Introduction

The SynView API is an application programming library which provides a unified and user friendly API for easy application building. It is based on current GenICam and GenTL standards.
The GenICam and GenTL are the current standards in the vision industry for digital imaging devices, assuring compatibility between HW and SW of different vendors. While the GenICam API is strongly object oriented the GenTL API is a plain C API with a completely different way to set and get items.

The SynView API is designed to free you from unnecessary workload and lets you concentrate on your problem or the solution of it. It hides the standard implementation details and provides a simple to use, unified application programming interface. Besides this, it also provides additional useful functionality, like displaying images, pre-processing, saving to files etc. It is designed as a tool to do simple tasks as well as complex applications. One of the aims of SynView is to avoid inventing a new terminology. Wherever possible it uses terminology from the above mentioned standards. In the following we will assume that you are not familiar with the GenICam and GenTL standards, so let's start with some elementary explanations.

SynView acts like a GenTL consumer which means the hardware is accessed through a GenTL library (so called provider). This library will be provided by a camera vendor in case their camera is not compatible on a lower level. The SynView set of libraries is delivered also with an own GenTL provider library designed for NET GmbH hardware.

SynView can be considered not only an API for cameras from NET GmbH, but also can be used for devices from other vendors as well as long as an appropriate GenTL library for this hardware is available. In case of compatibility of cameras on a lower level there might be no need for a GenTL library from the camera vendor. For example, Gigabit Ethernet cameras are usually compatible on a GigE Vision protocol level and can work directly with the NET GmbH GenTL provider library.

The GenICam standard specifies how the camera (or in general a device) exposes its features and how they can be controlled. The way how device features are displayed in the feature tree in the SynView Explorer is derived from the GenICam standard.
Note that in this manual we often use for simplicity the term camera instead of device, because in most cases you will use it with a real physical camera. The GenICam standard is not limited to cameras. An imaging device can be for example a scanner or any other device which provides images.

Reference Documents

SynView IP Config Tool

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