TCP/IP Pointcloud Server

PC-DMIS has several options that use TCP/IP communication to watch or connect to a third-party client.

Generic OFFLINE TCP/IP Import Pointcloud Function

This OFFLINE function allows you to import a pointcloud from a client application into PC-DMIS (the Server application). When PC-DMIS receives the new pointcloud data, it automatically executes the inspection routine offline. See "Generic Import File Formats".

From the Pointcloud toolbar, click the TCP/IP Pointcloud Server receive data button to put PC-DMIS in a "watch" state. When in this state, PC-DMIS is ready and waiting to receive a pointcloud file. The client application must initiate sending the pointcloud data. This button only appears when you run PC-DMIS in Offline mode. Click the button a second time to turn this function off.

When PC-DMIS detects a new pointcloud file:

If the measurement routine already contains a COP (cloud of points), PC-DMIS replaces the COP with the received data and then executes the measurement routine.
If the measurement routine does not contain a COP, PC-DMIS creates a COP feature, imports the data, and then executes the measurement routine.

To create the initial measurement routine for OFFLINE execution:

Create the PC-DMIS measurement routine with the offline interface.

The software displays the Probe Utilities dialog box. Select SMARTSCAN as the active offline laser probe.

From the Pointcloud toolbar, select the TCP/IP Operations button and then the TCP/IP Pointcloud Server receive data button .

The TCP/IP Pointcloud Server receive data button is only available when PC-DMIS is run in Offline mode.

From the Client TCP/IP Port dialog box, enter the Port ID, and click OK. You can find the Port ID in the client application.

PC-DMIS begins to import the pointcloud data as soon as the client application initiates the Send function. The software displays the progress of the incoming data in the PC-DMIS status area, which is located in the lower-left corner.
Create any needed pointcloud commands (for example, Pointcloud Alignment, Pointcloud Surface Colormap, etc.), Auto features, and Dimensions.
Save the measurement routine.

Generic Import File Formats

PC-DMIS allows the import of these pointcloud formats:

Data per set of points

Data where each laser stripe, line or patch defines the vector (IJK) of the stripe, followed by XYZ value of the points on the stripe. Point XYZ values can be space-delimited or comma-delimited.

A - Line (laser stripe or patch) number unique identification number (optional) IJK of line (from sensor orientation)

B - XYZ value of points on the line

Data point

The data file defines the XYZ or XYZIJK values for each point. For these data types, XYZIJK is preferred as PC-DMIS uses the vector of the points in pointcloud operations such as Surface Colormaps and Feature Extraction. The following example shows points with XYZIJK values.

A - XYZIJK value of each point

Generic ONLINE TCP/IP Export Pointcloud Functions

PC-DMIS can send your pointcloud data to a custom-built, third-party software application. It uses a TCP/IP communication protocol to do this. To establish the connection, your custom application must be able to load a dynamic link library (.dll) file named PcDmisPointCloudClientDll.dll. You can request this file from Hexagon Technical Support.

Once your application loads the .dll file, click on one of these TCP/IP Pointcloud server icons available from the PC-DMIS Pointcloud toolbar to establish the connection:

TCP/IP Pointcloud Server Connection with Local Copy - Establishes the connection with the client and sends the pointcloud data directly to the client. When the scan finishes, the pointcloud data remains inside the measurement routine.

TCP/IP Pointcloud Server Connection without Local Copy - Establishes the connection with the client and sends the pointcloud data directly to the client. When the scan finishes, the pointcloud data is deleted from the measurement routine.