Delcam PowerINSPECT Sections
Section measurement is now available in the OMV and CNC versions of PowerINSPECT
Delcam has released the 2012 R2 version of its PowerINSPECT software for inspection and reverse engineering. This includes enhancements to the inspection capabilities and also continues the development of the reverse engineering capabilities introduced earlier this year. The main enhancement in this area has been an expansion of the Digitised Curves capabilities to create a powerful re-engineering and modelling tool.
PowerINSPECT offers quick and easy inspection of parts, tooling and prototypes against CAD data. The system is already the world’s leading hardware-independent inspection software, with this new version making it even more attractive to users of all types of metrology equipment, including manual and CNC CMMs, inspection arms and optical devices. A key benefit of using PowerINSPECT is the comprehensive reporting, which presents detailed information in a format that can be understood by all engineers, not just metrology specialists.
Improvements to the inspection functionality in the new release include a new, simplified procedure enabling users to quickly calibrate the probe assembly by probing a single point anywhere within the measuring envelope; a new offset-alignment method that aligns the part with the axes of the CMM while setting the position with a single point measurement; and new point-cloud options that make it easier to modify and reuse digitised curves and points, with options for editing, deleting and resuming measurement of the points and curves.
The automated section-measurement functionality, which was previously only available in the manual version of PowerINSPECT, is now available in both the OMV and CNC offline-programming versions. This strategy for creating probe paths along a section of the component provides quick and easy comparison of a cross-section against the CAD model. This type of section measurement is important for the measurement of blades and aerofoils, as well as for automotive inspection.
New options within Digitised Curves allow edges, holes and gaps to be identified as the part is being probed. Curves can also be created from CAD models within PowerINSPECT or they can be imported directly from other software packages. All these curves can be modified by rotation, translation, mirroring or scaling, or by editing individual points within the curve.
Once created, curves can be exported as polylines as well as to the previously-available NURBS format. This enhancement is part of a general increase in the ability to export surface and geometric items for use in modelling applications, with VDA export added to the existing IGES format.
The new creation and editing options for curves can be used with a new marking out feature for refining or completing clay models- a requirement for creating automotive and marine styling models. This utility enables curves created within PowerINSPECT to be used to guide a marking out tool on a measuring device or layout machine.
