Patent ID: 7006084

Claim:
A computer based method comprising: decomposing data from a computer aided design file of a model, saving said decomposed data in a plurality of smaller files wherein at least one of said smaller files is an analysis file which does not contain imaging data, accessing at least one of said analysis files to analyze the surface geometry of said model; wherein at least one of said smaller files comprises a list of specified surfaces on said model and data relating to the smallest possible three-dimensional region that can enclose each specified surface; obtaining the position of a surface point on an inspection surface of a physical object, at least one physical inspection surface on said physical object corresponding to an equivalent surface on said model, wherein each said surface on said model is enclosed by a different defined volume, defining at least one target volume from said defined volume that encloses said surface point, determining the distance between the surface on said model enclosed by said at least one target volume and said point on said physical object.