Machine vision system editing environment for a part program in which a continuous stream of image acquisition operations are performed during a run mode

A precision machine vision inspection system comprising an imaging portion, a stage for holding one or more workpieces in a field of view (FOV) of the imaging portion, a control portion, a display, and a user interface, wherein the machine vision inspection system further comprises:

• a learn mode operable to receive user input to control operations of the machine vision inspection system and record instructions corresponding to the controlled operations in order to create a part program, operable to edit a part program, and operable to execute previously recorded part program instructions according to an edit mode of execution, the learn mode including user interface features comprising:
• a user-controllable stream mode instruction element usable to designate a stream mode segment which comprises a segment of a part program that is designated for stream mode execution;
• an editable part program representation of part program instructions, comprising image acquisition instruction representations corresponding to image acquisition operations, image analysis instruction representations corresponding to image analysis operations, and a stream mode segment representation;
• and
• a run mode operable to execute a previously created part program, the run mode comprising a non-stream mode for executing part program instructions which are not in a stream mode segment, and a stream mode for executing part program instructions which are in a stream mode segment, wherein,
• the learn mode is configured such that:
• the editable part program representation represents a first plurality of part program instructions comprising image acquisition and corresponding image analysis instructions in a first order corresponding to an order in which the corresponding controlled operations were performed to create the part program;
• the edit mode of execution executes the part program image acquisition instructions and corresponding image analysis instructions of the first plurality of part program instructions to perform the image acquisition operations and corresponding image analysis operations in a manner that is consistent with the first order, regardless of whether or not the first plurality of part program instructions are included in a stream mode segment;
• and
• the run mode is configured such that:
• the stream mode executes the first plurality of part program instructions, when included in a stream mode segment, according to a second order, the second order comprising:
• performing the first plurality of part program image acquisition instructions to perform their corresponding image acquisition operations in a sequential order without dependence on performing the corresponding image analysis operations, and performing the first plurality of part program image analysis instructions to perform their corresponding image analysis operations after their corresponding images are acquired.