Machine guarding layout in SW

Try looking up Revworks. They have a faro type system that you can put on a cart and get very accurate measurements and actually get data right into SolidWorks. A laptop and this system and you would be in business.

I know that Faro has a machine that will digitize a room - I think with laser scanning, but I don't know the details for sure. I also just told you about all I know about it.

WT

I have been using an 8ft Faro arm and Revworks for a couple years to do reverse engineering on car sized objects. They usually require 1 or 2 moves of the arm to get the data that is required for my needs. I find that Revworks is adequate for doing the simple point - plane type of data gathering. For anything that would require surfacing I would not recommend it. I have found that it is cumbersome at best for anything but small patches. Depending upon what data you are trying to gather and how large your envelope is, it is a good combination of tools for going directly into Solidworks. As for the accuracy, it sure beats the old tape measure. If you are doing simple structures that will bolt to existing equipment it will probably be accurate enough. If I remember what the salesman said correctly, the more you move your arm, the more accuracy you loose.

There is a method for using Faro arms (and equivalent machines - Romer, etc.) to measure objects larger than the arms maximum reach. You measure the portion of the object within reach, document the position of the measurement device relative to some fixed references, move the measurement device, and document the new position relative to the same references. This allows you to continue making measurements from the new location and align all of the measurements to a common point of reference. I suspect any of the portable CMM manufacturers (Faro, Romer, etc.) can demonstrate this process.

Depending on the resolution and accuracy you need have you every considered photogametry?

Len

cutthroat.trout wrote:

a friend of mine doing boat design told me of the need to capture-to-CAD handmade boat mold designs. He settled on

and Raindrop Geomagic (he's also a fanatical Rhino user). He's into this solution for something on the order of $60K or so. If you have a lot of machines to do, then you **_may_** be able to justify this level of automation.

I'm_Larry_Today

That looks rather promising actually...

Especially considering the cost at $895.

Has anyone used this technology for reverse engineering and fit-function type details?

--cutthroat

That's one solution I had wondered about, but not at that price.

The photo scanners I have seen would only do small scale parts, but apparently this is larger.

As is the price tag.

--cutthroat