Communications pane

The Communications pane enables you to view and manage the state of your Vicon system, and streamline your motion capture workflow.

The tabs at the bottom of the Communications pane enable you to switch between the available monitoring tools.

Tip
To avoid the pane taking up too much onscreen space, you can choose to hide the Communications pane when you load a trial. To do this, on the Window menu, select the Close Communications Pane on Trial Load option. Alternatively, to temporarily hide/reveal the Communications pane, so that the tabs are minimized to the bottom of the screen without completely closing, double-click any of its tabs.
You can also hide individual tabs by clearing options in the Plug-ins panel (Window menu > Plug-ins) and then restarting Nexus.

For information, see:

Data Management tab

The Data Management tab contains the following controls:

Database location You can view the full path of the active node in the trial database at the top of the Data Management tab. To access the files in Windows Explorer, click the hyperlink.
Navigation buttons You open the Manage Databases dialog box, go forward a node, go back a node and move up a level using the navigation buttons at the top left of the Data Management tab.
Search button Displays or hides the Search window. For more information, see Advanced data searching.
Show Trial Loading Options button Displays or hides the Raw Data Loading Options area, in which you can specify your requirements for loading large trials.
For more information, see Load large trials.
Show File Transfer/Batch Processing Interface button Displays or hides the Video Transfer/Batch Processing/Biomechanics Workflow pane on the right side of the Data Management tab.
For more information, see Work with digital video files in the Vicon Nexus User Guide, and Batch process trials and Biomechanics workflow in the Vicon Nexus Reference Guide.
Data Management toolbar You create and manage nodes in the database hierarchy using the buttons in the toolbar at the top right of the Data Management tab. The buttons are:
- New Patient Classification button
- New Patient button
- New Session
- Filter displayed items (Enter text to begin filtering)
- Launch Nexus Insight (Nexus 2.16 and later—see the Nexus Insight documentation)
- New Polygon Report
- Turn search interface on or off (see Advanced data searching in the Vicon Nexus Reference Guide).
Database hierarchy nodes You view a visual representation of the structure and contents of a trial database, and select individual data types for loading in Nexus, in the nodes on the Data Management tab.
Data type icons You can view and select individual motion capture files using the icons that represent the data saved for the trial.
Data fields You can view or enter descriptive text or numerical data associated with a specific node in the trial database in the fields in the columns to the right of a node name.

For information on using Data Management in Vicon Nexus, see Data management with Nexus.

Quality tab

The data Quality pane, a tab in the Communications window, provides an overview of data quality for a subject across a whole trial and enables you to examine the health of individual trajectories. It also provides a way to navigate to the highlighted issues.

The display options in the Options column enable you to configure the display options for this tab. Alternatively, you can open the Options dialog box (F7), click Data Quality Panel Options on the left, and change the properties as required.

The Trajectory Sort Value list contains the following options:

Percentage Labeled Orders blobs with the highest labeling percentage first (from top left).
Max Gap Orders blobs with the trajectories containing the longest gaps first (see the Max Gap Length column of the Gap Filling section in the Label/Edit Tools).
Model Order Displays blobs in the same order as the markers are listed under the Markers node in the Subjects Resources tree.
Number Of Gaps Orders blobs with the trajectories with the highest number of gaps first (see the #Gaps column of the Gap Filling section in the Label/Edit Tools).
Trajectory Length Orders blobs with the longest trajectories first.

You can also select other options in the Options column to tailor the display to your requirements.

To save any changes to these settings, click the Save current configuration button in the Options dialog box.

For information on using the Quality tab, see Assess trial health with the data Quality pane in the Vicon Nexus User Guide.

History tab

The History tab in the Communications pane enables you to review all processing that has been performed on a loaded trial file.

This ensures that, even if you have not worked with the data before, you can continue to work on the trial without missing or duplicating processing steps performed by another Nexus user.

To display information about a particular event, click on the event on the History tab. Details about the settings used to run the event are displayed in the Property and Value columns on the right.

In the Notes field, you can add notes that will be useful to you or anyone else working with the same trial. Your notes are saved with the trial.

Note
A processing history is available only for files processed in Nexus 2.3 and above.

Theia tab

The Theia tab in the Communications pane enables you to access the Theia Batch Interface. From here you can process Nexus video data from within Theia3D, without having to launch Theia3D and manually process the data.

The Theia Batch Interface on the left enables you to select the required video files to process and to run Theia processing on all the files in the specified session folder. The files are processed through Theia3D, resulting in the output of C3D file(s) that contain rotation data for each subject. You can then run Nexus pipeline operations to merge the rotations into your Nexus subject and to calculate the joint angles, all without leaving Nexus.

Tip
Unlike the Theia pipeline operation, which loads each trial into Nexus, when you use the Theia Batch Interface, you can process your optical data at the same time in Nexus while Theia runs and processes the video data in the background.

The Theia tab contains the following areas:

For more information, see Run Theia processing on video files in the Vicon Nexus User Guide.

Theia Batch Interface

Component	Description
Folder field	Enter or browse to the full path of the video trials that you want to process in Theia. Note that when you exit and relaunch Nexus, the path is remembered.
Theia executable field	Enter or browse to the full path for the Theia3D.exe file, for example, C:\Program Files\Theia\Theia3D. Note that when you exit and relaunch Nexus, the path is remembered. If Theia closes, Nexus tries to relaunch Theia for a single retry for a trial. If the trial won't open, it moves on to the next trial. If you want to stop Theia launching, click Cancel processing.
Theia preferences field	If you want to use the preferences that you use in Theia, enter the full path to the required Theia prefererences file. This must be exported from Theia and saved as a PXT file on the local machine.
Create folder hierarchy check box	If you want a folder hierarchy to be created, using the trial video files, ensure that this check box is selected. Unless you have a specific reason to save your files elsewhere, leave this option selected.
Process trials in folder button	Click to process the files specified in the Folder field.

Theia processing results area

In this area on the right of the Theia tab, the results of processing the specified files are displayed. Details include the time and the current status of the processed files. When processing is finished, the right side of the Theia tab displays the text 'Batch Processing: Finished.'

Python tab

The Python tab in the Communications pane enables you to set the path to your Python installation, and run Python scripts. For more information, see Modeling with Python.

Matlab tab

The Matlab tab in the Communications pane enables you to run MATLAB scripts and launch MATLAB. For more information, see Modeling with MATLAB.

Monitors tab

The Monitors tab enables you to configure monitors that you create in the Graph view pane to detect motion capture events.

For information on creating and using monitors and detailed descriptions of the options, see Using monitors.

The Monitors tab contains the following areas:

Monitors configuration management area

You manage monitor configurations in the Monitors tab using the configuration management section at the top of the pane.

Monitors area

The Monitors area enables you to define the monitor behavior. It contains the following components:

Component	Description
Monitors list	Lists the currently defined monitors. Select the check box next to a monitor name to enable the monitor, or clear the check box to deactivate the monitor. Select a monitor in the list to view or configure its properties.
AND button	When multiple monitors are selected from the list, this button adds a Boolean AND monitor that triggers an action when all of the monitor trigger conditions are present.
OR button	When multiple monitors are selected from the list, this button adds a Boolean OR monitor that triggers an action when at least one of the monitor conditions is present.
Remove button	Removes the selected monitor from the list.
Clear button	Removes all monitors from the list.

Actions area

The Actions section of the Monitors tab enables you to view or modify monitor action settings. It contains the following components:

Component	Description
Actions list	Actions that you add will execute when the monitor threshold and trigger conditions are met.
Add button	Click to add the selected action to the Actions list. Select from: Capture, External trigger, Timebar Event, Progress Bar, Range Overlay, Sound Tone, Toggle Monitor and Play Sound File.
Remove button	Click to remove the selected action from the Actions list.
Clear button	Clears all actions from the Actions list.

IMeasureU tab

The IMeasureU tab enables you to work with data recorded from Vicon IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units).

After you have finished capturing data and have plugged the IMUs into the PC, you use the IMeasureU tab to work with and transfer the data from the IMUs to the Nexus Session folder.

For information on working with IMUs and Nexus, see Work with Vicon IMUs in the Vicon Nexus User Guide .

The IMeasure U tab contains the following areas:

Transfer pane
Alignment pane

Transfer pane

The Transfer pane of the IMeasureU tab lets you transfer data captured with Vicon IMUs to the current Session folder in Nexus. Its buttons and lists enable you to filter the displayed items so that you transfer only the items that are required. It contains these components:

Option	Description
Select All	Selects all of the items in the filtered sensor item list.
Select None	De-selects all of the items in the filtered sensor item list.
Transfer Status	Choose from one of: All Selects all trials for each sensor that are listed with both Transferred and Not Transferred progress status Not Transferred Selects all trials for each sensor that is listed with Not Transferred progress status Tranferred Selects all trials for each sensor that is listed with Transferred progress status
Connection Status	Choose from one of: All Selects items from all IMU sensors regardless of connection status Connected Selects items from only IMU sensors that are connected to Nexus Not Connected Selects items from only IMU sensors that are not connected to Nexus
Session	Choose from one of: All Selects items from all sessions Selected Selects items from selected sessions only To clear currently selected sessions, choose Clear Selected.
Erase Selected Devices	Erases all data from the selected devices. Successfully cleared trials are removed from the list.
Sync trials with sensor	Removes from the transfer list data that cannot be found on the selected IMU sensor(s). (Advanced option)
Rebuild Transfer List	Adds trials to the transfer list from selected IMU sensor(s), if possible. (Advanced option)
Transfer Files button	Transfers selected trials from connected IMUs to the current Session folder in Nexus.
Cancel Transfer button	Cancels the current transfer operation.

Note that:

If you have filtered an item from the list, it is automatically de-selected. This is to prevent accidental transfer of items that are not displayed in the list.
Select All and Select None operate on all items that are visible in the list: an item must be visible in the list for its selection status to be updated.
The top level sensor item is never filtered out of the list.
The filtering is dynamic and the list refreshes when:
- Sensors are connected or disconnected
- Trials are captured
- Sensors are erased

Alignment pane

For information on using the controls in the Alignment pane, see Align IMU data with the Vicon world in the Vicon Nexus User Guide.

Status tab

Enables you to monitor the state of your Vicon system during any stage of the Nexus motion capture workflow. This is useful for identifying problems and determining the Nexus system component that needs to be examined.

The Status tab contains the following sections:

Status Summary
View a visual summary of the status of system components in the Status Summary section of the Status communications pane:
- Vicon Cameras
  View the status of Vicon cameras.
- Video Cameras
  View the status of digital video cameras.
- Connectivity
  View the status of Vicon connectivity units.
- Capture
  View the status of capture sessions in Nexus.
Tip: The background in each summary corresponds to the icon displayed for the devices in the System Resources pane. The color of a summary border reflects the status for the set of components:
- Green: All components OK
- Yellow: One or more components are on standby
- Red: One or more components are down
Status Details
View details of the status of a system component in the Status Details section of the Status tab. The contents of this section depend on the component you click on in the Status Summary section.

Log tab

Enables you to monitor Nexus system activity and troubleshoot any errors. For example, if a pipeline operation fails (indicated by a red X next to the operation in the Pipeline Tools pane), you can find information as to why the failure occurred on the Log tab.

The icon on the Log tab automatically appears to scroll to indicate that a warning is displayed (for example, a new log entry indicating that an operation has failed).

You are alerted to important errors by popup notifications that are briefly displayed at the bottom right of the Nexus window.

If you are using the default sounds supplied with Nexus and have audio enabled, a relevant sound clip is also played.

To view further details about the error in the Log, click the notification.

The notification disappears after four seconds.

Nexus 2.16 Documentation