Frequently asked questions

Mercury RT® is often shipped with a hardware key (HASP). If not, to obtain a license, send a license request to license.request@mercury-dic.com from the same PC where the application will run from.

The basic steps for working with Mercury RT® after camera connection and installation of camera drivers and licenses are:

• Select the active camera from the library that will be actively used, and the main window will be opened.
• Next is to set up the output configuration in case the user wants to send a measured quantity to the selected O/P.
• Create a new project by Project/New/Realtime Measurement or press Ctrl+N.

Four camera layouts can be used with Mercury RT® for the measurement. Camera layouts are the following:

• Mono Cameras: used for 2D measurements. One or more cameras can be used, but they are treated separately.
• Stereo Cameras: used for 3D measurements, and cameras can be combined when creating stereo pairs.
• Stitched Mono Cameras: used for 2D measurements with an extended field of view. Used for measurements, a measured point travels between the camera's field of view.
• Stitched Stereo Cameras: used for 3D measurements with an extended field of view. Used for measurements, a measured point travels between the camera's field of view.

Press the coordinate system button from the scene setup area. Place the grid on the measured plane. Press the Detect or Refresh Detect controls after the coordinate detection system is set but on the wrong plane. Use the Offset Plane function to put it in the correct working plane.

The most basic way of marking a sample is to use a marking pen such as the Schneider MAXX 130. There is no need to create an exact mark, just anything that will create contrast on the surface and will deform with the sample. The effects need not be made precisely at the Gauge Length distance, just close to it. Using spray paint is the most common method of applying a speckle pattern.

Define what type of measurement is needed (length, width, area). Mercury RT® has different types of measurement probes. Insert the investigations into the scene by selecting the Probes menu and clicking on the stage. Right-clicking on the inserted probe point opens the probe context menu from which the measurement values can be chosen.

There are four different regimes available together with two additional options,

• Run – default run mode. The system runs at a selected frame rate (if possible). The Frame Saved and Data Computed option is available. After stopping, keeps the data in a graph.
• Run in Snap Mode – Used during measurements with manual control of loading – wagon measurement, bridge measurements. A batch of images is captured only on a manual trigger (pressing Snap Frame, using a wireless presenter or remote-control command). The Frame Saved and Data Computed option is available.
• Run with Timer – defined batch size is captured in the defined time interval. Frame Saved and Data Computed option is available. Used during long-term measurements – 24-hour test of thermal behaviour of structure during climatic change.
• Run without Recording – processes the image data online. Does not record the image data. After stopping the measurement, all graph data is erased.
• Frames Saved – image data is saved for later post-process or video export.
• Data Computed – data is computed during recording. If unchecked, image data is only recorded for post-processing.

Unlock the measurement by clicking on the red lock in the camera window. Then rearrange the probes or change the correlation parameters and press the Recompute button in the main window.

To access the Vibrography tool, select the tools options in the main menu bar. Click the Vibrography to analyse the frequency domain of the measured values. The computed values are shown in several graphs: Amplitude, Phase, Power, and Energy. Numerical values are shown in the Signal Info tab. Check the Subset box to generate Campbell Diagram with the measured values.

Externally computed values are validated with Mercury RT® fulfilled computed data by selecting the tools options in the main menu bar and clicking on CAD/FEA tool button. This tool unleashes the Translation, Aligns the centre, Rotation, Flips the imported model, and imports external models (STL, CSV, PAM-STAMP or VTK files). It also enables Optimize Alignment, Compare Geometry, comparing values and exporting those compared values (Export comparison) to Microsoft Excel.

A series of samples with different geometry must be measured to make FLC. The higher the number of measurements, the more reliable results is expected. Set the tensor type as True Strain (Area probe context menu). The measurement itself can be performed as usual by the Run/Recompute buttons. The FLC/FLD tool must be opened from Tools in the main menu bar when all the projects are saved in one directory. The dialogue box will have a Section Editor tab, Section Graph tab, and FLC graph tab.

The list of options to export the data are exporting graph data to CSV & HDF5 formats, exporting area data to CSV & HDF5 formats, exporting data as STL model (mesh only) & VTK model (mesh with computed values), exporting as local example files either as JPEG or PNG formats. Generate report in PDF file format.

Mercury Software is based on Modularity, we have three types of Modules- BASIC, 2D and 3D with an extension of Crack (Crack Propagation – 2D), FormSYS (Bulge test- sheet metal), Vibrograpgy (Vibration Test) and TSA (thermoelastic Stress Analysis).

Yes, we provide the License in two ways.

• HASP Key- you can download mercury and use the HASP key on as many PCs as you want to.
• Direct License File- This can be used only with one PC.

Mercury offers unlimited Licenses.

Yes, if you have purchased TESS (Technical Support), you can reach us through our website; it’s currently under construction. So, we provide a direct link to our engineers to support you.

Hardware and software	Recommended requirements
CPU	Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 (8-core, 16-thread processor), scoring at least 8000 points on www.cpubenchmark.net
RAM	8GB; preferred is 16 GB DDR4 (for better multitasking and overall performance)
Storage	1 TB NVMe SSD
Graphics	Dedicated GPU with at least 2 GB memory (e.g., NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 or AMD Radeon RX 550)
Display	15.6" or 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS panel
LAN	Gigabit Ethernet Port
Ports	At least 2 USB 3.0 ports
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit