Product Overview
PC-DMIS Planner is a stand-alone application that links design and inspection by creating an inspection plan from design data. It does not reside inside a CAD system but instead uses CAD data either directly via a Direct CAD Interface (DCI) or via one of several CAD translators. It uses this data to create the inspection plan. A group of Planner-compatible tools have been added to PC-DMIS that converts the inspection plan into a PC-DMIS part program.
PC-DMIS Planner creates the inspection plan, but it is done without defining all of the technology data that might tie it to a specific machine, a class of machines or even to a specific sensor technology (CMM, Vision, NC, etc.). Therefore, a plan created by PC-DMIS Planner can be used on any machine that runs PC-DMIS.
PC-DMIS Planner makes paperless inspection a reality. The process of getting design intent from the CAD system to inspection devices used to be cumbersome, slow and rife with error. Design engineers would manually mark up part drawings. Then they would count on inspectors to interpret the notations and enter the correct parameters into their inspection software. PC-DMIS Planner ends this. Now, designers annotate their drawings electronically by defining features, datums and dimensions, and these notations become the inspection plan, which is included in a .cad file. It is truly a paperless process and users enjoy the benefits.
 PC-DMIS Planner, working with new Planner-compatible tools inside PC-DMIS, automatically builds inspection programs. These PC-DMIS tools interpret the Inspection Plans. In doing so, it determines what features it has to measure and how to measure them. Once done with those tasks, it establishes the relationships among features, applies the appropriate tolerances and determines what should be reported. Last but not least, it creates the moves necessary to position the probe as it measures the part. Jobs that once took days to program now take minutes.
One of these new PC-DMIS tools optimizes measurement sequences. Measurement software vendors have pursued the idea of probe path optimization for a long time. The possibility of being able to remove the inefficiencies from a probing sequence without having to go though a long and painful editing sessions has always been attractive. With the advent of PC-DMIS Planner, it became a necessity. Requiring designers to worry about the most efficient way to measure a part as they developed an Inspection Plan was not feasible. So, Wilcox Associates developed a Probe Path Optimizer. Once the Inspection Plan has been turned into an inspection program, the user can remove its inefficiencies with a single mouse click.
 Since the PC-DMIS Probe Path Optimizer is an option of PC-DMIS, it is also available to all of the EMS measurement packages. Even the most efficiently written measurement programs can become inefficient as they change and evolve. Each execution takes more time than it should. Optimization eliminates this waste.
PC-DMIS Planner helps eliminate version control problems. Using this software along with a Direct CAD Interface can eliminate most if not all of the version control problems that have bedeviled inspection operations for years. With a DCI in place, the measurement software “knows” when a CAD model and its associated Inspection Plans have changed. When this happens, PC-DMIS notifies the operator and its Change Manager offers the option of updating the inspection program with all or a selection of the modifications. No longer do manufacturers have to worry about building a product to one design and measuring it to another. PC-DMIS Planner seamlessly closes the loop between design and inspection.
Additional Information
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