The Database tab of the SA Tree Bar ( or "tree" for short) displays a hierarchical view of all entities in the current job. It reveals all entities in SA’s underlying measurement database, and is labeled at the bottom of the bar. The tree provides quick access to items of interest and enables simple and effective organization and management of properties.
Core components of an empty job file, the WORLD frame
A new, empty SA job file only contains a single element, the WORLD frame. Items within the tree are organized categorically. At the highest level is a container (much like a folder) called a collection. Within each collection, items are sorted in division by type. As shown above, in an empty job file there is only a single object which is a frame named "World" contained within the "Frames" type listing within the default collect name "A".
The WORLD frame is the base coordinate frame for the job file and cannot be moved or edited (without enabling options to do so). It defines the base coordinate system from which the location of all items in the job file are referenced.
Frames are the foundation for any measurement job. To define both the position and orientation of an object you need both a base reference point and orientation. A coordinate system or coordinate frame is a common way to report this information and is a fundamental piece of any computer-aided graphical design or inspection software. The term coordinate reference frames and measurement frames are interchangeable within SA.
SpatialAnalyzer allows you to create a virtually unlimited number of coordinate frames (referred to simply as frames in SA), each representing a unique position and orientation within the 3D graphical environment.
SA’s fundamental math comes from physics and engineering where a right-handed Cartesian coordinate system is a standard practice. This means that every point in a job file will have an X, Y, and Z location with respect to the reporting frame. Meaning that it's a given distance out along the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis from this common reference.
While there can be many coordinate frames in a given SA job, only one can be designated as the working frame. When a frame is designated as the working frame, it is shown in bold, blue letters in the tree and is followed by the (Working) designation.
It is important to recognize that changing a coordinate frame does not physically move anything in space—it merely results in a change in the reference system used to represent that same position and orientation. This allows you to take measurements in any arbitrary default coordinate system and represent them in a system that better describes the data.
Collections are organizational elements used to contain entities in a hierarchy in SA. Just as there is always exactly one working frame, there is always exactly one default collection. The default collection (colloquially referred to as the working collection) is the organizational container inside which all newly created entities are placed unless specified otherwise. For example, if a circle is created as the result of a geometry fitting operation, that circle will be placed into the default collection.
SA’s database structure and naming is composed of 2 levels: Collection and item. Some special items like point groups also have a subcategory within them (points) which are exposed in the tree. In the tree below is a Point Group Named "PlanePoints" which contains 5 individual points, r0 through r4. Relationships are also a special category because they link items together. Here a Geometry Relationship named "Plane" links together the points in the "PlanePoints" point group and the measured "GR-Plane" plane. A Geometry Relationship dynamically updates the properties of the measured geometry based on the measured points associated with it. The linked items used by the relationship are therefore also listed and accessible within the relationship in the tree.