Build on it

Notes on 3D Measurement
Software Release

MicroScribe SDK 4.0 is available now: MUS Add-Ins, a live arm model, and a broader, easier path to building on every MicroScribe.

Text reads: MicroScribe SDK 4.0. Build on every MicroScribe. MUS Add-Ins, a live arm model, turntable service and more. On the right, the ArmViewer sample shows a yellow MicroScribe arm model on a dark grid beside its joint, tip and report-rate readouts, and in front of it the Point Logger add-in lists five captured points next to a 3D view of the same points.
ArmViewer and Point Logger, two of the new samples in SDK 4.0.

When I announced MUS 8.0, I said Add-Ins turn MUS into a development platform, and that the tools to build them come with the MicroScribe SDK 4.0. This is that SDK.

A MicroScribe has been extensible through an SDK since its introduction in 1995. What changes with 4.0 is how far you can take it, and how easy it is to start.

Start inside MUS. The SDK now includes the kit the MUS 8.0 Add-Ins are built with, and a complete example to learn from. Point Logger captures points on a switch button, lists them in a results grid, keeps every point in a SQLite database so the log outlives the MUS session, and draws the points in a 3D view with the stylus orientation of each one. SQLite is there on purpose: it shows how to link a third-party library into an Add-In, which is what makes this a practical place to build a minimum viable application. A mock host, AddinCheck, runs an Add-In against a simulated arm, so you can develop without MUS or an arm on the desk.

Point Logger, the SDK example MUS Add-In, running in the AddinCheck mock host: five captured points in a grid on the left and the same points with their stylus orientation in a 3D view on the right.
Point Logger, the SDK’s example MUS Add-In, running in the AddinCheck mock host: captured points in the grid, the same points with their stylus orientation in the 3D view, and every point kept in a SQLite log.

Then go as far as you like. ArmViewer draws the connected arm live on screen, moving in sync with the real one, from CAD hulls of the arm and the arm’s own kinematic parameters. Integrators asked for this for robot-teaching work, and the kinematics are now a first-class part of the API. The DLL also adds a turntable service, report-rate control that doesn’t block, a hardware timestamp on every report, and a probe management library you can adopt as is.

The ArmViewer sample in live mode: a yellow MicroScribe 6iL+ arm model on a dark grid, with the arm's model, serial number, joint angles, tip position, report rate and a model-versus-DLL tip check in the side panel.
ArmViewer, live mode, MicroScribe 6iL+: the drawn arm and the measured tip agree to 0.0000 in.

Who it is for:

  • Software integrators connecting their products to every MicroScribe through one DLL.
  • Educators teaching kinematics on a real arm students can hold.
  • Researchers building their own capture tools.
  • OEMs embedding the arm in their systems, with royalty-free redistribution of the runtime. A European OEM has already completed an integration on the 4.0 feature set.

Like MUS 8.0, it works with every MicroScribe, from the first serial arms to the current i+. If you want a quick taste first, the MicroScribe Arm Tester reads an arm right in your browser.

SDK 4.0 is available now as an instant download.

Get MicroScribe SDK 4.0

Topics: MicroScribe · SDK · MUS · Portable CMM · Robotics · Software Development · Revware
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