Reference Section > Installation and Deployment > Touchcut Integration (STP) > The PrimeCut Operator App

On the Serial tab of the Operator App you can photograph the marking on the plate and have the app try to read the heat or serial number off it. It saves typing, and it lets you see the stamp again on screen rather than bending over the steel a second time.

IMPORTANT:
A reading is a suggestion, never a fact. Always check it against the plate before you use it. The app never fills a box in by itself - you choose the reading, and you choose the box.

Taking a photo

The two buttons sit on the right of the Plate auditing heading:

•The camera button photographs the plate now. On a phone or tablet it opens the device camera, so you get the proper camera with autofocus. On a desktop or panel PC it opens a preview from the webcam with a Take photo button.

•The folder button uses a picture already on the device - one taken earlier, or sent over from another phone.

Photos are shrunk down and re-saved before they are kept. Location information from the phone is removed.

Looking at what you have taken

Each photo appears under the heading with its size. Tap a photo to select it. Double-tap it to see it full size, and tap anywhere to close. Tap Discard on a photo you do not want.

Photos are held on the tablet or phone only, and only until you change plate. They are not saved to the plate, and they are not sent to PrimeCut. If you change plate, change machine or reload the page, they are gone. If you need to keep a photo of a stamp, take it with the ordinary camera app as well.

Reading the marking

Select a photo and tap Read this photo.

The first read on a device takes a few seconds longer while the reader loads. After that it is quick. If you tap it and nothing seems to happen, give it a moment - a progress message is shown.

The app reads in two ways, and it tells you which one it used.

•A barcode, QR code or square dot code on a mill label. This reads exactly or not at all - a code carries its own checking. The heading says Read from a barcode - these are exact and the reading is marked barcode. If there is a mill sticker on the plate, photograph that.

•The characters themselves, where there is no code. This is a guess. The heading says Read by OCR - check each one against the plate before using it, and each reading carries a percentage showing how sure the reader is.

What it will and will not manage

•A printed barcode or QR code on a mill label can be read exactly, but only on a device that supports it. Android tablets do. iPads do not, and nor do most Windows tablets, and on those the app falls back to reading the printed characters instead.

•Marking that is stamped, etched or punched into the steel very often will not read, especially on rusty or brushed plate. That is normal. Type it in from the plate.

•Readings the reader is not confident about are deliberately not offered. A wrong number that looks plausible is worse than no number, because there is no way for you to tell them apart. If you see Marking was found but not read confidently enough to offer, along with what it thought it saw, that is the app doing its job.

•Barcode reading is not available on every device. It works on Android tablets, but not on an iPad and not on a Windows desktop, which go straight to reading the characters. Nothing is broken - it is the browser.

Getting a better photo

•Get in close, so the marking fills the frame.

•Put the light across the marking rather than behind you. A shadow sitting in the stamp reads far better than a flat, bright photo.

•Wipe the scale or the dust off the stamp first if you can.

•Take a second photo from a different angle and read that one instead. Tap Read again to have another go at the same photo.

Putting a reading into a box

Each reading is listed with how sure the reader is, and a Copy to... box beside it. Check the reading against the plate, then pick which field it belongs in: Heat Number, Serial Number, Test Certificate or Mill of Origin.

The value is put into that box for you and the box flashes so you can see where it went. The Copy to... box keeps the field you chose, so as you work down the list you can see which readings you have already used.

A reading copied in this way behaves exactly as though you had typed it. You can still edit it, and the Reconcile button updates straight away.

See Reconciling a Plate in the Operator App.