point clouds

Don't know what it does (never used point clouds), but I saw this macro at

. Look for 3D Punktwolke einlesen which translates to "Read in 3D point cloud". There is a macro to download, but like I said, I know nothing about it. So you are on-your-own to figure it out.

Search for Geomagic on Google.

Not real sure, but think the goal is just to read a point set into a file so it can be registered with and compared to a part model?

Raindrop Geomagic has a variety of programs designed to solve several different types of problem. The two main programs are Geomagic Qualify and Geomagic Studio. Qualify is predominantly used to compare point sets (laser scans, CT scans, etc.) to CAD models. It is a very good tool for this purpose. The other program, Qualify, is a reverse engineering tool designed to create CAD models from point sets. Its a very powerful and impressive tool, but it largely creates complex NURBS surfaces by fitting them to the points in the scan data. If you need basic geometric entities such as cylinders, cubes, etc., Qualify can provide this to a limited extent. It is very time consuming and highly dependent on the user to properly identify the points that form each geometric entity.

For more information, visit

That is correct, however in addition to that I would like to be able to export the overlayed points along with the solid component in some flavor. I am trying to stay with standard SW tools (perhaps a macro) if possible.

Tim Struemke

Tim,

Do you want to analyze the relative differences between the as scanned data and the solid model ?? They do this allot with aircraft parts, but they don't use a point "cloud", they use specific key points. These points would be part of the CAD database from the begining. Then these points would be probed, and compared with the CAD data.

The reason I ask is because SW can't do much with raw points. There may be third party programs that can. You can, however, use the method described above. You just have to plan for it.

Regards

Mark

There was a macro out there for free called 'SketchFile' that handled 3D points if you had a text file adn it works really slick! Not sure if it is still out there but if now and you want it I can send it to you. Do a google on 'Sketchfile solidworks' and see what comes up

Ben

Ben, I am in fact using the sketchfile macro to import the data. This is a GREAT macro. What I am looking for is some way to now export the data once it is brought into the original cad file. What I am experiencing is that SW will not export points.

Tim

Ok, got it, now how free form is the shape? Can you model a solid using the points with lines and such, or one thing I have done in the past for 'organic or free form shapes is to take a plane offset from the point cloud and draw a outline (slightly larger than the point cloud, otherwise this will not work) exit the sketch, and then on the surface toolbar select the "filled surface" icon, select the sketch you just have drawn and then select in the constraint curves box below the patch boundry box (the one that now has your selected sketch in it) and select the point cloud. The surface will deform to the points (not the best but maybe good enough for you to use... You can also uncheck the "optimize sureface block and then have some control over the resolution of the surface made....

If you have problems following this I will send you a model that you can disect to see what I mean.

This is kinda fun and has helped in some things I have designed in the past, sort of a workaround on a quazi-nurbs surface....

Ben