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Inspection Viewer Tools

Mini articles for inspection viewer tools: annotation, measurement, angles, thermal, AI, notes, overlays, and canvas findings.

Updated 2026-05-0618 minreviewers, engineers

Annotation Tools

  • Box selection creates rectangular finding geometry for equipment, panels, defects, or surface regions.
  • Point selection anchors a finding at a precise location.
  • Note pins create movable contextual notes without requiring a full defect geometry.
  • Hide and show controls let reviewers reduce overlay clutter while preserving saved findings.

Measurement Tools

Ruler measures straight-line distance from two image points. It depends on range, camera field of view, image size, and calibration confidence.

Rectangle measures apparent width, height, and area from a selected box. It is best for panels, cabinets, mounts, and repeatable rectangular objects.

Circle measures radius, diameter, circumference, and area from center and edge points. It is useful for dishes, circular mounts, pipe openings, and corrosion zones.

Cable trace measures a polyline through several clicked points. It is designed for sagging, routed, or curved cable runs where a straight ruler would understate length.

For image measurements, source metadata and calibration confidence matter as much as the drawn geometry.

Angle Tools

Line of sight samples the selected pixel ray and reports world azimuth/elevation when camera heading and gimbal metadata are reliable.

Gravity tilt compares a selected image line against the gravity direction inferred from gimbal roll and pitch.

Manual tilt measures an angle between a reviewer-drawn line and a reference line when metadata is weak or unavailable.

Panel pointing solves approximate panel boresight from four visible panel corners, combining image clicks with camera geometry.

Dish pointing fits a dish aperture from rim points. More evenly spaced rim points improve the stability of the normal estimate.

Angle tools should be used with explicit attention to camera heading, gimbal metadata, target visibility, and geometric assumptions.

Thermal Tools

Thermal spot reads the temperature-like value at one pixel or small neighborhood. It is useful for hotspots and connector checks.

Thermal ROI summarizes a selected rectangle with minimum, maximum, average, and distribution context.

Thermal palette changes visual interpretation without changing the underlying source. White-hot, black-hot, iron, and rainbow palettes support different review tasks.

Isotherm bands highlight configured ranges so the reviewer can separate normal background from elevated or low-temperature regions.

Thermal colors are presentation aids. The engineering value comes from the underlying radiometric data, correction profile, and scene assumptions.

AI Triage Tools

AI triage runs defect inference where available. Reviewers can configure confidence and IoU thresholds, switch display mode, show or hide labels and scores, select detections, and create findings from reviewed detections.

AI output should be treated as reviewer assistance. Human review remains responsible for accepting, editing, or rejecting a proposed defect.

Canvas Finding Cards

When a finding is selected, a compact editor can appear near the geometry. This lets the reviewer edit title, notes, category, severity, visibility, and delete state without losing visual context.

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