Probe Surfaces You Cannot Scan

[GoBeavs]

Hi everyone...  here is my situation:
I need to inspect a cast planar surface that I cannot scan because I cannot get enough of an angle given the geometry.  I can howerver can get the probe (of the Romer Arm located above the V5 Scanner) in to probe the surface I need to inspect. 

Here is what I am trying to do:
I typically scan in IMAlign, create a polygonal model, import it into IMInspect and then compare it to a CAD model.  I would like to be able to incorporate the probed two planes into the scanned (polygonal model) inspection.  I would like to use the scanned surfaces in the alignment rather than having to probe all alignment surfaces.

Here is my intial solution:
I wanted to scan in IMAlign, create a polygonal model, inport it into IMInspect (do not align yet), create the two plane features by probing, import the CAD, then align both the polygonal model and two plane features but only using the polygonal model for the alignment. Then I would like to do the comparison

Here is what I do not know how to do:
1. I do not know if I can move the two plane features along with the polygonal model on top of the CAD and use the Best-Fit align to control both polygonal model and then plane features.
2. I also do not know how easy it is going to be to get a comparison from the CAD model to the plane features created by probing - maybe I will have to then define nominal and use the feature controls to get a comparison.

Any advice or procedures would help a lot!  Thanks.

[prehistory]

Hi,

I think this is pretty straightforward...

1. scan everything you can in IMAlign.  Mesh it, or not.
2. Open IMInspect and import your CAD model
3. import your polygonal model or IMAlign project as the Data object
4. Probe the hidden surfaces as planes.  You can probe a lot of points to get better coverage (like 50 if you want).  Make sure to compensate correctly so that the data points are compensated.
5. Select all the elements from the probing session(s) and Edit > Data Reference Element > Ignore for Alignment
6. Do your Best-Fit alignment, which will drag all the Data objects (polygonal model, probed points) and their associated features (the plane primitives) along.
7. Run your Data to Reference comparison, and your probed points will act just like the vertices in your polygonal file, giving you a good surface analysis
8.  If you want more coverage of the plane areas at this point, just resume probing- you should be "in position" at this point.  Do Stationary, or Continuous Time or Distance probing to get good coverage, MAKING SURE THAT YOU HAVE "Compensation" checked in the probing dialog zone, and that you are compensating to the CAD object.

If you really want to compare the plane FEATURES with the CAD, you'll extract the nominal planes at this point, and use the Feature Controls to set up either GD&T like Flatness, or simple dimensions like XY angle or whatever.

Hope this helps!

[GoBeavs]

Hi,

I think this is pretty straightforward...

1. scan everything you can in IMAlign.  Mesh it, or not.
2. Open IMInspect and import your CAD model
3. import your polygonal model or IMAlign project as the Data object
4. Probe the hidden surfaces as planes.  You can probe a lot of points to get better coverage (like 50 if you want).  Make sure to compensate correctly so that the data points are compensated.
5. Select all the elements from the probing session(s) and Edit > Data Reference Element > Ignore for Alignment
6. Do your Best-Fit alignment, which will drag all the Data objects (polygonal model, probed points) and their associated features (the plane primitives) along.
7. Run your Data to Reference comparison, and your probed points will act just like the vertices in your polygonal file, giving you a good surface analysis
8.  If you want more coverage of the plane areas at this point, just resume probing- you should be "in position" at this point.  Do Stationary, or Continuous Time or Distance probing to get good coverage, MAKING SURE THAT YOU HAVE "Compensation" checked in the probing dialog zone, and that you are compensating to the CAD object.

If you really want to compare the plane FEATURES with the CAD, you'll extract the nominal planes at this point, and use the Feature Controls to set up either GD&T like Flatness, or simple dimensions like XY angle or whatever.

Hope this helps!

The step that I am not confident in, is #4.  My probing experience is limited and need a little more detail here.  My assumption was that I needed to probe by selecting feature > create > plane and select the probe option.  By doing this the plane is not associated to the data, so I do not think this is the method you are explaning. Can you please be more specific on this step... ?  Thanks.

[Admin]

THANK YOU!!!!

I figured out my problem.  Rather than creating a plane, I just created a point cloud probing session and everything worked out.  First I used the compensation point option, but after I aligned it, I used the Reference CAD and it worked great.  I will definitely use that next time. here are some pics:

[Software]

The "Continuous Time" and "Continuous Distance" modes have been optimized and you can now take as much as 50 points / second with the Romer arm. If you got a Faro arm, around 250 points / second.

Have a nice day!

[PW User]

The step that I am not confident in, is #4.  My probing experience is limited and need a little more detail here.  My assumption was that I needed to probe by selecting feature > create > plane and select the probe option.  By doing this the plane is not associated to the data, so I do not think this is the method you are explaning. Can you please be more specific on this step... ?  Thanks.

You are right: the probed data would not get associated with the polygonal model. there is one extra command you can use to associate the probed data with the polygonal model:
Align->Transformation Group->Group Data/Reference Objects
with the two data object (the polygonal model and the probed points) selected. They would then be grouped together and move as a unit.