3D Digitizing Strategy Planning Approach Based on a CAD Model

The objective of this paper is to describe a new method to determine the three-dimensional (3D) digitizing strategy for a computer aided design (CAD) known mechanical part by using a plane laser sensor. The Research Centre for Automatic control in Nancy, France has initiated a project to create an automatic 3D digitizing system. Previous papers focused on the visibility determinations using spherical geometry in a three axis environment. Here, the latest developments are presented. They enable one to improve this approach by taking into account a five axis environment. Using a new approach based on the Minkovsky operations to calculate the visibility of the different face of the B-Rep model of the part, the minimum set of directions required to entirely digitize the part is computed.