Surface profile representation

[[Ja...]]

A question or kick off of a discussion topic !

When using line profile i know the fitting goes on in the background, but is there a possibility to show the location of the fit?

Right now you calculate line profile , get the result and colours , but it causes a lot of confusion when overlayed to the nominal section.  .

The expectation is that in the profile visualisation there would be a properties option that allows to see calculated fit position , or similar.

I hope this makes sense as i cannot describe the exact situation nor share the project...

Cheers

James

 

[[Be...]]

Hi James,

we have this wish in our database. I will link your request to this wish. Unfortunately I can't say if or when we will realize this "feature request". May be it would help if you can explain why the color deviation gives you no sufficient answer?

Regards, 

Bernd

 

[[Ja...]]

Hey Bernd ,

Thanks for the reply.

The colour is helpful if you know what is going on , but the scenario is that the section visualisation in its (datum) alignment  shows a material off condition in an area , however the line profile shows red in that same area indicating material on.

for other engineers who consume the reports they dont know the software intimately and so the confusion/questions then follow that if the colours are somehow inverted , if the fit is correct, what the fit is doing , what am i interpreting etc.

the only workaround is to write some words with the report to attempt to describe the output and remove the ambiguity, which is not so easy.

thanks for adding the swreq, feels like old times 😉

Cheers

James

[[Ti...]]

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James,

 

I'm updated a lot of our programs for many surface profile shapes.  What I do is create a section cut, doesn't have to be complete, but needs to be symmetrical. Then you do a Construct Point > Centroid of Section . And then output the XY of that point. I find form and size are 10-20% of the out of tolerance profiles, so location is paramount. This process is working for us and I have correlated with a CMM and vision system enough times and seen it work enough to be confident in its ability to get the location of the profile. Some features that are deep or could have tool deflection I do multiple layers.

 

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The color map doesn't help us because many machinists need values to push features around and b/c many of our out of tol profiles have nothing to do with form/size, it is all about XY values for locating a feature/surface.

Edited October 17, 2023

[[Ja...]]

Hey Tim ,

In this case the position of the whole profile isnt too interesting , the call out is for surface profile , no datums . The profile is not symmetrical.

I do get your general issue of turning the profile result into something handy for machining , but perhaps a more generalised issue.

Cheers 

James

[[Ti...]]

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I guess I don't understand your question...for a top down viewing direction on the XY plane, you need to establish an X and Y plane in order to establish your location in space. Even if it is best fitting to the CAD, you still need to establish a coordinate system to get location don't you?

If you have simply form and size as your profile callout(ie. no datums) we all know the location can be anywhere on planet earth as long as the size and form is good the feature check passes. But you would need to arrest the X and Y plane still. I would do a section cut and I'd hope you had two lines, line and radius(pnt), etc.,  to use as X Y to establish a location of each to each other. Since the mesh is trying to best fit to the CAD section cut, why wouldn't you use the section cut itself to establish a 2d coordinate system?

The symmetrical idea I spoke of can occur on one side of the part as long as that individual feature has on its own side some symmetry in my opinion. I think if you had a non-sym section cut, you may still be able to get away with locating a centroid of the section, I just haven't had to try that yet.

Edited October 18, 2023

[[Ja...]]

Hi Tim ,

Also dont completely understand what you are saying , but in this case the complete part is aligned to datums. The section is taken in the xy plane  controlled by this alignment .   If the section wasnt orthogonal to the CAD co ordinate system then im with you , youd need a descriptor on the drawing what the LCS is.

I of course meant line profile  , plus having to dance round the actual use case!

Cheers

James

[[Ti...]]

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Discussing vague CAD stuff can be tough. I decided to use the GOM training part to explain my vision to get a location of a profile based on a best-fit(ie. no datum).

I'll try to explain the pictures attached...

pic 1 shows the centroid of the G location based on the bottom left corner of the part datum setup...I used the top plane, front plane, left plane for the DRF(datum reference plane).

 

pic 2 shows a section of that feature in that DRF

pic 3 shows where I locally best fit that section and the result...

pic 4 shows where I used the most robust and largest features to generate a DRF(coordinate system) so I could establish an X and Y location of the centroids

pic 5 shows the established locally best fit coordinate system(DRF) that you can use to extract the XY location of the two centroids.

There are more things you would have to do, and perhaps tap into the User Defined section of the software, but this is what I would do to get the distance from the centroid of the section cut in a best fit oriention. ....to get "location" of a best fit you still must somehow establish a coordinate system.

Maybe I still misunderstand your issue, but I thought I'd share this...would still like to connect with you remotely..can't hit you up on linkedin due to maybe your settings disallowing outsiders to contact you.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023

[[Ja...]]

Hey

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Thanks for taking the time to explain.

Yes my ask and request is different to what you are describing .I

here is no main best fit alignment method that truely replicates the gdant calculation of line profile/surface profile .   Otherwise something like what you are doing would be a workaround.

this could be another potential technically possible answer to my wish...but it doesnt make practical sense.   You want to keep the worlds of gdant / datums seperate from alignments . 

not sure what is going on with linkedin , im open to connect with , my avatar is 3dsl fringe pattern ( still)