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Paste with Pattern and compare with CAD

hello Slight smile

I need to compare ring gauges with the cad data and only have the drawings of the parts.
i set some vectorpoints and paste a pattern with dimensions from the drawing.

how can i snap the points on the cad model and take the nominals, they are not exact the final part nominals

i´ve used "find vector" to get them right if something looked incorrect
is there "find nearest cad element" in r2017 and is it what i am looking for ?
can i apply it to multiple vectorpoints without opening the auto feature dialog for each one ?

thanks in advance Slight smile
  • There is a feature for that. Go to Edit -> Graphic Display Window -> Point Nominal Deviation. That will open a utility that will evaluate all the vector points in your program and check the distance to the nearest CAD element. If any points are outside of the deviation cuttoff value you provide, they will show up in the list. You can then have the utility automatically update the points in the program.

    This is really helpful for updating programs after getting a new model or for checking that a part is actually symmetrical/consistent after doing a paste with pattern operation. There are lots of other cool uses too, but I'll let you search the forum for some of those.

    Link to Help file: https://docs.hexagonmi.com/pcdmis/20..._Deviation.htm
  • nice, thank you.

    on sheet metal parts we use the t-value to compare points... is this also common on massiv parts... ? there is an s-value... what´s this for ? Smiley
  • S is for the SAMPLE HIT(s) for things like edge points, holes, slots that use them.

    BE WARNED, using sample hit(s) for edge points is NOT always a good idea and can give you bad data for both the "S" and "T" values. Unless the surface is a flat (I didn't say square, but it MUST be flat!), you will get bad data/hits using a surface sample hit with an edge point.
  • ALSO, if these are vector or surface points you are talking about, open the program in OFFLINE mode, then open the F5 menu and mark FIND NOMS ON EXECUTE and run the program (offline, remember!) and it will find the XYZIJK for each point from the nearest cad element. Also, there is a "FIND" button or icon for finding the entire thing (XYZIJK) and not just the vector.

    TURN OFF find noms on execute before going back online to run the program.
  • Happy to help. That happens to be one of my favorite software features.

    I currently work on aerospace parts. The biggest parts I have measured are about 5 meters long. Quite often our customers will just give us a 3D model that defines a few datums and give us a general profile tolerance to those datums. All the surfaces, angles, arcs, contours, pockets, fillets, etc. are controlled with that profile tolerance. If you align to the datums, you can then report the profile of each point as T-values in the way you describe. Some customers want to have a several hundred page report with the t-value of every single point reported. Other customers are happy with all the points reported together as a set with just one profile feature (a summary of all the points that shows the largest positive and negative deviation).

    For a little while I worked in a shop that made plastic injection molds. There the parts were very tiny and intricate, and the tolerances on all those parts were crazy tight. However, only a few critical features had to be reported to the customer. All they cared about is if the assembled tool fit together properly and made the parts they wanted. So, we just measured the parts with lots of vector points and monitored the T-values with DimInfo boxes on screen. It was a pretty cool process because it made measuring really intricate parts so easy that the job was actually quite boring.

    I'm not familiar with an S-value. I don't know what that could be referring to.
  • ALSO, if these are vector or surface points you are talking about, open the program in OFFLINE mode, then open the F5 menu and mark FIND NOMS ON EXECUTE and run the program (offline, remember!) and it will find the XYZIJK for each point from the nearest cad element. Also, there is a "FIND" button or icon for finding the entire thing (XYZIJK) and not just the vector.

    TURN OFF find noms on execute before going back online to run the program.


    I often forget about that method. The nice thing about doing it that way is that both the theoretical and measured values are updated at the same time. Using the Point Nominal Deviation utility will only update the theoretical values. Not a big deal as it is easy to reset all the measured values to nominal, but it does mean an extra step.
  • thank you both, i will check that tomorrow
  •  which xyz values ist the point nominal deviation feature using ?
    there are big differents in the auto feature window <> nom deviation window Confused
  • Could be alignment dependent and that is why you see a difference.