PowerInspect 2018 Essential Skills – Tutorial 9 – Point Cloud

Introduction to Non-Contact Measuring Systems

Overview of Point Cloud Data

• Non-contact measuring systems, like laser scanners, capture extensive point data during the inspection process, referred to as point cloud data.

• These systems are beneficial for rapid measurement of complex surfaces and can assist in reverse-engineering parts lacking CAD data.

Acquiring and Managing Point Clouds

• The tutorial will demonstrate how to acquire, manage, and extract measurements from point cloud data.

• Point clouds can be acquired directly by connecting supported devices or by importing previously captured data using proprietary software.

Cleaning Up Point Cloud Data

• It is common for irrelevant point data to be collected; this should be deleted to ensure accurate inspection results.

• Various picking tools are available in Power Inspectors; the lasso tool can be used for selecting unwanted data for deletion.

Filtering Point Cloud Data

• Point cloud data can be filtered based on distance between points, curvature, or tolerances to manage large datasets effectively.

• This filtering helps maintain accuracy while speeding up alignment calculations.

Visual Comparison with CAD Models

• After filtering, the point cloud is projected onto a CAD model for visual comparison.