Isolating Parts from Surface Data

Gocator lets you isolate and then measure parts in different ways. This section describes some of the differences between these methods.

• For G2 and G5 sensors, on the Scan page, by enabling continuous Surface generation and configuring the part detection settings. (For more information, see Surface Generation.)

• By using the Surface Blob or Surface Segmentation measurement tools (for more information, see Surface Blob and Surface Segmentation).

• For G3 sensors (and G2 or G5 sensors when Surface generation is not set to Continuous), by using the Surface Part Detection tool.

• For G2 and G5 sensors, by using the Profile Part Detection tool.

The table below lists several differences between the different methods. A key difference however is that Scan page part detection extracts scan data that is identified as a "part" and outputs it as a separate frame. This lets you use any measurement tool on parts individually. Note however that parts must be clearly separated and be relatively consistently spaced for the part detection algorithm to separate the parts. In general, if you can successfully isolate parts using part detection, use this method rather than the Surface tools.

With Surface Blob and Surface Segmentation, on the other hand, areas are not extracted as individual frames. They are extracted either as individual outputs or as elements in an array. (For more information on arrays, see Arrays, Batching, and Aggregation.) These tools also provide measurements such as length, width, and area, which lets you handle common pass/fail needs.

Main Differences Between Part Detection, Surface Blob, and Surface Segmentation

	Part Detection	Surface Blob	Surface Segmentation
Allows output of individual surfaces to separate frames	Yes	No	No
Allows separating touching objects	No	Yes - Limited Through Open filter, some connections between parts can be separated, but the control is more limited than with Surface Segmentation.	Yes
Supports background present	Yes Height threshold must be set above or below the background	Yes Height threshold must be set above or below the background	Yes
Supports background with significant tilt or intensity gradient	No Fixed height threshold is used	No Fixed height threshold is used	Yes Adaptive threshold is used
Integrated Width/Length/Area measurements	N/A	Yes	Yes
Includes circularity and convexity filtering	No	Yes	No
Fast operation	Yes	Yes	No
Finds objects above or below background	Yes	Yes	Yes But requires careful region placement