Context sensitive relational feature/measurement command menu display in coordinate measurement machine (CMM) user interface

A method for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine, the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) including at least one sensor used for determining workpiece feature measurement data, a stage for holding a workpiece wherein at least one of the sensor or the stage are movable relative to one another, and a CMM control portion, the method comprising:

• providing a computer aided design (CAD) file processing portion which inputs or generates a workpiece CAD file corresponding to a workpiece and analyzes the file to automatically determine inspectable workpiece features on the workpiece corresponding to a plurality of geometric feature types;
• providing a geometric relationship analyzer that performs geometric analysis operations, including geometric analysis operations usable to analyze relational features that are based on a geometric feature set comprising at least two geometric features, wherein each geometric feature is one of a workpiece feature or a constructed feature that is determined based on at least two workpiece features;
• providing an inspection motion path generation portion that automatically generates at least part of an inspection motion path used in an inspection program generated by the system based on a current workpiece feature inspection plan for inspecting the workpiece represented by the workpiece CAD file;
• and
• providing a user interface comprising:
• an editable plan representation of the current workpiece feature inspection plan for the workpiece corresponding to the CAD file, the editable plan representation comprising at least one of geometric features and inspection operation representations;
• a workpiece inspection program simulation portion displaying a 3D view including at least one of geometric features and inspection operation representations corresponding to inspection operations to be performed on geometric features according to the current workpiece feature inspection plan;
• and
• a context sensitive menu portion displaying a context sensitive relational command menu that indicates a valid set of relational commands comprising relational feature or relational measurement commands that define a corresponding constructed feature or corresponding relational measurement operation to be included in the current workpiece feature inspection plan, wherein:
• the valid set of relational commands is determined based on a concurrently selected geometric feature set comprising at least two geometric features concurrently selected and indicated in the user interface, wherein the at least two geometric features are selected by a user;
• the geometric relationship analyzer performs an analysis to determine what relational commands are compatible with the concurrently selected at least two geometric features;
• only relational commands that are determined to be compatible with the concurrently selected at least two geometric features are included in the valid set of relational commands;
• for a first concurrently selected geometric feature set that comprises at least two geometric features that intersect:
• the geometric relationship analyzer determines that an angle measurement command is compatible based on the at least two geometric features intersecting, for which the angle measurement command defines an angle measurement operation to measure an angle between the at least two geometric features that intersect;
• the angle measurement command is correspondingly included in a first valid set of relational commands for the first concurrently selected geometric feature set;
• and
• the context sensitive menu portion displays a first context sensitive relational command menu that indicates the first valid set of relational commands for the first concurrently selected geometric feature set;
• and
• for a second concurrently selected geometric feature set that comprises at least two geometric features that are in parallel:
• the geometric relationship analyzer determines that a distance measurement command is compatible based on the at least two geometric features being in parallel, for which the distance measurement command defines a distance measurement operation to measure a distance between the at least two geometric features that are in parallel;
• the distance measurement command is correspondingly included in a second valid set of relational commands for the second concurrently selected geometric feature set;
• the geometric relationship analyzer determines that an angle measurement command is not compatible based on the at least two geometric features being in parallel and is thus invalid and is not included in the second valid set of relational commands for the second concurrently selected geometric feature set;
• and
• the context sensitive menu portion displays a second context sensitive relational command menu that indicates the second valid set of relational commands for the second concurrently selected geometric feature set.