A trim saw camera measures how long a board is before the saw and how long it is after. To do that it has to know where the saw's stops are and what size cut each one makes.

Trim saw stops is where you teach it, from the console. Open it beside the live view, let the saw run, and the camera works the positions out for itself while you watch.

Open the panel

Open the data source, go to Remote Control, and choose Trim saw stops from the rail on the right. The live view starts on its own, and the panel opens next to it rather than over it — a collection runs for minutes, and you need to watch the boards while it does.

What a calibration actually is

Two things make up a stop: where it is, and what size it cuts.

• Where it is is measured by the camera. You never enter it, and you cannot nudge it from here.
• What size it cuts is the part only you know, so that is the only thing the panel asks you for.

The scale comes from the distance between two different cuts, which is why a camera normally needs at least two sizes before it can measure anything.

Start a run

Press Collect. A setup window opens and asks two things before anything goes to the camera.

Which side of the board the stops are on. Pick from the sides the camera offers — Left, Right, Top or Bottom. The list is the camera's own, based on how it is mounted, and it decides how every board in the run is measured. Pick the side the boards are trimmed from.

Expected cut sizes, which are optional. Type the sizes the saw cuts, separated by commas — 30, 34, 38. Leave it empty and you label each captured line afterwards instead. Both work; declare them up front when you already know them, and the panel can warn you about a size that will not separate cleanly from one the camera already has.

Then press the button to begin.

If the camera already has stops

A camera that has been calibrated before asks first what this run is for:

• Keep them and re-measure — the existing stops keep their sizes. Use this for a saw that has drifted, or to add a cut well clear of the ones already set up.
• Remove them and start over — forget the calibration first, then collect every cut from scratch.

Choosing to start over turns the window into a single confirmation naming how many stops will go. The run does not begin by itself afterwards — watch the applied count drop to zero, then press Collect again. Throwing away a working calibration and starting a new run should not be one gesture.

Adding one extra size to an already-calibrated saw is the case that catches people out. The camera matches each new line against the stops it already approved, so a new cut close to an existing one gets absorbed by it and the run is refused. If a size you typed is going to land too close, the setup window names it before you start.

Cameras set up for one cut size

A camera commissioned against a measured reference already has the scale that two sizes would otherwise provide, so it can be calibrated from a single cut. When that applies the window says so and shows the reference it was given. It is read-only — that reference is entered at the camera, not from here.

While it runs

Let the saw work. Each stop the camera finds appears as a captured line, and the panel reports what it is doing as it goes.

When you have enough, press Stop. Then:

1. Label each line with the size it cuts. The lines are lettered to match the letters drawn on the live video, so you can see which line is which.
2. Drop any line that is not a real stop — a stray reading, or something that went past that was not a cut.
3. Press Apply.

The panel counts labelled lines as you go, so you can see how many are still waiting.

A run stays open until you close it

Nothing times a collection out. If you close the panel, switch tab, or refresh, the camera carries on collecting with nothing on screen to say so — and the next Collect is refused because a run is already going.

So a chip in the data source toolbar stays visible while a run is unfinished, including one stopped but never applied, and including a run somebody started at the machine rather than from here. Open the panel again and either finish the run or cancel it.

Read next

• Remote Control — the rest of the tab: live view, recording, image sampling and device settings.
• Overview — the AI Vision workspace.