This command offers a means to create a new set of points or point clouds (if point clouds are selected) based on the proximity of the points to a selection of surfaces.
There are 3 menu commands for this control:
Filter Points to Selected Surfaces - offers selection of list of surfaces for the filtering process
Filter Points to Selected Faces - offers a more precise selection from CAD surfaces, only including the selected surface faces.
Filter Points to All Faces - offers a more generic option that does not prompt for surface selection but uses all surfaces in the job file automatically.
A selection of useful controls are available which include:
Face Offsets section:
Surface Offset field: The necessary proximity to the surface
Edge Offset field: The required distance from a surface edge, which allows removal of points too close to an edge.
Surface Offset Direction radio buttons: Which can be set to both above and below the surface or in only a single direction.
Additional True Position Point Detection section:
Include points within cylinder axis proximity check box: This option works independently to identify points at the center of holes. This can be quite helpful in associating points to GR-Circles or GD&T checks.
Output Limits section:
Enforce Max Pts per Face in Output check box: This control ensures that no more than the specified number of points are included per face.
Output Grouping section: Controlling both point and cloud output.
Create separate groupings for each face radio button: provides a means to separate the output points into groups per face. Alternatively select the Combine into a single Grouping for all faces option.
Output Cloud Base Name field: This name is used when filtering cloud points to a surface.
Use Face IDs for Suffix check box: This option provides the ability to add an additional suffix with the face IDs. When disabled it will use a simple sequential index.
Cloud Thinning Options button
Cloud Thinning options: A list of cloud thinning controls are also available including randomized thinning, Nth point thinning, and min/max limits
When combined with the user of cloud based geometry relationships this command makes it very easy to extract features from a cloud using the available CAD to filter the cloud.