Patent ID: 11860602
Assignee: MITUTOYO CORPORATION
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  Y | IPC G

Claim 19:
20. A computer implemented method for operating a programming system for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine (CMM),
the programming system comprising:
a user interface comprising:
a workpiece inspection program simulation portion which is included in a three dimensional (3D) view window and which comprises a 3D view including workpiece features on the workpiece; and
an editing user interface portion which is included in at least one of a plan view window or a program view window and which comprises an editable plan representation of a current workpiece feature inspection plan for performing inspection operations on a workpiece, the editable plan representation comprising at least one of workpiece features or inspection operation representations;

the method comprising:
under control of one or more computing systems of the programming system configured with executable instructions,
determining that a selection has been made for selecting at least one workpiece feature or inspection operation representation in the editable plan representation;
in response to the determination that the selection has been made in the editable plan representation, automatically designating as a target feature a first workpiece feature in the 3D view that corresponds to the selected at least one workpiece feature or inspection operation representation in the editable plan representation;
automatically determining that a second workpiece feature is occluding at least a portion of the target feature in the 3D view; and
in response to the determination that the second workpiece feature is occluding at least a portion of the target feature in the 3D view, automatically rendering as at least partially transparent the second workpiece feature in the 3D view;
wherein the current workpiece feature inspection plan comprises at least one of measuring or touching a sampling point on the target feature, using a CMM measuring probe, and for which the sampling point on the target feature is made to be visible in the 3D view by the automatic rendering of the second workpiece feature as at least partially transparent.