TWO-DIMENSIONAL COORDINATE MEASURING MACHINE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly measure the accurate length between two points on the surface of a measuring object by a simple calculation, even when the measuring object deforms since the surface of a measuring table is not perfectly flat. SOLUTION: A two-dimensional coordinate measuring machine has lattice point setting means for setting a large number of lattice points (34) whose X-coordinates and Y-coordinates are determined on the surface of the measuring object (30), Z-coordinate detection means for detecting the Z-coordinate of the surface of the measuring object at each lattice point, polyhedron approximation means for approximating the surface of the measuring object by the surfaces of a polyhedron having surfaces of triangles (38) whose vertexes are individual lattice points, and length measuring means for projecting a line segment (32) connecting two points on the surface of the measuring object onto the surfaces of the polyhedron, and calculating the length of the line segment by the total of the lengths of its projected portions onto the individual surfaces of the polyhedron. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT