InnovMetric Software Inc. has launched PolyWorks 2017, the latest release of the company's universal 3-D metrology software platform that enables measurement specialists to communicate inspection results directly in 3-D, and empowers reviewers to investigate measurement results with dynamic navigation tools. PolyWorks 2017 delivers a control-centric reviewing workflow - a key upgrade for all portable metrology and CNC CMM measurement specialists that need to share large metrology projects, containing hundreds of dimensional and GD&T controls, with colleagues, customers and suppliers. It also provides a major technology upgrade for large-volume metrology applications, and a unique approach to real-time collision analysis for more efficient CNC CMM project set-ups.
Control-Centric Reviewing Workflow
"Because they provide invaluable feedback on manufactured parts and on the performance of the manufacturing process, 3-D measurements must be efficiently planned and executed by measurement specialists," said Marc Soucy, President of InnovMetric. "Then, the results have to be thoroughly reviewed by manufacturing specialists to make informed engineering decisions. With 3-D inspection projects designed for planning and executing measurements, time-consuming manipulations are required when sharing measurement results using standard 2-D reports. For reviewers, interpreting results found in static tables and snapshots within extensive reports can be challenging, frustrating and inefficient. Oftentimes, this traditional approach requires back and forth communication with measurement specialists to extract additional information from the 3-D inspection project. With the new dimensional-control-centric approach in PolyWorks 2017, the PolyWorks|Inspector 3-D metrology project is the report. By enabling measurement specialists to communicate results directly in 3-D, considerable productivity gains are guaranteed for our customers. PolyWorks 2017 also empowers reviewers to investigate measurement results contextually in 3-D with dynamic navigation tools."
Using the new Control Reviewer in Polyworks|Inspector or in the free PolyWorks|Viewer, measurement specialists and manufacturing specialists can now:
- Access a global list of dimensional controls sorted by characteristic index, making it the ideal tool to prepare first-article inspection reports
- Add custom controls to the global list of controls; for example, those measured using manual gauges
- Easily split an inspection project into small and logical groups of controls called Control Views
- Tie individual controls to specific data alignments and coordinate systems, enabling multicontextual Control Views
- Search, sort and filter controls to highlight critical results
- Display control views automatically in 3-D with the right point of view
- Generate formatted reports automatically.
Technology Upgrade for Large-Volume Metrology Applications
InnovMetric's most significant technology enhancements are for customers who need to assemble and inspect large structures, such as those found in the aerospace, shipyard and energy industries. Users can now:
- Predefine and configure a list of laser tracker devices, and connect to multiple trackers simultaneously. With PolyWorks 2017, to guide assembly building in real time, switch the active tracker instantaneously and feed measured reflector positions to digital readouts.
- Align point-to-object using a technique that aligns points to different geometrical characteristics of matched objects (such as center points, axes or surfaces) and control the alignment direction, weight and participation to the scaling factor computation for each pair of matched geometries.
- Probe surface features before their nominal components are defined or the part is aligned to the CAD model.
Real-Time Collision Analysis
Measurement specialists who define probing and laser scanning paths on CNC CMMs now have access to a collision analysis engine that detects potential tool collisions with the part or the fixtures, and provides visual feedback on problematic toolpaths in the Sequence Editor and the 3D Scene.
Due to two major innovations, the PolyWorks collision analysis approach offers the following benefits:
- PolyWorks collision analysis is carried out in real time while the measurement sequence is created or edited, such as when new measurement objects are added to a sequence. This allows operators to immediately fix problematic toolpaths and avoid accumulating issues.
- PolyWorks collision analysis is performed both offline and online, and warns users about potential collisions even when they launch a measurement operation outside of the Sequence Editor. "Traditionally, this feature is offered solely as an offline functionality in other software," said a company spokesperson.
For more information contact:
InnovMetric Software, Inc.
2014 Cyrille-Duquet, Ste. 310
Quebec, QC Canada G1N 4N6
418-688-2061
info@innovmetric.com
www.innovmetric.com