Patent ID: 8892398

Claim:
An optical measuring apparatus, comprising a reference support on which a piece to be measured is mountable; an optical carriage movable in relation to said piece to be measured along a linear axis (x), said optical carriage carrying a light source for directing a beam of light across said x axis to be interrupted by the said piece under measurement; said carriage further carrying an optical detector aligned with said light source and arranged to receive the residual light of the said beam of light that has not been interrupted by said piece under measurement; a processing unit programmed to implement an auto-measure function, whereby the measuring apparatus is driven to automatically perform a pre-scan of said piece to be measured; the processing unit determines regions of interest in the piece and optimal scanning speeds and light intensity for said regions of interest; and the measuring apparatus is driven to perform a second scan of the piece after the pre-scan, the scanning speed and the light intensity in the second scan being adapted to values determined in the pre-scan and automatically compute transverse dimensions and longitudinal dimensions of said piece.