CMMSite.com, a subsidiary of CMM Quarterly, announces its new distributor agreements with ITP Styli and Fixlogix. CMMSite.com is quickly becoming the #1 resource site for the CMM/ Vision machine industry. CMMSite now offers a comprehensive line of styli and accessories. Thousands of items in stock for all probing systems M2 through M6. FixLogix modular CMM fixture system is attractive and highly functional at a fraction of the price of competing systems. Their patent-pending technology is one of the the best value on the market today.CMMSite.com will bring more distribution to the web site in order to meet the requests of coordinate measuring machine programmers who are looking for the best products available.
Links are provided on the front page of the CMMSite.com web site to purchase styli and fixture products. On the Fixlogix site you must register and following the link to their site.
Click here to view CMMSite.com
More about ITP and Fixlogix
ITP Styli
itpstyli is a North American corporation formed in partnership with itp GmbH, Germany. itstyli was created with the sole mission of fulfilling the needs of CMM, machine tool, and gear-measurement professionals who are looking for an easy and quick method to find and purchase a diverse range of high quality replacement styli, accessories and custom solutions, at lower cost. itp GmbH is a market leader in the replacement styli industry. Not only certified as a top performance supplier to major CMM, machine tool, and gear-measurement-instrument producers, itp has earned the business of customers worldwide and across all industry sectors. From automotive, aerospace, defense and machine tools to IT, itp has served applications where perfection, quality and exceptional performance are required.
Fixlogix
The FixLogix modular CMM fixture system is attractive and highly functional at a fraction of the price of competing systems. Our unique patent-pending technology is the best value on the market today.
To access these sites click on the links on the front page of CMMSite.com
Showing posts with label CMM E-Zine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CMM E-Zine. Show all posts
Surface Normals
Issues When Programming From CAD When Using A CMM
By Mark Boucher, CMM Quarterly http://www.cmmquarterly.com/
There are several issues that arise when bringing a CAD model into your CAD based coordinate measuring machine (CMM) programming software. One of these issues has to do with surface normals (surface vectors). You can bring in a model and the entire model or a portion of that model is visible, but dark (Figure1), or certain sections are not visible at all. This problem arises from the surface vectors pointing in the opposite direction than your CAD system views them. You are looking at the back side of the surface. You must reverse the surface normal (Figure 2). If your software has this capability, you are looking for something similar to ‘reverse surface normals’. This will flip the surface so the front faces in the correct orientation for your software to view the surface.
By Mark Boucher, CMM Quarterly http://www.cmmquarterly.com/
There are several issues that arise when bringing a CAD model into your CAD based coordinate measuring machine (CMM) programming software. One of these issues has to do with surface normals (surface vectors). You can bring in a model and the entire model or a portion of that model is visible, but dark (Figure1), or certain sections are not visible at all. This problem arises from the surface vectors pointing in the opposite direction than your CAD system views them. You are looking at the back side of the surface. You must reverse the surface normal (Figure 2). If your software has this capability, you are looking for something similar to ‘reverse surface normals’. This will flip the surface so the front faces in the correct orientation for your software to view the surface.
All surfaces have a front and a back side; a CAD program must know which is which. How is this done? The model must somehow include information to specify the front of a surface. This is done by surface normals.
This is a line perpendicular to the front surface and beginning on that surface pointing away from the surface. Meaning it exists only on the side of the surface that is its front. The CAD system must have this information to shade the model properly. Those that
use a CAD system need this to drive the probe normal to the surface.
Direction vectors have been covered extensively by Richard Clark, his three part series was featured in CMM Quarterly (http://www.cmmquarterly.com/ ). Suffice it to say that these surface normals are what give you the direction vectors from CAD models when programming. If you do not use a CAD model to program then you must calculate the normal vector. Contact rcmetrology@yahoo.com for a Direction Vector Calculator.
When picking a feature off a CAD model the software will extract the normal vector from the CAD surface. As mentioned above you may have the ability to flip surface normals or you may have the ‘view surfaces from both sides’ option. Care must be given to this selection because the surface will be visible but the vector may point in the opposite direction you need to probe the part, your probing direction vector. Just know when viewing the vector after feature selection, that it is correct.
This is a line perpendicular to the front surface and beginning on that surface pointing away from the surface. Meaning it exists only on the side of the surface that is its front. The CAD system must have this information to shade the model properly. Those that
use a CAD system need this to drive the probe normal to the surface.
Direction vectors have been covered extensively by Richard Clark, his three part series was featured in CMM Quarterly (http://www.cmmquarterly.com/ ). Suffice it to say that these surface normals are what give you the direction vectors from CAD models when programming. If you do not use a CAD model to program then you must calculate the normal vector. Contact rcmetrology@yahoo.com for a Direction Vector Calculator.
When picking a feature off a CAD model the software will extract the normal vector from the CAD surface. As mentioned above you may have the ability to flip surface normals or you may have the ‘view surfaces from both sides’ option. Care must be given to this selection because the surface will be visible but the vector may point in the opposite direction you need to probe the part, your probing direction vector. Just know when viewing the vector after feature selection, that it is correct.
This article is copyrighted. Please contact Mark Boucher at info@cmmquarterly.com for permission to reprint.
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