The CAD Import tool is provided to allow a user to convert from standard CAD formats to a SAL3D Cloud of Points (COP).
The CAD Import tool is used to generate a reference model COP. From this point on, any acquired COP can be compared, with the help of the other SAL3D tools, to this model one.
Currently, the input file formats supported are IGES and STL. Having imported the CAD object, it will be shown in 3D with an Orthographic Projection. The viewer allows rotating, zooming, and panning, in order to set the viewport to the surface of interest for the conversion to COP.
The resulting COP will comprise the surface region shown in the main window, with the horizontal axis being the COP X coordinate, and the vertical axis the COP Y coordinate. The COP Z coordinate is related to the depth of the object surface seen on screen.
In addition to displaying the image in 3D, the tool shows the metric size of the viewport, and the rotation of the object. This allows precision and reproducibility in selecting the surface region to convert.
Once the view to convert to COP is chosen, the only remaining step is to select the convert menu option and choose the desired resolution. A dialog will appear asking for the X and Y steps. This determines the size of the resulting COP based on the X and Y range of the CAD model.
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1.7.6.1