I have to be over thinking this and missing something simple

[[Ja...]]

So I have a gage with two hex head holes in it. I am wanting to measure a single point in the middle at the top and the middle at the bottom of each plane and then give the distance between the opposite points.

For something so simple, I sure can't seem to get it to do what i want it to do.

What is the best way to create a centered point (say 5mm from the top and bottom) of each plane and also be in the correct vector direction.

Tried looking this up in the forums but kept getting the too many ignored words and wouldn't find much. So I apologize if it is covered somewhere and also apologize if this is as dumb of a question as I feel it is.

Gage.JPG

[[Ja...]]

Create a polyline for each face of the hex(s) (edge distance, number of points, speed - none of it matters.) Now, drop in some blank points for each polyline you created. Open your first point and recall the first hex face points into it - voila, you now have that face's "centroid" or center, but it's a space point, and we need a touch. Set this new point's nominal definition back to "Options" or whatever the default was, then go into its strategy and drop in a "probing point." Sounds like a lot of work, but takes 30 seconds, and now you have a probing point, that's dead-center of your surface, with correct vector.

Do this for all faces, then copy/paste your points and adjust their Z values so that you have the 3 (upper, mid, lower) points that you were looking for. The planes you extracted and polylines you created can be deleted, as they were only necessary to create the centroid points.

You can then use a symmetry feature to find the mid-points of these opposing faces/points if you need to, or whatever you want to do. I hope that helped some.

[[Cl...]]

If all you need is the distance between planes, scan (or probe) the five planes,
construct a perpendicular between opposing planes, get perpLength for each.

[[To...]]

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Cartesian distance between two planes will give you the same answer as Perpendicular Construction in one less step.

Same rule applies for both. From the mid-point of Feature 1, perpendicular to Feature 2.

Depending on the condition of each face, the answer could be different between the same two faces. So, do one in one direction and another one in the opposite direction.

[[Jo...]]

If this is a Go/No Go gage, the simple distance doesn't mean anything. It would need the all sides and their relationship checked.

For example, a constructed Max inscribed diameter, and 3 plane to plane dimensions tell "size" but not parallelism of sides or angle to each other. It is difficult with small corners, but profile of line on several depths would give an idea of function. What you propose could be accomplished with a caliper.

[[Cl...]]

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I was not aware that Cartesian distance and perpLength gave the same result. Thanks tom.

[[Ja...]]

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I am measuring the gage to the engineers request.
And you can't measure a +0/-.0002" and +.0002"/-0 tolerances with a caliper