point cloud: retain points?

[potrero]

NX 6.0.1, WinXP 32
Is there a way to retain the points in a point cloud, say, after constructing a surface "From Point Cloud"? It seems that the default option basically constructs the surface and discards the source points.

What would you do, if the goal was simply to import the points themselves?

Thanks.

 

[JohnRBaker]

What do you mean by "retain the points"? When I create a Surface from a 'Cloud of Points' the points are still there after the surface it created. Or were you thinking that the new Surface would somehow be 'associated' to the original set of Points so that if you moved one or more of the points that the surface would 'update'?

If that was what you were expecting, I'm sorry but that is NOT yet a supported behavior for a Surface from a 'Cloud of Points'.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[potrero]

Hmm, looked to me as if the points are gone. (I was referring to your first interpretation, not the second ... though associative Surface-to-point-cloud could be useful functionality.) Do the points appear in your Part Navigator?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, they're still there but only because I created them as 'smart' points (features). If they were 'dumb' points (not features) they would still be in the model and visible on the screen, just like the 'smart' points were, but of course they would not be seen in the Part Navigator, unless you were NOT in 'Timestamp Order' and then even 'dumb' points show up under the Part Navigator item labeled 'Unused Items'.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[potrero]

Sorry to ask a question with a seemingly obvious answer, but how do you import a point cloud (ie: a *.dat file with X, Y, Z coordinates of points) as Smar Points?

 

[JohnRBaker]

I didn't. I manually created actual physical points.

But since you've asked the question that you did, I now know what you're talking about.

When you enter 'points' from a file, you're NOT actually creating points, but rather you're supplying the X,Y,Z coordinates of where the 'points' would be if they actually WERE points. What you see on the screen, just before you hit OK, are temporary points, generally shown as an asterisk (*). However these are exactly what I said they were, 'temporary' points, and so once the surface is created and you perform any sort of display update, even a simple 'Refresh', they're GONE, since as I said, they never actually existed in the first place, at least NOT as real points.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[potrero]

Ahh, the temporary nature of these points is my exact problem. Is there anyway to import permanent Points from an X,Y,Z data file?

 

[JohnRBaker]

As a matter of fact we were having this exact discussion on another message board only the points were intended for another purpose (origins of a hole) and someone offered a simple GRIP program, a copy of which is attached. There is also a very simple sample data file included so that you can see the format required.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[potrero]

John,
Once again, you're great. Thanks, this is a helpful app.

As is indicated by the sample data file, this requires comma-separated values (CSV) to correctly import the points.

Seems like the ability to "retain" points would be a handy feature of the "through point cloud" surface creation tool.

Or, just a standalone function to do what this GRIP is doing.