Calibrate the camera
Solve lens distortion. One-time setup per camera + lens combination.
Every camera lens distorts the image. Wide-angle lenses curve straight lines. Lens calibration computes the correction so straight things look straight after correction. This is step one before alignment.
What you need
- A camera physically installed and visible in Beam Bench. See Install a camera.
- A printed calibration target, a regular grid of dots or crosses with known spacing. A standard chessboard pattern works.
- 10-15 minutes.
Steps
1. Print and place a target
Print a chessboard pattern (or similar regular grid) at a size that comfortably fills the camera's view. A 10 × 10 grid at 20 mm spacing is a reasonable starting point.
Lay it flat on the bed. Make sure the camera sees the whole pattern.
2. Open the Calibration dialog
- Open the Camera panel.
- Click Calibrate Lens.
- The Camera Calibration dialog opens.
3. Add calibration points
For at least 2 points (more is better, aim for 4-8):
- Click Add Point.
- Image X / Y: the pixel location of the point in the camera image.
- Ref X / Y: the corresponding location in mm on your printed target (e.g. the corner of the third square at 60, 80).
4. Solve
Click Solve. The metrics appear: Quality (%), RMSE (pixels), Scale, Rotation, Translation.
Quality above ~90% with low RMSE means good calibration. Below that, add more points and re-solve, or check that your point coordinates are correct.
5. Save
Click Save Calibration. The calibration is stored on the active machine profile.
Verify it worked
- The camera image, after calibration, shows straight lines as straight (verify with a long ruler on the bed).
- The Camera panel shows the saved calibration in its status.
When to redo
- You swap lenses.
- You change zoom on a zoom lens.
- You change the camera entirely.
The calibration travels with the active machine profile.