The Settings Screen

The Settings screen lets you change different settings and perform infrequent tasks, such as calibrating the probe. To access the Settings screen, from the left sidebar, click Settings (

To modify settings that have an administrator shield icon ( Administrator Required

), you must run Inspect as an administrator.

Reports Folder Administrator Required

- This defines the folder where Inspect stores your report data. These reports show on the Reports screen.

Info Files Folder - This setting contains two options that define where inspect stores information files that Inspect needs:

Use the measurement routine's folder - This option stores the information files in the same folder as the measurement routine.

Use custom folder - This option stores the information files in the folder path that you define. This option shows a box for you to define the folder path.

The information files are in a text-readable JSON format.

These are the information files:

Probe information files - These files get created when you execute a routine from PC-DMIS in Inspect for the first time. The software then uses the information stored in these files to display probe information in the Details pane whenever you select a measurement routine tile. These files have a ".probe" extension.
Routine information files - These files get created when you execute a measurement routine. They store the name of the routine, it's unique ID, the previous execution date, the previous person who executed it, and other information, such as reference documents and tracked probe usage. These files have a ".routine" extension.
Playlist information files -
These files get created when you execute a playlist. They store much of the same information that you'd find in a ".routine" file, but these are for playlists. These have a ".playlist" extension.

Current Theme - This changes the look of the application between Dark and Light.

Backstage Menu Style - This changes how the items in the left sidebar appear. These are the options:

Auto - This sidebar's width changes dynamically to show both text and icons, just the text, or just the icons, based on the current width of the application.

Text and Icon - The sidebar's width changes to show both the text and icons for the items there.

Current Language - This changes the language that Inspect uses. When you change the language, Inspect asks if you want to restart the software in the new language. If you click Yes, Inspect immediately closes and restarts in that language.

Measurement Units - This sets the measurement units for the part offsets used by pallet playlists in Inspect. You can set the measurement units to be Inches or Millimeters. You define the part offsets in the Pallet Layouts tab.

Logging Level - The options in this list determine how much data to send to the Inspect.log file to track the Inspect app's behavior. By default, this option is Off. If you experience problems with Inspect, you can turn it on. To do this, select one of the other menu options. You use this area to collect information about what's happening in Inspect to send to Hexagon Technical Support. The list below shows different logging levels. Each higher logging level contains all the information from lower logging levels:

Inspect stores the Inspect.log file in this folder:

C:\ProgramData\Hexagon\Inspect

You can view the log file in a standard text editor, such as Notepad.

Type - This works with the Backup/Restore functionality. This list determines whether typical user-specific settings should remain user-specific (User) or if they should be system wide (System). These settings are things like favorites, playlists, and so on. The default is User.

If you want all users that use the computer to use the same settings, choose System.

If you set Type to be System, then all the folders and settings stored in the user-specific folder become system-wide and are stored in the system-wide folder.

You can only backup and restore according to the same scope. For example, if you set Type to User, and you click Backup, and you then set Type to System and click Restore, the backed up user settings do not end up in the system-wide folder.

Backup Folder - This defines the folder where Inspect stores backups of your settings. When you modify this pathway, Inspect immediately creates the defined folder. Inside of this defined folder, Inspect creates an additional BackupSettings folder. When you click Backup or Restore, this is the folder that Inspect uses for those operations. Inspect stores the settings in .xml and .dat files.

Include Add-Ons Settings - If you mark this check box, Inspect includes your add-on settings when you click Backup. Inside of BackupSettings, Inspect stores the add-on settings inside of additional sub-folders. These sub-folders have the same name as your add-ons. For information on add-ons, see "The Add-ons Screen".

Backup - This button backs up your settings into the above Backup Folder location. A temporary green check mark appears next to this button to indicate that Inspect has backed up your files. Inspect only stores one set of backup files. If you click this button again, Inspect overwrites the backup files with the new set of files. If you want to keep multiple sets of backup files, you can simply define a new pathway and click Backup.

Restore - This button restores any backed up settings from the Backup Folder location. You must restart Inspect to apply the restored settings.

Search Bar - This switch enables the Product ID search bar on the Home screen. This allows you quickly load a routine or playlist according to the product ID or product name. Each playlist or routine has a product ID associated with it. For routines, it is the full path to that product. For playlists, it is "Playlist(<name>)" where <name> is the name of your playlist. To find the product ID, from one of the defined folders, click on a part or playlist. Then from the Details pane, hover over the Product ID button to see a tooltip of the ID. For more information, see "The Details Pane".

Some other user-interface elements that are visible on the Home screen, appear as a button with an X inside of it. You can click that button to hide that element, and it appears under Available Items. You can click it there to show it again. For more information, see "Configuring the Home Screen".

Allow Manual Internet Access - If turned on, certain areas of Inspect can access the Internet, such as the Discover tab. With that access, you can see the video content in the Discover tab. If turned off, you cannot see any video content in the Discover tab.

This section appears when you install the PC-DMIS Application add on from the Add-ons screen. For information on add-ons see, "The Add-ons Screen".

Calibration Access - This list determines who has access to calibrate probes. You can set this to Standard User to allow standard users to calibrate probes.

Standard Deviation Limit for Calibration - This check box applies the standard deviation limit value to your probe calibrations. In the box next to it, you can define the maximum acceptable limit for your probe calibration's standard deviation. You should set this limit to your probe manufacturer's recommended specifications.

In the Details pane, you can see the standard deviation for a probe tip if you hover your pointer over the probe tip. If your probe tip's deviation exceeds the limit in this setting, Inspect highlights the calibration date in red, and PC-DMIS shows "Invalid Calibration" under Status.

If you receive an error due to this setting, it may indicate that the probe needs to be cleaned or some other problem with the probe.

Block Execution If Uncalibrated Tips - This check box prevents Inspect from executing routines with uncalibrated tips. This is useful if you want to block execution in these cases:

+ PC-DMIS <Version> - You can use the switch next to a version to turn that version of PC-DMIS on or off for Inspect. If you turn it on, Inspect enables a specific add-on for that version. You need to turn on the switches for each version of PC-DMIS that you intend to use with Inspect. If you enable multiple versions, Inspect shows a small dialog box so that you can choose what add-on to use to execute.

Probe Calibrate Administrator Required

- This button is under each version of PC-DMIS in the above list. It tells that version of PC-DMIS to perform a probe calibration on a probe that you supply. When you click this button, an Open dialog box appears so that you can select the probe file that PC-DMIS should use for the calibration. PC-DMIS then opens the probe file in the Probe Utilities dialog box that PC-DMIS uses. You can use that dialog box to calibrate the probe. The Calibration Access setting can unlock this button for standard users.

Target Environment - In QUINDOS, you need to choose an environment. This setting defines what target environment to use for Inspect with QUINDOS. This means you don't have to manually choose the environment each time QUINDOS runs in the background.

This section appears if you install the Simulator add-on. For more information, see "Using the Simulator".

Enabled - If you mark this check box, the software asks if you want to use the simulator to measure your routine. The simulator simulates a metrology package executing your routine. It provides results based on the simulated execution. If you clear this check box, the software does not give you a prompt to use the simulator to measure your routine; it instead uses a different enabled application add-on.

Supported File Types - This box must have one or more file types in it for the simulation to work. If you don't have anything in this box, you do not receive a prompt to use the simulator. The file type must match the routine type you choose to execute. For example, PC-DMIS uses the .prg file. For multiple file types, separate them with a semi-colon.

Measurement Routine Execution Duration - This box defines how many seconds you want each simulated execution to last.

Manual Alignment - This inserts a fake manual alignment at the beginning of your simulated execution. It shows messages that prompt you to measure that alignment.

Execution Errors - This shows random error messages. These are hardware or other measurement errors you could receive during an execution.

Dimension Errors - This simulates the deviations you get from perfect values when you measure a part.

This section appears if you install the Scheduler add-on. You can set how often certain tasks expire from the drop-down list that appears next to each task. You can choose from these options: Never, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.

For example, suppose you have the Swift-Check add-on installed, and you want to have the Swift-Check validation check set to run Quarterly. That means, every three months, the previous Swift-Check expires, and you would need to run the Swift-Check again to validate the CMM before you could use the CMM for actual measurements with Inspect.

Auto Run - This determines whether Inspect should automatically execute a measurement routine once the routine opens from a barcode scan or lookup.

Auto Run Delay - If Auto Run is marked, this determines the number of seconds that Inspect waits before it begins the automatic execution of the routine.

Masks - You may find it helpful to mask all but certain characters from a barcode scan. This is useful when you have a series of characters on your barcode that never change, and you don't want to type them each time you perform a scan. In that case, with this setting, you can expose only those characters that change, and all other characters are masked. For more information, see "Masking Barcode Characters".

Add Mask - Creates a new mask and shows the boxes From: n1 To: n2 where n1 and n2 are numbers that represent a range of characters.

From: n1 To: n2 - Inspect masks all character except those in the range from the numbers in n1 to n2. This means when you use the Scan Part dialog box, you only need to specify the characters in any exposed ranges.

Trace Fields - You can create a trace field based on a sequence of characters from your barcodes. You can then access this value in your measurement routine in your measurement application. For more information, see "Using Barcode Trace Fields".

Add Trace Field - Creates a new trace field and shows a row of boxes From: n1 To: n2 where n1 and n2 are numbers that represent a range of characters. A third box to the right defines the name of the trace field.

This area appears when you install the Dimension Sets add-on from the Add-ons screen.

Use Alignment Dependencies - If you mark this check box, and you execute a dimension set from a mini-routine, Inspect asks that you measure the alignment features for the alignment that the selected dimension set uses. If you clear this check box, Inspect does not ask you to measure the alignment features. For more information on dimension sets, see "Dimension Sets" in "The Details Pane".

This section defines the main folders you see under This PC from the Parts screen.

[Application Folders] - The [Application Folders] that appear here can vary based on the application add-ons you have installed. The default is the latest supported version of PC-DMIS.

Label - This defines what name you want Inspect to use for the folder. If you clear this value, it defaults to the folder name.

Path - Under each application name, this shows the default folder path for where that application stores its measurement routines.

Extensions - This shows the supported extensions. Inspect chooses a default set of filters based on the

add-ons that come with Inspect. You cannot modify this for the application folders. For user-defined folders, you can define the extension or extensions when you define the folder path.

User-Defined Folders - This section becomes visible when you click Create New User Folder. When you do that, you can then define pathways to folders with pre-defined or custom extensions. One reason you may want to define a path to a user folder is to show measurement routine files that are not in an application folder.

For example, suppose you want to expose PC-DMIS measurement routines that are in a MyRoutines folder on your D drive to Inspect. You can create a new folder definition and give it a Path value of D:\MyRoutines and the Extensions value set to *.prg.

Path - This shows the pathway for the user-defined folder. You can define the pathway when you create it. If you want to change the path, you need to delete the specific user-defined folder setting and recreate it.

Extensions - This box filters the files that Inspect shows when you select this folder under This PC. You can define this filter when you click Create New User Folder. You can add multiple filters as long as you separate them with commas. For example, you can type or select *.prg to show PC-DMIS measurement routines. You can type *.* to show all the files. If you want to change the extension, and you've already defined a user-defined folder setting, you need to delete the specific user-defined folder setting and recreate it.

- Toggle Folder Visibility - This changes the visibility state of the user-defined folder. With this option, you can hide folders so they don't appear in This PC.

- Delete This Setting - This removes the user-defined folder setting. The actual folder in Windows Explorer remains untouched.

Create New User Folder - This linked text adds a new user-defined folder setting that you can define.

This section and a Configuration button under it appear when you install the Swift-Check add-on. For information on Swift-Check, see "Swift-Check". The Configuration button opens all the Swift-Check settings in a separate dialog box with three tabs:

General - This tab contains folder pathways for the measurement routines, .csv report locations for the different checks. It also contains execution options.

Calibration - This tab contains settings for the different calibrations that Swift-Check can run.

Machine - This tab contains various settings for the machine, such as speeds, what axis convention to use, and fields for touch-trigger or analog (analogue) probes.

For information on these settings, consult the user guide that came with your Swift-Check artifact.

Take Baseline - This button takes an image of the CMM's granite surface with no parts on it. You need to only take this image one time. Inspect stores this image as the baseline image.

Use temporary routines when executing Administrator Required

- This check box tells the software to use a temporary execution folder whenever you execute a routine. Inspect copies the routine and any related files with the same name but with a different extension to a temporary folder for execution:

Inspect removes items from this folder whenever you close Inspect. This protects the original routine from any modification by Inspect. This option is recommended when routines are located on a server, or when you want to keep the original routine untouched.

This setting does not support the Out of Tolerance button used with Dimension Sets. For more information on that button, see "Dimension Sets".

Show application when a routine executes Administrator Required

- This check box tells the software to show the measurement application when you execute the routine. This currently works only with a PC-DMIS application add-on. PC-DMIS appears in its light theme. The CAD view appears in PC-DMIS and not embedded in Inspect. PC-DMIS closes once the routine's execution finishes.

Automatically generate PDF report Administrator Required

- If you mark this check box, the software generates a PDF version of the Slideshow after the routine executes. A button appears on the summary screen to open the report. This report shows information based on the template created for the measurement routine.

Allow Standard User to create and edit Slideshow Template Administrator Required

- If you mark this check box, non-administrators can use the Slideshow Template Editor to create or edit the .hxtp Slideshow template files.