Our business is applying coatings to components of many shapes and sizes. It is typically possible to either draft the nominal shape of the component as a solid model or to build a representation of the piece prior to coating from CMM data. My interest is in measuring applied coating thickness after deposition by taking hits on the modified surface and determining the distance of the hit point away from the original surface. I cannot seem to find a constructed geometry that will fit this need. Does such a tool exist in PC DMIS? In the example below, we measured the conical surface CON1 prior to coating, using CYL1 and PLN1 for alignment. Coating was applied to the interior surface of the cone at PNT1 and PNT2. I'd like to know how far away (in a direction normal to the surface below) PNT 1 and PNT2 are from CON1.
I'm going to make a rough guess here, but please wait for more experienced folks to comment whether I'm on track!
Level to your plane.
Create a line from center of cone to PNT1, rotate XPLUS to that line.
Origin to plane and cone.
Switch to YMINUS workplane
Report your distance in 3D, choosing distance from feature and option: Perpendicular to feature.
Again, please see if I'm shot down before spending a bunch of time on my suggestion, or feel free to point out my errors in thinking! This is how I learn!
