A system for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), the 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 and the stage are movable relative to one another, and a CMM control portion, the system comprising:
- a computer-aided design (CAD) file processor which inputs 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;
- and
- a user interface comprising:
- a workpiece inspection program simulation portion configurable to display a 3-D view including at least one of 3-D workpiece features on the workpiece and inspection operation representations corresponding to inspection operations to be performed on 3-D workpiece features according to a current workpiece feature inspection plan which includes moving the at least one sensor relative to the stage and utilizing the at least one sensor for determining workpiece feature measurement data;
- an editing user interface portion 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 inspection plan workpiece features and inspection operation representations;
- and
- an editable alignment program plan representation of a current workpiece alignment program plan for the workpiece corresponding to the CAD file, the editable alignment program plan representation including at least one of alignment plan workpiece features and inspection operation representations used in an alignment program for the workpiece for establishing a location of the workpiece on the CMM,
- wherein:
- the system is configured with the editable alignment program plan representation being automatically responsive to editing operations included in a first set of editing operations, wherein the first set of editing operations includes at least one operation that is performed in the 3-D view of the user interface;
- the first set of editing operations comprises editing operations that are performed for deleting a first alignment plan workpiece feature from the editable alignment program plan representation when the first alignment plan workpiece feature is included in the editable alignment program plan representation, wherein the first set of editing operations comprises:
- an editing operation that is performed in the 3-D view that selects a first 3-D workpiece feature in the 3-D view that corresponds to the first alignment plan workpiece feature in the editable alignment program plan representation;
- and an editing operation that selects an option for deleting the first alignment plan workpiece feature from the editable alignment program plan representation but which does not delete or modify the corresponding first 3-D workpiece feature in the 3-D view;
- and
- the editable alignment program plan representation is automatically responsive to the editing operations in the first set of editing operations that are performed for the deleting of the first alignment plan workpiece feature from the editable alignment program plan representation, by automatically deleting the first alignment plan workpiece feature and associated inspection operations from the editable alignment program plan representation such that the first alignment plan workpiece feature is no longer displayed in the editable alignment program plan representation, but for which the corresponding first 3-D workpiece feature continues to be displayed in the 3-D view without modification to the first 3-D workpiece feature.