INSPECTION PROGRAM EDITING ENVIRONMENT WITH AUTOMATIC TRANSPARENCY OPERATIONS FOR OCCLUDED WORKPIECE FEATURES

A system is provided for programming workpiece feature inspection operations for a coordinate measuring machine. The system includes a user interface with a simulation portion (e.g., including a 3D view of a workpiece) and an editing user interface portion (e.g., including an editable plan representation of a current workpiece feature inspection plan). Transparency operations are performed including automatically identifying as a target feature a workpiece feature in the 3D view that corresponds to a workpiece feature or inspection operation representation in the editable plan representation that is indicated by a current feature-directed operation (e.g., a selection operation for selecting a workpiece feature or inspection operation in the editable plan representation). An occluding workpiece feature that would otherwise be occluding at least a portion of the target feature in the 3D view is then automatically rendered as at least partially transparent in the 3D view.