Skip to main content

Best Practice for Computer Names and Location Assignment in Apteryx

Tyler Weaver
Updated

Why This Matters

  • AI Enablement: Apteryx uses capture station–to–Location assignment to determine which images are sent to the AI vendor. This minimizes unnecessary data transfer and storage costs.
  • Analytics Accuracy: Proper assignment ensures location-specific metrics for capture usage, retakes, and device analytics in Apteryx Analytics.
  • Avoiding Conflicts: If two computers share the same name, Apteryx treats them as one capture station, causing image routing errors and inaccurate analytics.

Important: Capture stations will appear in Apteryx after at least one image has been captured. That said, pre-capture assignment is possible.

Recommended Best Practice

What matters is that each capture station across your organization has a unique computer name.  While we have a best practice to recommend below, this is a decision for your customer's IT leadership team to make and implement.

Structured Naming Convention (Preferred)

  • Pattern: <SiteCode>-<Room>-<Station#>
    • SiteCode: 3–5 characters unique to each physical location (e.g., 101, 102, GDN1, CLT-1).
      • For Denticon customers, we recommend using your Denticon OID
    • Room: Use the operatory or dedicated imaging room name (e.g., OP1, OP2, PAN).
    • Station#: Two digits (e.g., 01, 02).
      • Example:
        101-OP1-01 or 102-PAN-01
      • Why: Easy to interpret, supports audits, and scales well for DSOs.

Handling Legacy Duplicate Names

  • If multiple locations share the same capture station name:
    • Assign that name to an AI-enabled Location if any of those locations are going live with AI.
    • Afterward, rename PCs to unique names following our recommended best practice above.
    • Capture a test or blank image on that computer so the new name appears in Apteryx.
    • Assign the new capture station name to the correct Location in Apteryx.

Operational Notes

  • Capture Station Assignment Steps: Assigning Capture Stations to Locations – Apteryx
  • Assignment Timing: Capture Station Assignment can only occur after the first image is captured on a workstation and is visible in Apteryx.
  • XVCapture Tokens: If you experience the out of tokens error after renaming your capture station, submit a support ticket informing support that you just changed your capture station name and ask support to revoke your XVCapture tokens. (article: "Out of Tokens" Error – Apteryx)
    outoftokens.png

  • XVCapture Default Configuration: It is highly recommended to ensure XVCapture's current configuration is set as the default configuration prior to renaming a workstation, as renaming a workstation will revert all PC name specific settings in XVCapture to default. 

    To set XVCapture's current configuration as default:

  1. Before renaming the workstation, launch XVCapture, then navigate to Advanced User Tools > Preferences (password is AKRON) > Advanced
  2. Under the Default Configurations subsection, click "Set this configuration as default," then click "Yes" on any prompts that may appear

  3. Click OK to save your changes, and click Yes on any and all prompts that may appear

     

  4. Once the PC rename has been completed, Launch XVCapture, then click Yes on the new "Assign the default configuration?" prompt that will appear:

    Once complete, all configurations that had been saved as the new default configuration prior to renaming the workstation will carry over automatically. 

  • Deleting Capture Stations: There is not a way to delete computer names.  The information is pulled from the image DICOM data for the capture station acquiring the image.





                                                      Article Version 1.2  6/17/2026

Related articles