There are two software packages available for the Fluke portable thermal cameras, and this article will explain the difference:
- Fluke Connect Desktop
- Fluke SmartView
- Which software to use?
Fluke Connect Desktop
Fluke Connect Desktop is a combination of the reporting and analysis software with desktop client for the Fluke cloud based Fluke Connect platform. Fluke Connect platform allows to integrate data from various measurement tools for monitoring assets condition.
Fluke Connect Desktop provides support for more types of Fluke Industrial Imaging products, which includes also Diagnostic Scopes and Acoustic Imagers besides thermal cameras.
New functionality and new types of products are being added to the Fluke Connect Desktop software.
Currently it allows to
- analyze, export and reporting of thermal imaging data - thermal images.
- create reports for the data provided by the Diagnostic Scopes (Fluke DS701 & Fluke DS703FC) and Acoustic Imagers (Fluke ii900 & Fluke ii910).
- provide possibility to create LeakQ report with evaluation of leak sizes based on data created by the Fluke ii900 or Fluke ii910 in LeakQ mode.
- provide possibility to create simple asset tree, assign measurements to assets and track changes in asset status, synchronized with your FC cloud account.
Nevertheless, while the Fluke Connect Desktop software is modern software, which develops fast, gets regular updates with the new features and new functionality, it still is in rapid development to be on par in thermal images analysis and reporting compared to the old thermal imaging software, SmartView.
But there are already enough features unique to the Fluke Connect Desktop, which may encourage one to start using the Fluke Connect Desktop software as your prime software.
Fluke SmartView
The Fluke SmartView software platform exists already for more than 10 years. This is the more classical software platform for thermal image analysis and reporting only.
Being an older software platform, Fluke SmartView does not support integration with the Fluke Cloud.
At the same time, Fluke SmartView still remains one of the most powerful and one of the most functional free software packages for thermal imaging analysis and reporting.
It is still being used with older thermal camera models. The software is continues to be updated with release of new Fluke thermal camera models to provide support to the new thermal camera models.
Fluke SmartView will be supported and maintained until Fluke Connect Desktop software will reach complete parity and will become superior to the Fluke SmartView on thermal imaging analysis and reporting functionality.
Which software to use?
Both the Fluke Connect Desktop and Fluke SmartView software currently support all portal thermal camera models available now.
Both software platforms have their own unique strong points. If you want to use benefits of having possibility to use analytics of Fluke Connect for tracking health of your equipment over time, it is better to use Fluke Connect Desktop software.
If you want to use more developed thermal image analysis and reporting functionality of the SmartView, you still can select SmartView as your preferred software. If you prefer to use SmartView now and even in the future, when support for this software will be stopped, you still will be able to download Fluke SmartView software from Fluke web-site.
We recommend to start using Fluke Connect Desktop software as soon as you can, as this software will have more interesting developments and more functionality in the future.
You can download the Fluke Connect Desktop software here.
You can download the Fluke SmartView software here.