Defining a Laser Auto Feature by Clicking on a Pointcloud

Often, you click on the CAD to define an Auto feature. In the case where no CAD exists, you can perform a scan of the part, and then:

To define an Auto feature from Pointcloud points:

Scan the surface of the part in which the needed Auto feature exists.
Click the Auto feature from the Auto Feature toolbar or the Insert | Feature | Auto submenu. This opens the Auto Feature dialog box.
Either select points from the pointcloud that best define the feature's nominal position or drag a box directly on the pointcloud to have PC-DMIS extract the feature from the points within the dragged box. PC-DMIS defines the Auto feature based on your selection.

Defining Features by Selecting Points

The following table shows the number of points that are needed to define an Auto feature's location.

Feature	Points to Select
Surface Point	Select one point at the needed location within the measured surface area.
Edge Point	Select one point at the needed location along the measured edge.
Plane	Select at least three points that best define the needed plane's nominal position.
Circle	Select at least three points around the perimeter of the measured circle.
Round Slot	Select three points along one of the slot's arcs, then select another three points along the other arc.
Square Slot	Type the slot's nominal Width in the Auto Feature dialog box. Select two points along a long side of the slot. Select one point on a short side of the slot. Select one point on the other long side of the slot. Finally, select one point on the other short side of the slot.
Flush and Gap	Select a point on each side of the gap.
Cylinder	Select three points for each of two circles that define the extents of the cylinder's form and length.
Sphere	Select at least five points around the surface of the measured sphere.

Defining Features by Box-Selecting

In Learn mode, you can drag a box around the desired feature on the pointcloud to extract supported Auto features using the selected data points.

This functionality has these limitations:

PC-DMIS only calculates the surface vector. You may need to define the angle vector manually, such as for a polygon feature.
If your box selection includes points at multiple depths in the Z axis, it may result in a poor feature extraction. You can avoid this by either clipping the acquisition or by using COP/OPER,SELECT to exclude those points prior to the box selection.

Example Circle Auto feature creation by box-selecting

Box-selecting works with these supported features:

For all other Auto features, you must use the point selection method.