You can construct a sphere by changing any given feature into a sphere. PC-DMIS constructs the circle at the centroid of the input feature. If a sheet metal point is used, the diameter is the probe diameter. For some sheet metal features (such as slots and notches), the width is used as the diameter. For features that do not have diameters (lines, points, etc.), a value that is four times the probe diameter is used.
You can modify the diameter of the sphere; this changes the sphere from DEPENDENT to INDEPENDENT. This means that when the sphere is executed that diameter will not change based on the input feature but will be independent of the input feature, while the position and vector remain dependent on the input feature. This allows you to have control over the diameter in cases where the input feature doesn’t really have a diameter, such as a point. The DEPENDENT/INDEPENDENT field is a toggle field you may change.
PC-DMIS uses this diameter value for all calculations instead of using the default diameter value as described above.
To construct a Cast Sphere:
Open the Construct Sphere dialog box (Insert | Feature | Constructed | Sphere).
From the Method list, select the Cast option.
From the Feature list, select one feature of any type.
Select the In or Out option. For details, see the "In / Out Sphere" topic in this documentation.
If you want to change the feature theoretical values, select the Feature theoreticals check box and type in the values. For details, see the "Specifying Feature Theoreticals" topic in the PC-DMIS Core documentation.
Click the Create button.
The Edit window command line for this option would read:
CONSTR/SPHERE,CAST,feat_1, (Dependent | Independent)