Export CMM XYZIJK from SolidWorks

Ryoko · Sep 3, 2010

Hello there. Our company machines alot of 3D forms on CNC. With our previous CAD software, we had a script that extracted the XYZIJK of points placed on a surface. It would create a table for the operator to use and generate a TXT file formatted with the CMM's coding language to inspect those points. It was not fully automated, as you had to select start, end points of each vector. It was much faster than measuring each point and writing your own CMM code.

I found this (

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=160366)

article through search which is somewhat useful, but it only discusses the XYZ of the coordinate. I think I would need to either extract line data (start, end) or point with axis to accomplish this.

Im looking for ideas / code on how to do this in Solidworks 2010. Or maybe there is software add-ins that do this already?

handleman · Sep 3, 2010

By IJK I guess you mean a unit vector pointing in the direction of the surface normal?

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

Ryoko · Sep 3, 2010

Correct. I don't think Solidworks has a 'Vector' entity or function. The closest thing it may have is an axis, or a 3D sketch line drawn 1" long perpendicular to the surface.

handleman · Sep 3, 2010

It looks like this could be reasonably done, and be fully automated to generate as many points as you wanted. You would just have to create a 3d sketch with your inspection points. The normal vector can be automatically calculated in the API. Looks like a bit more scope than I could do for a freebie though. Anyone?

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)