Overview of the pylon Viewer

The pylon Viewer is an application for viewing and changing most of the camera parameter settings using a graphical user interface.

The pylon Viewer is part of the Basler pylon Camera Software Suite. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

In this topic Hide

Main Window

pylon Viewer Main Window

Menus

File Menu

Use the File menu to exit the pylon Viewer and to save the current image.

View Menu

The View menu offers the following options:

Camera Menu

The Camera menu gives you options to operate the camera, to manipulate the camera's settings or to add a GigE camera that wasn't detected automatically:

Tools Menu

The Tools menu gives you access to the Bandwidth Manager dialog as well as all installed pylon tools, e.g., pylon USB Configurator (Windows only), pylon IP Configurator, pylon CL Configurator (Windows only), or Color Calibrator (only available if you're using a Basler MED ace camera). It also gives you access to the Options dialog.

Window Menu

The Window menu allows you to select or deselect the panes that you want to display, e.g., the Devices pane or the Histogram pane.

Help Menu

Use the Help menu to submit feedback on the pylon application, contact Basler support, and view general information about the pylon Viewer, e.g., which plugins have been installed. From here, you can also access the Basler Product Documentation, the pylon Deployment Guide, the pylon SDK Samples Manual, and all the programmer's guides (if SDKs have been installed).

Toolbar Buttons

Panes

When you open the pylon Viewer for the first time, the following panes will be displayed:

Devices Pane

The Devices pane displays a device tree in which all cameras that are connected to your computer are listed grouped by interface type. The interfaces shown vary depending on which options you have chosen during the installation of the pylon Camera Software Suite. As an example, a Basler ace GigE camera, a Basler ace USB camera and two camera emulation devices are shown in the screenshot above. Using the Show Cameras Only option, you can display only the cameras without the interface information.

In this pane, you can also select whether to auto-scan in regular intervals for recently connected devices. Alternatively, you can click the Refresh button Refresh Icon to refresh the device tree manually.

Features Pane

The Features pane displays all features that are available on the camera that is selected in the Devices pane.

In this pane, you can also select whether to automatically poll the camera in regular intervals. Alternatively, you can click the Refresh button Refresh Icon to refresh the features list manually.

Image Display Area

Images and videos taken by the camera are displayed here. There is an image window tab for each camera that is currently open. At the bottom is a status bar that provides information about the image you're capturing or the video you're recording. When positioning your camera, you can display a crosshair and grid as visual aids.
Images can be displayed in full-screen mode by clicking the Full-screen Button button in the toolbar. To move the full-screen image to a second screen, right-click in the image and choose Screen #2 from the context menu. The image will then move to your second screen.

Feature Documentation Pane

The Feature Documentation pane displays information about the feature currently selected in the Features pane. The feature descriptions are available in a variety of languages. Pick your language in the Language drop-down list.

Message Log Pane

The Message Log pane displays information about actions carried out with the pylon Viewer, e.g., opening and closing a camera or starting a recording. There are different message levels: Information, Warning, and Critical.

Adding Panes

Via the Window menu, you can select more panes to display. By default, some of them will be docked on the right-hand side of the pylon Viewer, others will be floating.

Rearranging Panes

All panes in the main window have buttons for closing the pane and for undocking it from the pylon Viewer window. If a pane is undocked, you can move it around freely on your desktop. If you want to dock it again, follow these steps:

  1. Start dragging a pane.
    A positioning aid appears.
    Positioning Aid
  2. With the mouse cursor, point to the location where you want to drop the pane.
    The desired window area will be highlighted in blue.
  3. Drop the pane.

The following animation demonstrates this.

Animation of How to Rearrange Panes

This way you can fully customize the pylon Viewer window and rearrange panes as desired.