Feature wishlist for v11

[admsteck]

Post any suggested improvements to Polyworks v11 here.

Myself I would like:
1.  A unified interface.  Instead of seperate IMAlign, IMMerge, IMInspect, etc...  One interface to eliminate the need to import data from one into another.  If that's not possible than at least an easy way to create a polygonal model from data scanned in IMInspect or the ability to probe features in IMAlign.

2.  The ability to set "Curve" and "Flat+Curve" as the default rendering styles for imported reference objects.
I'm I the only one that has ideas for improvements?  Here's a few more I came up with:

3. The new coordinate system functionality is nice, but it would help me if I could create an "invalid" coordinate system.  What I mean is one that violates the right hand rule.  Our customer designs with the centerline of the car at 0 Y.  Typically when discussing deviation, anything away from the center of the car is refered to as +Y and towards the center is -Y.  Currently to get my reports for left side parts to show the deviation in the frame that everyone understands, I mirror all my objects before I create my reports.  But this also means all images of the part are mirrored also.  It would be great if I could create a simple coordinate system with only the Y axis mirrored.  This would also let me easily create reports for parts that cross the vehicle centerline. 

2.  In the v10 feature control window, you were able to press the tab key to move between the attributes for each selected feature (x,y,z, etc.).  So I quickly set tolerances by tabbing through the features.  In v11 you can press tab to get through the positive and negative tolerances but after that it moves to the buttons at the top of the window instead of the next attribute.

3.  Allow tolerances to be "one sided".  For example it may not be the ideal situation but we are asked to run a surface only on one side of nominal so we would have a tolerance of -0.2 to -0.8 for example.  If I need to be able to enter that as my tolerance for features like comparison points.  It would also be nice with the new reference model tolerances window if I could set "one sided" tolerances which would allow a go/no go colormap.

4.  Allow the user-data directory for the project to be the default directory when importing cad models.  I have several projects in the same folder and it can become difficult to sift through all the folders to find the correct "user-data" directory that contains my cad model.

5.  Allow customization of the mouse buttons.  Again no other software we use allows this either, but it would be nice if we could set the buttons to work the same as our Cad system.  It would make moving back and forth much easier.

6.  Ability to turn off the automatic creation of report items.  Everytime I run a comparison it creates another table in the report items (which I never use) and clutters up the tree.

[Augusto Alencar]

Change angle between "decimal unit" and "degrees and minutes unit"

e.g: 20.567 = 20^o34'1"

[florian]

*Get min/max points values in annotation after comparison + min/max values on cross sections

*See the shift of Data part during alignment iterations (like in IMAlign)

*Get the 3D view of sections (the one in IMInspect) in IMEdit to speed up RE on CT-parts

[PW User]

The min and max value on a cross section can already be extracted when comparing a cross section. You can set the annotation's options to show the min and max values, as show in the picture.

[tobiwan]

additional features ;)

- three-dimensional versions of all planar features (slot - most important, rectangle/polygon, ellipse)
- torus

[jrayself]

2.  The ability to set "Curve" and "Flat+Curve" as the default rendering styles for imported reference objects.
I'm I the only one that has ideas for improvements?  Here's a few more I came up with:

I finally found a way to accomplish this:  With all PolyWorks programs closed, navigate to C:\Program Files\InnovMetric\PolyWorks 11.0 (xx-bit)\ and open the "iminspect.windefault" file in notepad.  Search for RENDERING_MODE and change its value from Int 3 to Int 6.  Save, close then open IMInspect and import a reference object.  This should now display curves for all NURBS models.

[admsteck]

Great find jrayself!  Unfortunately, I have already moved on and made a macro to import my models and set the render mode as well as a few other tasks.   :)

[jrayself]

I had done so as well but it was still fun to find that config setting after I was told by Innovmetric that it could NOT be accomplished.

[tobiwan]

anyone ever needed a plane with an offset?
in sone parts, the plane used for alignment (plane - vector - center point), is not in one height, but in one or more parallel height levels. This can be accomplished by using RPS, but having a special plane feature would be neat.
Could as well be used for some GD&T applications.

[PW User]

Hello,

Until there is an offset plane creation method, there is:
1- translate along normal in the Edit->Edit Numerically
2- Virtual surface on the Reference, type-in the offset value you want prior to creation of the plane

[Jeff]

Hi,
You can create an offset plane with 3 points. Go to Features up top then Primitives, Plane, and Create from points and offsets. Just drag the three points from the tree view to the offset boxes and the type in the offsets.

[tobiwan]

hi, seems i did not express too clearly what i needed   ???
i was thinking about a single plane feature that consists of two (or more) sections which have offsets (or step) to each other, but are still regarded as *one* feature (like the offset cross-section).
Not an individual plane that can be created with an offset to another individual plane.
Needed quite frequently for GD&T applictions or plane - axis - centre point alignments.

[jrayself]

I don't see a large enough need for Innovmetric to implement that feature as it can be accomplished with multiple planes being bound to multiple reference points.  A reference point alignment is so much more powerful than the 2 planes, 2 axes, 2 points method.

[Admin]

MACRO OPTIONS:

I would like to see more options in the INPUT command in the macro creation.  Specifically:

1. A drop down selection list for the user to select a finite number of options
2. Radio buttons for On/Off selection in a multiple input selection window

[Jeff]

I agree. It would be nice to be able to create a form that you could have text boxes, check boxes, radial buttons, and pull downs on the same form.