Mesh Thickness Colormap

The Thickness Colormap allows you to show and measure the part thickness as a colormap using only the Mesh or Pointcloud (COP) data object. You can also compare the measured thickness to the nominal CAD model thickness.

The measured data object must have data on two opposing sides which have the opposite normal orientations to use this function.

To create a Mesh Thickness Colormap, click the Mesh Thickness Colormap button

from the Mesh toolbar (View | Toolbars | Mesh) to open the Mesh Operator dialog box. You can also do this from the Thickness Colormap menu option (Insert | Mesh | Thickness Colormap).

When you perform a thickness colormap of the data object (Pointcloud or Mesh), PC-DMIS calculates the measured thickness up to a Max Thickness value. The software does not evaluate any data value greater than the Max Thickness.

When the measured data is aligned to a CAD model, you can choose to create a thickness colormap which shows the deviation of the measured thickness in comparison to the nominal CAD model thickness.

If you use a large Max Thickness value on a large data object, it can result in a longer processing time.

You can create the following thickness colormaps:

Measure part thickness using either a Pointcloud or Mesh data object
Compare to CAD thickness colormap, which shows the deviation of the Pointcloud or Mesh data object thickness in comparison to a CAD model.

Show / Hide Colormaps

You can show or hide colormaps in the Graphic Display window in different ways. When hidden, PC-DMIS does not show the colormaps in the Graphic Display window as you move through the Edit window.

The Activate Colormap button has two states: Enabled and Disabled. Click the Activate Colormaps button () from the Graphics Items toolbar or from the menu (Operation | Graphic Display Window | Graphic Items | Activate Colormaps) so it's in the enabled state (). Colormaps are now actively shown in the Graphic Display window.

To hide the colormaps in the Graphic Display window, click the Activate Colormaps button again so it's in the disabled state (). You can also select None from the Colormaps list to disable colormaps.

To show the colormaps:

Click the Activate Colormaps button so it's in the enabled state. When you enable this button, PC-DMIS displays the colormaps in the Graphic Display window based on the cursor position in the Edit window.
Select a colormap from the Colormaps list.
When you apply or execute a colormap, PC-DMIS automatically sets the Activate Colormaps button to the enabled state.

When the cursor is on a Mesh, Point, Surface or Thickness colormap in the Edit window, the active colormap appears in the Graphic Display window. PC-DMIS also displays the Colormap ID in the Colormap combo box.

If your cursor is above all the colormaps in the Edit window, PC-DMIS does not show any colormap in the Graphic Display window, and sets the Colormap combo box to None.