SmartCAM V16 Snapping Improvements

Several new enhancements have added that make it easier to specify and snap coordinate locations, particularly when working with surface or solid models.

Graphical Display of Conic Centers - New in V16.5

This feature makes it easier for you to identify the center of the conic, for example when picking the center of a large radius arc. The new Display Modes option, "Show Conic Centers" displays a graphical marker when the cursor is within proximity of a conic center, and the Center-point Snap icon is enabled. For 2D conics, such as arcs, ellipses, and helices, a cross hair tick mark is drawn at the wireframe center. For 3D helices, a broken line is drawn marking the top and bottom of the helix. For 3D conics, such as cones, spheres, and tori, a broken line showing the surface axis is displayed.

Snap to Conic Center Axis - New in V16.5

The Center Point snapping behavior now includes conic axis centers, in addition to the existing 2D centers, such as arcs and ellipses. This feature makes it possible to pick coordinate positions directly from surface axes of a solid model, without the need to first extract wireframe elements.

When the Center-point Snap icon is enabled, SmartCAM will now recognize and snap to the top or bottom of conic axis lines, whether displayed or not.

Conic axis-centers displayed on solid model while measuring the distance between hole centers

Pick 3D Coordinates from Surfaces - New in V16.5

The new Project Free Coordinates to Surface Utility-Increment option allows free coordinate screen positions to be projected perpendicular to the screen onto surfaces beneath the cursor, and return the full XYZ coordinate for the pick. This is particularly helpful when using the Measure command, as when measuring the distance between two parallel faces, or a hole center and a wall feature.

Free coordinates picks projected onto a planar surface to measure Planar Angle using Measure command