC |
LeicaMotorFocus |
Z-stage controller of Leica MZ12 or MZ12.5 |
NanotecStepMotor |
Motor-Controller Nanotec SMCP |
PiezosystemJena_NV40_1 |
One axis piezo actuator from Piezosystem Jena (NV 40/1 CLE) |
PI GCS2 |
Piezo controllers from Physik Instrumente - controlled by GCS2 commands (e.g. E753) |
PI PiezoCtrl |
Piezo controller E662, E-816, E-621, E-625, E665 from Physik Instrumente |
ST8SMC4USB (Standa) |
Motor-Controller STANDA 8SMC4-USB-B8-1 |
ThorlabsBP |
One or multi-axis piezo controllers of type Thorlabs Benchtop Piezo |
ThorlabsISM |
Control Thorlabs Integrated Stepper Motors, e.g. K10CR1 Rotation Stage |
ThorlabsKCubeIM |
Thorlabs KCube Motion Controller |
UhlRegister |
Stages from Uhl (also compatible with Lang) |
UhlText |
Stages from Uhl (also compatible with Lang and Merzhaeuser) |
usbMotion3XIII |
USB Motion 3x III controller from COPTONIX GmbH (www.coptonix.com) |
DataIO |
|
|---|---|
CyUSB |
Any generic USB devices |
DispWindow |
OpenGL based widget to show cosine and graycode sequences |
GLDisplay |
OpenGL based widget to show any textures given by dataObjects |
GWInstekPSP |
Power supplies PSP-405, PSP-603, PSP-2010 of company GWInstek |
hidApi |
Any generic HID device |
libUSB |
Any generic USB devices |
LibModBus |
Modbus communication over TCP/IP and RTU |
SerialIO |
COM-Ports (Windows), ttySx and ttyUSBx (Linux) |
SuperlumBL |
Lightsource from company Superlum |
SuperlumBS |
Lightsource from company SuperlumBS |
ThorlabsFF |
AD-Converter |
|
|---|---|
MeasurementComputing |
Access to USB digital to analog converter |
NI-DAQmx |
NI-ADDA Converter (requires NI-DAQmx Lib and DLL) |
OphirPowermeter |
Control Powermeters from Ophir/MKS |
ThorlabsPowerMeter |
Thorlabs Power and Energy Meter Consoles PM100x |
Algorithm/Filter |
|
|---|---|
basicFilters |
Many filters for dataObject |
basicGPLFilters |
Basic filter for dataObject (Despeckle,…) |
dataObjectArithmetic |
Arithmetic calculations for dataObject |
dataObjectIO |
Import/Export functions for dataObject |
fittingFilters |
Fitting planes and surfaces |
FFTWfilters |
Filter for FFT calculations |
FringeProj |
Fringe projections methods |
OpenCV Filters |
Wrapped algos for image processing |
PclTools |
pointClouds and polygonMesh methods |
RawImport |
Loading raw image format |
Roughness |
Algo for roughness evaluation |
X3P IO |
Load and Save x3p files |
Plugin Development¶
If you have any hardware component that is not yet supported by itom or if you need to have a specific algorithm implemented as algorithm plugin, you have the following possibilities:
Start to develop your own plugin library and make this plugin available to anybody if you want to. More information about this can be found under Plugin Development
Since not all plugins are already available in the internet, ask us if for instance we already have the plugin you need.
Feel also free to contact us if you want us to develop a plugin for you.
Register to the mailing list and write further questions.