Inspection program editing environment providing user defined collision avoidance volumes with integral modification properties

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9976852-B2
Application number	US-201615249915-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2016
Priority date	May 4, 2015
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

A system includes an environment for programming workpiece inspection operations for a coordinate measurement machine (CMM). The environment includes a user interface comprising a program simulation portion configured to display a 3D view of the workpiece and/or representations of inspection operations to be performed on the workpiece. The user interface further includes auxiliary collision avoidance volume (CAV) creation elements that create CAV's that are represented in the 3D view. The 3D CAVs and/or their representations have integrated graphical modification properties which are controllable in the user interface. The modification properties are activated by selection of a face of the CAV representation, without the explicit activation of a separate modification control element mode or tool. This results in a simplified and intuitive user interface. Users perform a constrained set graphical modifications in the 3D view using an input device, to modify a CAV.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine, the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) including at least one sensor used for determining workpiece feature measurement data, a stage for holding a workpiece wherein at least one of the sensor or the stage are movable relative to one another, and a CMM control portion, the system comprising:
a computer aided design (CAD) file processing portion which inputs a workpiece CAD file corresponding to a workpiece and analyzes the file to automatically determine inspectable workpiece features on the workpiece corresponding to a plurality of geometric feature types;
a user interface comprising:
a workpiece inspection program simulation portion configured to display a 3D view including at least one of workpiece features on the workpiece or inspection operation representations corresponding to inspection operations to be performed on workpiece features according to a current workpiece feature inspection plan; and
one or more auxiliary collision avoidance volume creation elements operable to perform operations that at least one of create or define an auxiliary collision avoidance volume that is displayed as a 3D collision avoidance volume representation in the 3D view; and

an inspection motion path generation portion that automatically generates at least part of an inspection motion path used in an inspection program generated by the system for inspecting the workpiece represented by the input workpiece CAD file, wherein:
the 3D collision avoidance volume representation has graphical modification properties which are controllable by a user in the user interface, and the modification properties are activated by user selection of a face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation without explicit activation of a separate modification control element mode or modification control tool;
the defined auxiliary collision avoidance volume resulting from the operation of the auxiliary collision avoidance volume creation elements and subsequent modifications is operable within the context of the user interface of the system for programming workpiece feature inspection operations, and is not operable to modify physical features of the workpiece represented in the input workpiece CAD file; and
the inspection motion path generation portion automatically generates an inspection motion path configured to avoid the auxiliary collision avoidance volume such that moving parts of the CMM do not enter the auxiliary collision avoidance volume during execution of the inspection program generated by the system for inspecting the workpiece represented by the input workpiece CAD file.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the graphical modification properties include at least one of size modification, rotation, or position translation of an auxiliary collision avoidance volume.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the graphical modification properties comprise an axis representation which is configured to indicate at least one of a direction of size modification, a rotation axis, or a direction of a position translation.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein an orientation of the axis representation is based on a normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one of a direction of size modification, a rotation axis, or a direction of a position translation is based on the normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the axis representation is configured to indicate a normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

7. A method for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), the method comprising:
providing a computer aided design (CAD) file processing portion which inputs a workpiece CAD file corresponding to a workpiece and analyzes the file to automatically determine workpiece features on the workpiece corresponding to a plurality of geometric feature types;
providing a user interface comprising:
a workpiece inspection program simulation portion configured to display a 3D view including at least one of workpiece features on the workpiece or inspection operation representations corresponding to inspection operations to be performed on workpiece features according to a current workpiece feature inspection plan; and
one or more auxiliary collision avoidance volume creation elements operable to perform operations that at least one of create or define an auxiliary collision avoidance volume, wherein an auxiliary collision avoidance volume as at least one of created or defined is displayable as a 3D collision avoidance volume representation in the 3D view which includes graphical modification properties which are controllable in the user interface;

activating the graphical modification properties by selecting a face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation without explicit activation of a separate modification control element mode or modification control tool;
modifying properties of the auxiliary collision avoidance volume in the 3D view;
providing an inspection motion path generation portion that automatically generates at least part of an inspection motion path used in an inspection program generated by a system for inspecting the workpiece represented by the input workpiece CAD file; and
operating the inspection motion path generation portion to automatically generate the inspection motion path configured to avoid an auxiliary collision avoidance volume such that moving parts of the CMM do not enter the auxiliary collision avoidance volume during execution of the inspection program generated by the system for inspecting the workpiece represented by the input workpiece CAD file.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the graphical modification properties include at least one of size modification, rotation, or position translation of an auxiliary collision avoidance volume.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising displaying an axis representation indicating at least one of a direction of size modification, a rotation axis, or a direction of a position translation.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein an orientation of the axis representation is based on a normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one of a direction of size modification, a rotation axis, or a direction of a position translation is based on the normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the axis representation is configured to indicate the normal direction of the selected face of the 3D collision avoidance volume representation.

Assignees

• Mitutoyo Corp
• Mitutoyo Europe GmbH

Inventors

• Kelley Brenan N
• Fawell Kareem G
• Buza Matthew
• Yu Dahai

Classifications

• G05B19/4061

  Avoiding collision or forbidden zones · CPC title

• G05B19/4099

  Surface or curve machining, making three-dimensional [3D] objects, e.g. desktop manufacturing · CPC title

• Y02P90/265

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G01B21/04 Primary

  by measuring coordinates of points · CPC title

• G05B2219/35134

  3-D cad-cam · CPC title