Construct Cylinder dialog box
PC-DMIS allows several methods for constructing a cylinder. The following table lists the various types of constructed cylinders, along with their necessary inputs. Some features may require no inputs while others may require six inputs or more. In the following table, the term "Any" indicates that the construction can take any type of feature as input for construction. PC-DMIS allows the features to be selected in any order.
CONSTRUCT FEATURE TYPE |
SYMBOL IN EDIT WINDOW |
# OF INPUT FEATS |
FEAT #1: |
FEAT #2: |
COMMENTS |
Auto Cylinder |
- |
- |
- |
- |
See "Auto Cylinder Construction". |
Best Fit Cylinder |
BF |
At least 6 inputs are needed. See Notes below. |
- |
- |
Constructs a best fit cylinder using the given inputs. |
Best Fit Recomp Cylinder |
BFRE |
At least 6 inputs are needed. (1 must be a point) See Notes below. |
- |
- |
Constructs a best fit cylinder using the given inputs. |
Cast Cylinder |
CAST |
1 |
Any |
- |
Constructs a cylinder at the centroid of the input feature. |
Project Cylinder |
PROJ |
1 or 2 |
Any |
Plane |
One input feature will project the cylinder to the workplane. |
Reverse Cylinder |
REV |
1 |
Cylinder, Cone, Line, Slot |
- |
Constructs a cylinder with a reversed vector. |
You can construct Best Fit and Best Fit Recompensate Cylinders from two circles. The input circles must be of type Constructed Best Fit (BF) / Best Fit Recompensate (BFRE) or Measured circles. The total amount of hits in each circle must be at least three.
For Best Fit (BF) or Best Fit Recompensate (BFRE) constructions, while you can use any feature type for your input features, BF and BFRE fit types are typically used with point features or point sets (a scan of points, a feature set with points, or an expression that resolves to an array of points).
If you select inappropriate feature types, PC-DMIS displays "Cannot construct [feature]. Combination of input features not accepted." on the status bar.
To construct a cylinder:
Access the Construct Cylinder dialog box (Insert | Feature | Constructed | Cylinder).
Input the desired features.
Select the method of construction. Available options include:
Best Fit or Best Fit Recompensate Cylinder
Cast Cylinder
Projected Cylinder
Reversed direction Cylinder
Auto Cylinder
Click the Create button.
The Edit window command
line for a sample Cylinder Construction would read:
feature_name=FEAT/CYLINDER,TOG1,TOG4,TOG5
THEO/x_cord,y_cord,z_cord,i_vec,j_vec,k_vec,diam,length
ACTL/x_cord,y_cord,z_cord,i_vec,j_vec,k_vec,diam,length
CONSTR/TOG2,TOG3,......
The actual Edit report displays in all capital letters.
AUTO is the default method of construction. This option automatically determines the best way to construct a cylinder using the input feature(s). See "Auto Cylinder Construction"
The following text is the basic format for cylinders.
TOG1 = POLR or RECT
TOG2 = CYLINDER
TOG3 = BF / BFRE / CAST / PROJ / REV
TOG4 = IN / OUT
TOG5 = LEAST_SQR / MAX_INSC / MIN_CIRCSC / MIN_SEP / FIXED_RAD (only for measured, BF and BFRE circles)
length = This value is measured between the first measured circle (first three hits) and the furthest point away from the first three hits.
The first three lines displayed in the Edit window will be the same for constructed cylinders. The fourth line will be slightly different, according to the type of feature being constructed. You can switch between the different types of cylinders by placing the cursor on TOG3 and pressing F7 or F8. (See "Command Mode Keyboard Functions" in the "Using the Edit Window" chapter.)
When two or more features are involved, PC-DMIS automatically determines the necessary order of the input features. This improves the accuracy of the measurement process.
The following topics describe the available options for constructing a cylinder:
More:
Constructing a Best Fit or Best Fit Recompensate Cylinder