Track3D - B Troubleshooting
Last updated: Jul 25, 2026
B Troubleshooting
B Troubleshooting
Installation
Error message:
The wizard was interrupted before MATLAB component Runtime 7.x could be completely installed. You system has not been modified. To complete installation at another time, please run setup again. 1. Download the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package. For 32-bit systems, download vcredistx86.exe. For 64-bit systems, download vcredistx64.exe. 2. Install the package on the Track3D computer. 3. Run MCRInstaller.exe. At some point you see a pop-up message
indicating that .Net Framework is not installed. Click the option to
continue without installing .NET Framework.
Track3d
Track3D closes immediately after start
This may occur in a few cases. When the EthoVision XT hardware key is not inserted, or not recognized by Windows. Check that the hardware key is inserted in one of the USB ports of your computer and the red LED is on. If the hardware key is inserted and functioning, it might be that it does not contain the license of Track3D, or the license was not
correctly updated. Start EthoVision XT and choose Help > About
EthoVision XT > License Info. Check that Track3D is selected. If that
is not the case, contact the Noldus office nearest to you. You may have just installed Track3D on a Windows 10 or 11
computer. Run the file ebussdk3.1.14.3284.exe located on the
B Troubleshooting installation drive. You can download the installation files on the my.noldus web portal. The hard disk may be full. Check that there is enough space on the hard disk. Remove unnecessary programs and files. Then restart Track3D. If the steps above do not solve the issue, contact my.noldus.com.
tip Some error messages appear for a very short time before the DOS
window closes. Make a screen recording that captures the computer screen while you try to start the software. There you can see error messages that help troubleshooting.
Error message
Can't find mclmcrrt7_15.dll However the file is present in the folder C:\MCR\v715\runtime\win32.
Right-click the Track3D.exe or CentroidFinder exe, select Properties,
Compatibility, then select Run this program as an administrator.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Attempted to access Linesrelevant(1): index out of bounds because numel(Linesrelevant)=0 This message appears after you choose the file name for the output file. Track3D cannot calculate any 3D data. This happens in two cases: When the coordinates in the input files have not been exported in pixels. When the tracks obtained from camera 1 and camera 2 do not start at the same video time. Check in EthoVision XT that: The measurement unit for distance is mm. All Arena Settings are set to pixel calibration. The Trial Control Settings does not have the Time condition box inserted before the Start track action box. After that: B Troubleshooting 1. Clear the trials already acquired. 2. Make the necessary changes in Experiment Settings, Arena Settings and Trial Control Settings. - In the Experiment Settings, select mm as units of distance. - In the Arena Settings, right-click the panel on the right and select Set pixel calibration on. - In the Trial Control Settings, remove the condition box and
restore the connecting arrow between the Start trial box and the
Start track box. These two boxes must be connected directly. 3. Re-do the tracking. Remember to start the trials from the same video time in both camera views. 4. Export the new tracks to Track3D.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Track3D>pushanimate_Callback at 2293 The 3D chart window was closed before stopping an animation. First stop the animation, then close the window.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Error using --> loaddefinedlibrary The specified module cannot be found This can happen for both Track3D and CentroidFinder. Make sure that the C:\MCR folder and all subfolders are not read-only.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Too few calibration points are visible for camera 1 This error may appear when you load a calibration file in TXT format, and the file contains one or more extra tabs between the 8 numbers in each row. Track3D gives an error message because it always expects a total of eight values in each row. If it finds another tab (which contains no value) it considers this value undefined and stops looking in the next lines. So it's like Track3D sees a calibration file with only one marker. Make sure to remove the extra tabs between the marker values. B Troubleshooting If you obtained the TXT file from an excel file, check that the format of the cells is Number, not others, then export to TXT again. If you obtained a Calibration file in TXT, for example when you run CentroidFinder and Excel is not installed on that computer, then check that only tab spaces, not blank spaces, are present between the values.
Error message in the DOS command window:
DLT3dcalc at 22
In Track3D, select New calibration and click Start calculations. Make
sure to select the correct calibration file.
Error message in the DOS command window:
"ÿ_Number of header lines" was read This happens when you import text files of wrong format. Open each
text file, select File > Save as, choose Encoding: ANSI. Save with a
different name, then import those files in Track3D.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Cannot access the MCR component cache The DOS command window closes after a very short time. Go to the following folder: C:\Users[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp[user name] and delete the folder mcrCache7.15., then restart Track3D.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Error using ==> xlswrite at 211 Object returned error code: 0x800A03EC Track3D attempts to write in an Excel file with extension *.xls, where the row limitation is about 65000, but the number of rows in the output file is probably greater than that.
The solution is to re-run the analysis. In the Save As window, type the
extension "*.xlsx" in the File name field, just before clicking Save. B Troubleshooting Do this whenever you analyze long recordings (e.g. longer than an hour or so).
Error message in the DOS command window:
Values must be increasing and non-NaN This occurs when: You have loaded a calibration file which contains zeroes in the last three columns. Copy the real-world x,y,z coordinates of the calibration markers to the three columns of the calibration file and click again the Start calculations button. At least one of the Arena Settings in EthoVision XT is not pixel- calibrated. See page 134.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Error in ==> @(hObject, eventdata)Track3D... The software (either Track3D and CentroidFinder) are installed on a folder other than C:\MCR. If that is the case, remove Track3D and the MCR runtime library. Then, re-install Track3D in the correct folder (C:\MCR).
The calibration check shows a "star"pattern
B Troubleshooting The pattern shown in the figure above appears in the figures
Calibration check camera 1 and Calibration check camera 2 after you
open the calibration file in Track3D. The reason for this pattern is that the calibration file does not contain the real world coordinates of the calibration markers. To solve this issue, open the calibration file and replace the zeros with the x,y,z coordinates copied from the calibration reference file. See step 12 on page 34.
The position of the subject in the chart does not match what I see in
the video
Most probably the calibration is not valid anymore for those tracks. This happens for example when you move the cameras (or the tracking chamber) after calibration. Check carefully the video and the calibration images, to see if they overlap perfectly.
The x,y,z coordinates in my output file change after using another
cleanup input setting
clean up input (page 74) is likely to remove several samples from the
input data set. After applying this filter, Track3D performs interpolation according to the settings specified (see interpolation on page 71). Because interpolation is applied on an input data set that slightly differ from the previous one, the x,y,z coordinates and output variables may change.
Values of Track xv are much higher than expected
Example: when an insect flies upwind, Track xv should be around 0 degrees. Actual values exceed 100 degrees. Check the axis orientation. If the x axis is reversed, that is, it points to upwind instead of downwind, you might obtain values of Track xv opposite to those expected (e.g. 180 instead of 0).
Values of Course xv are very high, even if air speed is low
Example: when an insect flies upwind, Course shows values corrected by 40 degrees or more when air speed is 200 mm/s. B Troubleshooting Check the axis orientation. Probably the x axis is reversed, that is, it points to upwind instead of downwind. Track3D always assumes that the air flow is in the x direction.
I get very high error values in the Calibration check charts
Most probably the calibration file has X, Y or Z values in the wrong columns. For example, values of X and Y may have accidentally been swapped. Another reason could be that the same markers have been clicked multiple times during calibration. If that is the case, repeat the calibration procedure.
Trajectories look as if the 3D space was distorted
B Troubleshooting This is likely due to the fact that the two input track files (*.txt or *.xlsx) were obtained from the same video file. To check this, open the original input files and check the name of the video file next to the header
Video file. Next, in EthoVision XT, re-do tracking from the correct video
file and export the raw data. Then, import the correct track files in Track3D.
The 3D tracks look tilted and far from the origin of the axes
This occurs in two situations: The calibration images and the video used for acquisition do not match, for example when the cameras were accidentally moved between calibration and data acquisition. In most cases you need to re-do calibration using the current camera images. When at least one of the arena settings was not pixel-calibrated. To check this, make a duplicate of the arena settings, then right-click one of the buttons on the right-hand panel of the Arena Settings.
The message that pops should be Set pixel calibration off. If you see
Set pixel calibration on, click OK and re-do tracking using that
Arena Settings profile. Do the same for other Arena Settings. See Calibration on page 26. Another way to check that the coordinates are in pixels is to look at the
values of X center and Y center in the EthoVision XT export files. Those
values should match the position (in pixels) where the subject is supposed to be when looking at the calibration images. For example if the fish was swimming in an area of the calibration images ranging
between 200 and 300 pixels on the horizontal axis, then the X center
coordinates exported from EthoVision XT should only be within that range. B Troubleshooting
After loading the track files, Track3D does not give any message and
nothing seems to happen
This may occur when the track files are very large, for example when tracking a subject for hours. Track3D may take long especially when it has to interpolate many pissing points. For 2-hours track files it may
take more than 20 minutes. Please wait until the Save as window
appears.
Centroidfinder
CentroidFinder closes immediately after start
See Track3D closes immediately after start on page 127.
tip Some error messages appear for a very short time before the DOS
window closes. Make a screen recording that captures the computer screen while you try to start the software. There you can see error messages that help troubleshooting.
The calibration images look grainy in CentroidFinder
This is most probably caused by the fact that the images were edited and then saved with a low bit depth. Re-open the original calibration image in Paint.net, edit it when
necessary (see page 119), then select Save as, choose BMP as image
type, and under Bit Depth choose 24. B Troubleshooting Re-do calibration using this new image.
Blue cross symbols do not appear on both calibration images
This issue occurs often when you work with calibration frames with black markers. Most likely you have seen this error message: Attempted to access handles.im(NaN,NaN); index must be a positive integer or logical
First, create an inverse version of both calibration frames (see 2 - save
the calibration images on page 28). Make sure tha the markers look
bright and clearly visible. Then save the new images, re-load them in CentroidFinder and repeat calibration.
Error message in the DOS command window:
Error using --> loaddefinedlibrary The specified module cannot be found This can happen for both Track3D and CentroidFinder. Make sure that the C:\MCR folder and all subfolders are not read-only. B Troubleshooting
Error message in the DOS command window:
Attempted to access handles.im(x,y); index must be a positive integer or logical This can happen when CentroidFinder looks for the boundaries of a marker until it reaches the margin of the calibration image because it does not find enough contrast, like in the example below. Try to reduce light around the calibration frame and make sure that the markers are far enough from the image margins. If this cannot be done, open the calibration image file in a paint program, and make the bright objects around the markers black. Next, save the image as bitmap (*.bmp) with bit depth set to 24 bits. Use this new bitmap file in your calibration.
Error message in the DOS command window:
??? Error using ==> xlswrite at 211. Errors occurred in servers. To solve this issue, disable one or more add-ins in Excel, especially those which are not present by default. We know that, for example, the FoxitReader PDF Creator COM Add-in may cause this issue.
Source: Track3D 2 - Reference Manual (March 2025)