Bringing in a Gerber file to LabView

[fabb]

I am writing an Emissons scanning program and would like to bring in a Gerber file (printed circuit board file) into LabView to overlay on the emissions data.  What I am thinking is selecting this file and having the layout appear within LabView.  I would then like to be able to move the picture around and overlay it with the scanned data.  This would enable me to look at areas, componets, and traces of the board that are radiating energy for debugging purposes.  Is this going to be much more complicated than it sounds?  Right now I take the scanned data and import it into a program like Paint Shop Pro, and do the overlay there.  This gets difficult because of all the scaling problems that arise trying to line everything up.  Anybody have any ideas?  Thanks

[AdnanZ]

Is this what you are looking for?
NI Ultiboard - PCB Layout & Autorouting

[fabb]

No, but it does look interesting.  I actualy got LabView to bring in a JPEG, BMP image and overlay it with another image, but only on a XY graph.  I tried to do the same thing with the Intensity Graph/Chart and it wouldn't work.  I used a property node with the XY graph and it worked fine.  The Intensity Chart did not have the property that would allow you to set the imported image to the back, only the front which covers up the other image.  Do you know of anyway of doing this? Thanks,

Kirk

[AdnanZ]

You are on the right path. Unfortunately, that is the limitation of the Intensity Chart.

[fabb]

Is this something that is improved in a later version of LabView?  I am using 8.0 right now.  Additionaly if not yet available, is this something that can be added into a later version of LabView? I would like to make a formal request that this property node (Plotimages.back/middle/front) is added to the intensity graph just as it is with the XY graphs.  Thanks very much!!

Kirk

[AdnanZ]

You can make the request at the Product Suggestion Center. It would be best if you can give a brief description of your application and how this feature would help you.

[Wiebe@CARYA]

But you can make any chart area transparent, and put a picture control behind it. You can change the chart area with a property to match the picture. Loading a picture into the picture control (bmp,,jpg or png) is easy.

As an alternative, you can use the picture control charts to draw the data.

Regards,

Wiebe.

[fabb]

How can I make the graph area of an Intensity graph transparent?  Can you show me where or how to do this?  Sizing the graph area should not be a problem, just making the area transparent.  Thanks so much!

Kirk

[Wiebe@CARYA]

Ok, you where talking about the XY Chart earier on...


You can make the intensity graph transparent, but it's pointless. To make it transparent, you press Shift Right mouse, and select the paint tool, and select transparent. Do the same for the frame of the intensity graph, and you can look right through it. However, when you put data in it, all data will be represented oblique. So you still won't be able to look through.


The data you want on top of your picture has to be blend with the background. So, load the picture, and convert it to a 2D array (unflatten). Then, you need a mask color in your 2D intensity graph data that is transparent. Then, for each element in your data, check if it's the mask color, and if it is, display the background picture.


You also can do this with the picture control (if you have LV pro or full). Simply load the picture, and draw it in a picture control. Then, flatten the data so LabVIEW will see it as a picture. Add a mask to it with the mask VI, and draw it in the same picture control.


Then you'll have a intensity picture with a background picture.


Regards,


Wiebe.

[fabb]

Thanks it works well!!!  After looking into the scaling function, it appears to be more difficult than I originally anticipated.  I am saving a paint image as a bmp file and then importing that into LabView.  The transparency function works very well but I would like to be able to automaticaly scale the size of the image to match the emissions data area.  Any idea how to extract the dimensional data from the image? Is there an easier way to do this?  Thanks for your help it has been greatly appreciated!!!

Kirk