AnthroCAM is provided by the FARO. It sits on the top of Autodesk’s Mechanical Desktop. Mechanical Desktop is used for surface generation. When AnthroCAM is installed, firstly communication with FARO arm is ensured and then units are defined. When AnthroCAM is connected to the arm, cursor may be controlled either by the position of the probe or by the standard mouse. AnthroCAM automatically senses which input device is active, selects that device for the cursor control.
AnthroCAM has ability to create and edit a wide variety of individualized reports. Some features and characteristics may be selected for the use. The flexibility of AnthroCAM reporting is the heart of this feature.
It has got two types of menus: traditional pull down menus and toolbars. It adds 8 pull down menus to the already existing menus of Mechanical Desktop.
The PROBES selection from the MAIN menu results in the display of probe dialog box. It allows the user to select the current probe and probe diameter, as well as select the preferred method of calibration. For compensation features, the direction of probe compensation is defined by the location of the probe when the back button is pressed. For circles, pressing the back button on the inside compensates out (for a hole) while pressing the back button on the outside compensates in (for a stud).
It is a special pull down menu. It will load the Autodesk’s Mechanical Desktop pull down menus. It will also appear at the end of the Mechanical Desktop menu to return to the AnthroCAM pull down menus.
Basic features can be measured directly by digitizing proper number of points. The features that can be measured directly are Arc, Circle, Line, Cone, Cylinder, Ellipse, Plane, Point, Slot, Sphere, Tube.
For scanning of free form surfaces it has provided a wide variety of options. It includes
Free Hand
The scanned point will not be closer than the given minimum distance. If this value is set to zero, points will be taken as fast as possible upto 50 points/sec depending upon the serial baud rate.
Chordal Scan
Points are collected whenever the probe exceeds the specified distance away from the line defined by two previous points. Set the CYLINDRICAL TOLERANCE ZONE value to specify this distance.
Parallel Locked Planes
Number of planes and distance between the planes is defined. First plane is defined or selected, remaining planes will be set up parallel to the first plane, offset by the specified the increment. After scanning the points on each plane will be sorted.
Radial Locked Planes
Number of planes to be set is entered. Points are collected as the probe passes through each plane. After scanning is complete, points on each plane will be sorted.
Lock Cylinders
Numbers of cylinders to be set up are entered. Points are collected as the probe passes through each cylinder. After scanning is complete, points on each cylinder will be sorted.
Normal Lock Planes
A polyline is selected. Planes will be set up through each point in the polyline normal to the polyline at that point. Points are collected as the probe passes through each plane. After scanning is complete, points on each cylinder will be sorted.
Alignments are separated into three categories.
3-2-1 Alignment
It requires a plane, 2 points (or a line), and a point. The plane direction can be selected by a drop down box. The 2 points (or a line) define the major axis and a drop down box can select the direction. For selecting planes, line, point in 3-2-1 alignment a lot of flexibility is there. One of the following methods may be used
It saves the transformation matrix between the machine coordinate system and the current coordinate system. When AnthroCAM boots up, it automatically resets the MCS (Machine Coordinate System) to 1" sphere. This corresponds to WCS (World Coordinate System) in AutoCAD. When importing a CAD model, the CAD coordinate system is WCS so datum features are measured on the part and set up a 3-2-1 alignment. Any 3-2-1 alignment will correspond to AutoCAD UCS. Now CAD=PART is used. This set the measured alignment (UCS) equals to CAD coordinate system. There is now a transformation matrix between MCS and WCS. One of following may be used for this purpose
If the component to be scanned is very large then during scanning the FARO arm can be moved and component can be scanned in multiple scans. Now Leap Frog is used for relocating the arm to the new position. Re-measuring three performs it or more features which exist in two overlapping working volumes. AnthroCAM performs a least squared best fit between the two data sets to re-establish the original coordinate system.
Some basic features can be constructed directly. The difference between construct feature and ordinary measured feature is that these features are not measured directly but by measuring some other features or keying in the values. Following features may be constructed
