Cloud to CAD

This function is designed to be quick and easy to use. It is intended for clouds with nearly full coverage of the CAD and that have already had any splash data or outliers removed. It performs an initial alignment based upon the perimeter of the scan and then refines that alignment.

This function first prompts for the operator to select the CAD surfaces to consider and then performs the alignment reporting the fit results and transform. The cloud to CAD alignment prompt can be accessed with the Cloud to CAD ribbon button or by right clicking on a cloud and selecting “Align to CAD”.

Press Yes to accept the alignment as performed.

If No is pressed, it can be run a second time using a finer detail mesh of the CAD model which will take longer but typically returns better results.

Alternatively the Perform N-Point Alignment button can be pressed to directly switch to an N-Point selection to guide the alignment process.

The alignment process will build a Cloud to CAD Relationship for you which can be used to display the overall deviation color map. This is an option that can be turned on or off through the User Options.

The color map can also be enabled by opening the cloud’s properties and switching from RT Mesh to Voxel Cloud Display.