Version

If your license allows, be sure you have the current Imatest version. It contains fixes for bugs found in earlier versions. Because Imatest 3.6+ uses a new compiler with greatly improved error reporting, some paragraphs below are prefixed “Pre-3.6” or “3.6+“.

The version number appears in the top bar of the Imatest main window. If it’s not the same as the latest version shown in the Change Log, we recommend that you download and install, and run the latest version. It’s usually unnecessary to uninstall a previous version.

If Imatest stops working, the problem is often a bad entry in imatest.ini, described below. Uninstalling and reinstalling Imatest rarely helps. Imatest.ini issues should always be addressed first. Clicking on Error reporting at the bottom of the Imatest main window brings up the window shown below, which has concise instructions on how to deal with errors as well as direct links.

Click on the Error reporting button on the bottom of the Imatest main window to bring up
the Error reporting and Troubleshooting window, which has concise instructions and direct links.

Installation

Update installations do not normally require an uninstall of the previous version, but if you encounter difficulties you may want to uninstall and reinstall Imatest. The Uninstaller is accessible from the Start menu (Start, All programs, Imatest, Uninstall) or from the Add or Remove Programs function of the Control Panel. It gives you the option of keeping or removing the Matlab runtime library archive (Imatest-lib.exe in versions prior to 3.6). (Keep is the default; you have to check the box to remove it.) Keeping it speeds up reinstallation. Remove it only if you don’t plan to reinstall Imatest or if you have good reason to suspect it may be corrupted (a rare occurrence). Click here for full installation instructions.

Important changes with Imatest 3.6

Starting with Imatest 3.6, the new R2009B compiler (Version 4.11) replaces the old R13 compiler (Version 3.0.1). The new compiler requires a much larger library download: the 178MB Matlab Compiler Runtime (MCR) (a sort of virtual machine). Imatest is normally compiled as a 32-bit application, which runs on 32 and 64-bit computers. (64-bit applications have little performance advantage and won’t run on 32-bit computers.)

The first time you download Imatest 3.6+ you should click on Full version, which contains the MCR. The download and installation may take several minutes each. When the installation is finished,

  • The MCR should be located in %ProgramFiles%\MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v711 in 32-bit systems (%ProgramFiles is C:\Program Files in English-language Win32 installations) or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\MATLAB\MATLAB Compiler Runtime\v711 in 64-bit systems (%ProgramFiles(x86) is C:\Program Files (x86) in English-language Win64 installations)
  • Imatest is located in %ProgramFiles%\Imatest\Imatest in 32-bit systems (%ProgramFiles is C:\Program Files in English-language Win32 installations) or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Imatest\Imatest in 64-bit systems (%ProgramFiles(x86) is C:\Program Files (x86) in English-language Win64 installations)

Once the MCR has been installed, you should click on Upgrade only to update Imatest.

If you try running Imatest before the MCR has been installed the following message may appear. 

This application has failed to start because mclmcrrt711.dll was not found.

Problems during installation

Installation or registration can fail if

  • You don’t have administrator privileges on your computer.
  • Your computer is behind a strong corporate firewall.
Install error

 

Pre-3.6: This message sometimes appears in systems that have strong firewalls. It can usually be corrected by making sure the Matlab runtime library, Imatest-lib.exe, available from the Download page, is in the same folder as the Imatest installation file. You may need to temporarily disable your firewall and manually download the library file.

 

If you have receive an indication of a “DNS error” (very rare), try clicking Start, Run… Enter ipconfig /flushdns in the Open… box, then click OK.

Problems following installation

Pre-3.6:  The most common installation problem is a failure of the Matlab runtime library, Imatest-lib.exe, to download or install properly. This results in an error message of the form,

“The procedure entry point … could not be located in the dynamic link library … .dll.”

If you get such a message, check to see if file Imatest-lib.exe has been downloaded correctly. Also, check the status of your firewall. Strong firewalls have caused this problem.

  • If it was downloaded automatically (during installation) there should be a copy in the Imatest installation folder (C:\Program files\Imatest\Imatest in typical win32 English language installations).
  • If you downloaded it manually (usually required in systems with firewalls), there should be a copy in the same folder as the Imatest installer program, Imatest-x.x.exe.

Windows XP Explorer reports its size as 8,513 kB, but the tooltip that appears when you move the cursor over the file name reports its size as 8.31 MB (go figure). If the download failed, a smaller size may be reported.

If you fail to find Imatest-lib.exe or if you suspect that it was downloaded incorrectly, download it by right-clicking here or on any of the links in this section, then reinstall Imatest. Imatest-lib.exe is a self extracting zip file that places the Matlab runtime library in subfolder bin\win32 and toolbox\matlab of the Imatest installation folder. If problems persist, check to see that these folders are populated, then send e-mail to Imatest support with the text of the error message, if any, that appears in the DOS window.

Pre-3.6: Missing DLL files  In rare instances, four DLL files, jpeg_depth.dll, dataread.dll, imjpg8.dll, and rjpg8c.dll, may be missing from subfolder toolbox\matlab\iofun\private\ of the Imatest installation folder. Because they are not included in Imatest-lib.exe they are installed using a different procedure, which fails in fewer than 1% of installations. If you get a message that indicates they may be missing, you should check for them in the subfolder and install them manually if they are absent.

  • In Imatest 3.1 or later, the four files are installed to the Imatest installation folder as well as the subfolder. They can be copied to the subfolder ( \toolbox\matlab\iofun\private\; C:\Program Files\Imatest\toolbox\matlab\iofun\private\ in English language installations) if they are missing.
  • For earlier versions you can download jpegdlls.zip and copy the contents to the subfolder.

3.6+:  If you get a message similar to “This application has failed to start because mclmcrrt711.dll was not found,” you’ll need to download and install the FULL version, which contains the Mathab Runtime library (the MCR). This only needs to be done once for Imatest 3.6+. The download and installation may take several minutes each. Upgrade downloads and installations are much faster.

3.6+:  mllapack.dll  Procedure could not be found (mllapack.dll  La procédure spécifiée est introuvable en Français) Imatest starts normally, but terminates with this message displayed in a box. We have seen this problem twice. It was not easy to track down. A solution that worked for one customer (but required some effort) was found at the end of this Google post and also this Matlab Central post.

“I found that the error comes from a dll version problem (as suspected). An older “libmmd.dll” was present in windows/system32 directory. The version that comes with the Matalb Runtime bin/win32 directory was not used. Getting rid of the older version solved the problem. I haven’t figured out yet why it was there and why it doesn’t get updated in the windows directory when installing the vcredist. What a pain.”

One other piece of advice may be worth exploring if this doesn’t work. This Matlab post states that “The crash is caused by an incompatibility between MATLAB and the CPU. This can happen if the processor does not support the SSE2 instruction set, for example, the Athlon XP 2200+ CPU.” This problem should not occur on computers manufactured after 2003.

Runtime errors

An image file cannot be read.  Matlab often can’t read image files that have nonstandard headers or other irregularities. Such files are rare in commercial cameras, but may crop up in prototype or development systems. You can often “launder” them using Irfanview, which you can download for free from Irfanview.com. It’a a valuable utility! Read the file into Irfanview, then save it. (You can use a different file name if you need to keep the original.)

If Imatest does not run as expected, the DOS window that normally stays minimized may contain helpful information. You can open it by clicking on the Imatest DOS Window icon in the taskbar. Here are some potential problems.

  • An Imatest run may fail if the image file path name contains non-Latin characters. We have seen such a failure with Chinese characters. The error message was
          The error message caught was       :     Invalid file identifier.
  • Imatest.ini, the file that contains settings stored when modules are run, may have gotten corrupted.

Imatest.ini  (and also rescharts.ini, multicharts.ini, etc.) contain saved settings used in Imatest runs. It is created when Imatest is first run. Settings include regions of interest (ROIs), plot selections, plot scales, calculation techniques, and more. Sometimes a setting gets corrupted and causes Imatest to crash. This has been less frequent in Imatest 3.7 was released.

Ini files are text files structured so that section titles are enclosed within brackets ( [ ... ] ) and lines have the form name = value, e.g., nwid_save = 2601.

     [section]
     name1 = value1
     name2 = value2
               …
     [next_section]

Imatest 3.7+  If a bad line is detected (with form other than name = value), the following window appears:

Ini file error message

The message indicates that there is an error on line 2. After OK is pressed, the ini file opens in Notepad. Delete or correct the offending line, then save the file. You can close Notepad and restart Imatest.

Pre 3.7:  If Imatest crashes and you receive a message that resembles, “ERROR: Error in parsing the file for keys: C:”, imatest.ini has been corrupted. It may contain some text that does not correspond to the standard ini file format. You’ll need to open imatest.ini (location below) and remove the offending code. Or delete (or rename) it if you can’t find the bad text.

There are several things you can do if you suspect that an ini file has been corrupted.

  • In the Imatest Main window (or in the Rescharts or Multicharts windows), click Settings, Reset defaults (all). This deletes imatest.ini, then recreates it with a few default values. The sections are repopulated when modules are run. Since all settings are lost, this is only recommended as a last resort.
  • Click Settings, View settings (ini file). This opens imatest.ini (or rescharts.ini or multicharts.ini if you are running one of those modules) in a simple editor (Notepad) that you can edit (if you have any idea what to change), then save by pressing control-S. You can also copy the contents and paste it into an email to Imatest support, as described below.
  • Imatest 3.6+: Click Settings, Copy settings (ini file). This copies the ini file to the clipboard. You can paste it directly into an email for us.
  • Click Settings, Edit/reset module(s) to open the INI file Editor/Debugger, shown below.

You can select a section to view or delete from the Section dropdown menu. To edit a line, select it in the large window, make the change in the edit window just above the large window, then press Enter. To delete the entire selection, press the Delete section contents button. When you are ready to save the changes press the Save button, which is grayed out until changes are made. If you with to cancel your changes, press either Reload ini file or Close.

If you cannot solve the problem, send an e-mail to Imatest support.

  • Tell us your operating system.
  • Include the contents of imatest.ini, which may contain helpful information for diagnosing the problem.
    You can open imatest.ini (or multicharts.ini or rescharts.ini) by clicking on Settings, View settings (ini file) in the Imatest, Multicharts, or Rescharts windows, then you can copy the contents from Notepad and paste them into your e-mail. In Imatest 3.6+ you can copy the contents directly into the clipboard by clicking on Settings, Copy settings (ini file).

    The ini files are located in %AppData%\Imatest, where %AppData% is a DOS environment variable whose file name can be determined by entering the command, dir ”%AppData%” in a DOS window.

  • You don’t need to know the actual location unless the error closes the Imatest DOS window. A typical English-language Windows Vista/7 location is C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming .In installations prior to Imatest 2.3 (the first release compatible with Windows Vista), the full file name was C:\Program files\Imatest\imatest.ini. (or counterparts in non-English installations, for example, C:\Programme\Imatest\imatest.ini in Deutsch.) When a version of Imatest prior to 2.3 is replaced with a newer version the file is automatically copied to the new location. Problems may occur when the %AppData% folder name contains non-Latin characters. (We are looking into this. The best solution may be to delete the old imatest.ini or move it manually.)
  • Send the text of the error message, if any, that appears in the DOS window. (Pre-3.6: See the box below for instructions on getting a screen dump from the DOS window. 3.6+: The session can be copied directly from the Imatest window.)
The Command (DOS) window
Imatest runs from a Command window (resembling a traditional DOS window) that normally stays minimized. When a run terminates unexpectedly or just stalls, the DOS window may contain useful debugging information. To get the DOS window contents,

Click on the Imatest icon in the taskbar (usually at the bottom of the screen) to bring up the DOS window.

Pre-3.6:  Procedure 1: Copy and paste text (simple, but a little tricky)

  • Right-click inside the DOS window, then click on Select All in the context menu.
  • Alternately, you can click on the icon on the upper-left of the window, click on Edit, click on Mark, then drag the cursor to select the text to copy.
  • Press Enter (or Return) on the keyboard. This is equivalent to Ctrl-C (Copy) in Windows (which doesn’t work in the DOS window).
  • Paste the text into your e-mail using a standard Windows Paste command (Ctrl-V or Edit, Paste).
  • It’s OK to delete obviously irrelevant text before you send the e-mail.

Pre-3.6:  Procedure 2: Copy and paste screen dump image (complex but reliable)

  • Click Alt-PrtSc or Alt-PrintScreen, depending on the keyboard.
  • Paste the image (from the clipboard) into an image editor. In most image editors (for example, IrfanView, a great free utility ), click Edit, Paste or control-V.
  • Save the image as a GIF or PNG file (much smaller than TIFF or BMP and clearer than JPEG).
  • Attach the file to the e-mail (or include it inline).

 
  • 3.6+:  Copy and paste the session directly from the Imatest window into an email message.
    • If the crash left the Imatest window open, click on File, Copy current session, and paste the contents in an email to Support.
    • If the crash closed the Imatest window open, reopen Imatest, then click on File, Copy previous session, and paste the contents in an email to Support.
    • The current or previous session can be examined in Notepad by clicking File, View current session or View last session.

Diagnostics runs

For Imatest errors that shut down the DOS window (this has become rare), or where extra diagnostic results may help in locating a problem,

  • Run Imatest from the Imatest folder (C:\Program files\Imatest\Imatest in typical win32 English installations) by double-clicking Diagnostics (or diagnostics.bat). This keeps the DOS window open after Imatest terminates so you can view the error message.
  • E-mail the error message to Imatest support. Tell us your Imatest version and operating system.

In some instances you can fix the problem by deleting imatest.ini (or renaming it, which is better because you have a record). Instructions here.

Path conflicts when other versions of Matlab are installed

X   The procedure entry point svDoubleSclarRemW could not be
     located in the dynamic link library libmwservices.dll

If a different version of Matlab from the one used for Imatest (6.5.1) has been installed on your system, there is a tiny chance that you may experience a path conflict that causes a similar error message— or Imatest may simply fail to run. This rarely happens because the batch file that initiates Imatest sets the path. Path issues and solutions are discussed in API/EXE instructions.

Rare occurrences

 

Bugs and all that

Pre-3.6:  The following message appears several times in the DOS window when you try to save data.

     Function ‘get_param’ is not implemented in standalone mode.

This has no effect on the saved images, and it’s rarely visible since the DOS window remains in the background. Matlab has described the problem, to be fixed in a future release, here.

Pre-3.6:  The Open files dialog box in some modules cannot be resized. This is a bug in Matlab Release 13. (However SFR has a new Open files dialog box that can be resized. And multiple files can be selected.)

More documentation

Instructions for individual Imatest modules can be found in the Imatest Documentation page.