I’m not going to rehash all the arguments for and against the DVT product line, although I will say that the big differentiator in the eyes of most users is the ability to write scripts, but I do want to share the response from Cognex to the flurry of complaints.
Rick Roszkowski of Cognex posted the following justification/explanation, and rather than try to paraphrase and summarize, I thought I’d just reproduce it here in full (and yes, I do have Rick’s permission to do so.)
Dear DVT Smartlist Community,
I'd like to take a few minutes to respond to [those] who have expressed their views on the Smartlist regarding customer support, service and product technology.
Last-Time Buy & Customer Awareness
Cognex fully understands the difficulties and challenges of migrating customers from one product line to another. We have been proactively meeting with our direct customers and channel partners for several years during this product line consolidation period and have successfully migrated the vast majority of DVT customers and applications to other Cognex products. We continue to welcome the opportunity to meet with and support our channel partners and their key customers during this transition period.
With respect to concerns over ongoing service and support; a primary reason Cognex accelerated the last-time buy period for a number of DVT models was so that we could maintain sufficient reserve positions of inventory to meet repair and service requests for the stated 5 year support period - assuming repair demands stay consistent with the trend for the past 12 months.
Technology
We do recognize gaps in functionality remain between the In-Sight® and DVT product lines, and the gap exists both ways. Each product line offers some unique, powerful and innovative features not found in the other product line. For example, the In-Sight Custom View capability is a patented and unmatched feature in the industry, and In-Sight products have an extensive set of network communication protocols to support integration with virtually all major industrial automation vendors.
PatMax® and IDMax® tools are industry leading technology. A number of unique DVT product features have been cited in this Smartlist thread, and Scripting and custom I/O management remain the most significant advanced features yet to be fully addressed by the In-Sight product line. Some of the gaps are filled by other Cognex products, like VisionPro(r), yet there are still others that go unmet. At this time, I must respectfully defer specific comments regarding future product enhancements in this public forum due to corporate policies, but I can say that we know work remains to more fully replace the DVT product line.
While it's easy to focus on what hasn't been done, it's also easy to lose sight of what has transpired in the past several years. Since the acquisition, Cognex has systematically migrated features of the DVT product line to the In-Sight family based on customer and channel partner feedback. During this time, we've sought to balance our engineering efforts to consolidate the product lines against demands for new products and features to meet emerging markets and applications, not to mention competitive threats.
As we've migrated features, we've also taken the opportunity to improve robustness, quality, performance and/or ease-of-use. A sample of features we've migrated includes:
- Image Filters (improved speed)
- Retained Images - Filmstrip (easier to use)
- Record/Playback (easier to use)
- Color Tools (improved ease-of-use and improved capability)
- Composite Shapes / Masking
- Link-Local Addressing
- Acquisition Trigger Delay
- Modbus Communication
- Robot Drivers
- Non-linear calibration (Cognex algorithm is 3x more accurate and supports DVT grid patterns)
- Line Scan Camera (superior image quality, faster processor, yes it still needs additional features)
- Hi-Res Color Camera
- EasyBuilder UI modeled on the Intellect UI.
- VisionView and EasyViews (to replace SmartLink)
With respect to remarks regarding integration into VB applications and sending terminal commands, I have to admit I'm quite surprised by comments like these and appreciate the support from those of you that have chimed in on this subject. The In-Sight product line provides a free .NET and ActiveX Display Control for integration into VB. The In-Sight product line also offers a comprehensive SDK (software developer's kit) built in .NET with full inter-op capability in to COM/ActiveX containers. The In-Sight SDK has been used by many of our large customers and systems integrators to create custom user interfaces and to integrate In-Sight into 3rd party HMI applications. The ToolBuilder feature of EasyBuilder allows users to create their own add-ins to EasyBuilder and provides means for our channel partners to protect their Intellectual Property. In-Sight also has an extensive set of native mode commands (i.e. DVT terminal commands) accessible via the SDK, through direct Windows socket communications or from any microcontroller via Ethernet or serial links.
My goal is not to provide a tit-for-tat on the capabilities of the two product lines, but to help bring some clarification to the situation.
In closing, I would like to thank the entire DVT Smartlist community. The Smartlist user's forum remains an integral legacy of DVT Company maintained and supported at Cognex. Many of you have been instrumental in helping drive requirements and assist with customer and application conversions. Many of you have found clever and creative ways to use In-Sight products to overcome feature-set differences between the two products.
The openness and candor of the Smartlist is a powerful tool, be it positive and supportive, or negative and critical. Rest assured we are listening to everything.
In the future, if you have specific concerns or requests, you are welcome to contact me directly.
Rick RoszkowskiSr.
Director of Marketing
Vision Systems Business Unit
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