Using GD&T Selection Mode (from File)

PC-DMIS can recognize and import GD&T tolerances on blueprints into your measurement routine with the GD&T Selection Mode (from File) ( GD&T Selection Mode (from File) ) option.

You can access GD&T Selection Mode (from File) from one of these:

PC-DMIS uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to import the GD&T tolerances. PC-DMIS can import a .pdf file or an image file.

You can find sample blueprint .pdf files that correspond to the Hexagon demo-block CAD models, in the Training subfolder where you installed PC-DMIS.

When you import a blueprint file, the software parses the GD&T content in the file. It then shows the GD&T from Capture window and highlights in orange all the supported GD&T tolerances that you can import. You then decide the tolerances to import:

One tolerance at a time - To do this, click on an orange-colored tolerance.
Multiple tolerances - To do this, box-select multiple orange-colored tolerances.
All tolerances on a page - To do this, from the toolbar on the GD&T from capture window, click Process whole page ().

If you choose to process multiple tolerances or all tolerances on a page, the software opens the OCR widget and cycles through each GD&T tolerance from the selection.

Demo

You must have an active Internet connection to see this video.

Procedure

From the Graphic Modes toolbar, or the QuickMeasure toolbar, click GD&T Selection Mode (from File) ().
Import a CAD model into the Graphic Display window that corresponds with your blueprint.
From the Open dialog box, navigate to an electronic blueprint file. This can be an image file or a .pdf file. OCR detection works best with an image that has at least 300 DPI. Lower resolutions may produce less accurate results.
Select the file, and click Open to parse the GD&T information and show all the recognized GD&T tolerances as orange-highlighted items in the GD&T from Capture window.

Note that with this window open, the Edit window is not available for selection. This means you cannot delete features that you create unless you create them with the OCR widget.

Do one of the following to import one or more tolerances into PC-DMIS and to show the OCR widget:

Click on a single GD&T tolerance.

Box-select multiple tolerances on the page.
From the toolbar on the GD&T from capture window, click Process whole page ().

Follow the instructions in the OCR widget.

During the procedure, you need to pick features for datums or input features for the geometric tolerances. You can create these features with QuickFeatures. You can also select existing features from the Graphic Display window if you click on their feature IDs. PC-DMIS does not support clicking in the Edit window to select features.

Datums Target Definition

If the OCR widget asks you to define datum target points, follow this procedure:

Press Ctrl + Shift and click on the CAD to create a vector point QuickFeature for each target.
As you define each datum target, the vector point feature appears in the Edit window.
Once you define the targets for a datum feature, it shows "Completed" for that datum feature. The OCR parsing of the file may not determine all the number of targets needed. If that happens, you can create additional vector point features even if the targets for a datum feature shows "Completed".
When you're done creating all the points for a target, click Next to go to the next set of datum targets.
Continue to define datum targets until the text on the widget says "Datum Target Definition Complete".
At this point, you can use the Pause button on the widget to pause the GD&T import process so that you can work with PC-DMIS to finish defining the datums.
Use the Edit window, and press F9 on each Datum Definition (DATDEF command in Command mode) to show the Datum Definition dialog box.
Link the datum targets to the datum letter.
Once you use PC-DMIS to define any datums from the targets, click Continue on the widget.

Datums Definition

If the OCR widget shows Datums definition, you need to use QuickFeatures to create datum features for those FCFs. (If you've already created a datum feature, you can to click on its feature ID from the Graphic Display window to select it.)

Create or select a datum feature or click Skip current feature definition () if you want to skip over single datum definition for now.
Click Next and select additional datum features.
Continue repeating the above steps until the widget shows "Datums Definition Completed".
Then click Apply to define the remaining GD&T information.

Tolerances Definition

If the OCR widget shows GEOTOL1, you need to define the remaining GD&T information. If you skipped any datum definitions from the previous procedure, the widget asks you to define them during now during the GD&T definition.

Once datums are completely defined, you need to create or select the actual considered feature or features. Use QuickFeatures to create the minimum number features from the CAD model for the current step. (If you've already created a considered feature, you can click on its feature ID from the Graphic Display window to select it).
If you don't want to import a GD&T tolerance, click Skip GEOTOL1 (). You can go back to a skipped item with the Back button () as long as it is not on an earlier .pdf page.
Once you define a feature or features from the CAD model for a step, from the widget, click Next (). This continues with the next step of the GD&T definition. The Next button becomes enabled once you've defined the minimum number of features.
Once you define the features and the widget informs you that the tolerances definition is completed, click Apply (). This accepts your changes and moves onto the next GD&T tolerance in the GD&T from Capture window.
Continue repeating the above steps until you have defined all selected GD&T tolerances.

Best Practices

OCR detection works best with an image that has at least 300 DPI. Lower resolutions may produce less accurate results.

When you have imported the desired GD&T tolerances, double-check the FCF commands that PC-DMIS generated.