What's New in VGSTUDIO MAX

The interface between VGSTUDIO MAX and Digimat has now been extended to also include the export of porosity information from CT scans into Digimat leading to a smooth and straightforward workflow which ensures that the exported .csv files can be directly imported into Digimat. No configuration of the export or post-processing of the files is required. The extended interface enables you to map microporosity in a statistical way onto a volume mesh by calculating the average porosity level for each cell of the mesh in VGSTUDIO MAX and then exporting it to Digimat. 

The extended interface between VGSTUDIO MAX and Digimat allows you to investigate the influence of porosity on the mechanical properties of fiber compounds, no matter whether the porosity is unintended or introduced on purpose, such as in foam injection molding processes. 

Moreover, when mapping fiber or porosity information onto integration meshes for the subsequent export to 3rd party software for structural simulation, the import of NASTRAN files as integration meshes now supports the large field format for tetrahedral elements.

The data quality analysis according to ASTM E 1695, which allows you to monitor the data quality of your CT scans over time in VGSTUDIO MAX, is now faster to use: You can select the slice to be analyzed directly within your analysis workflow. This eliminates the need for a separate pre-processing step to extract the slice from the scanned volume.

With multi-ROI reconstruction, you can now reconstruct multiple regions that are relevant for your inspection task in one go — manually or automatically. You define these Regions of Interest (ROIs), which can be arbitrarily shaped, in a low resolution volume preview. Multi-ROI reconstruction leads to shorter reconstruction times and lower memory consumption when performing automated inspections of multiple parts in one scan or automated inspections of electronic parts using advanced planar CT.

Automatically update a geometry correction when using a new registration to, e.g., find the registration that leads to the smallest or least costly correction: Duplicate a CAD geometry correction including all referenced objects; then change the registration on the duplicated parts, update the CAD geometry correction, and finally directly compare the results. 

The new Manufacturing Geometry Correction Module for VGSTUDIO MAX (Coordinate Measurement and Nominal/Actual Comparison Module required) combines the manufacturing, testing, and correction of tools and components into a seamless digital workflow. It is a cost effective, easy to use, and versatile method for tool correction, surface reconstruction of a manually reconstructed tool, and part correction of 3D printing geometries.

In VGSTUDIO MAX, you can use the Manufacturing Geometry Correction Module in combination with our new “golden” surface function to correct an injection molding tool with multiple identical nests. The golden surface function lets you create an average surface of the parts coming from the different nests which is the best basis for correcting the geometry of the nests—whereas variances between the nests are more likely an outcome of inhomogeneous process parameters.

The average surface—created with the new golden surface feature in VGSTUDIO MAX—can also be used as a basis for the definition of a measurement plan if no CAD model is available. This lowers the number of errors when applying the measurement plan to multiple scans, especially in automated inspection.

Sequential alignment is a completely new method to register two objects against each other based on corresponding pairs of geometry elements, without first having to register each object to a coordinate system. This intuitive step-by-step process is similar to what you would do with physical objects. The result of each alignment step is immediately visible. If not all degrees of freedom are important, the alignment can remain incomplete. Or set the remaining degrees of freedom by using the best fit method.

With the support of complex datums, we’ve added the option to use freeform surfaces and combination of surfaces as datum objects for registration and geometric tolerancing. This is useful in cases where organic shapes, e.g., a car dashboard or cavities of connectors, should be used as a datum.

You can now see at a glance if a dimension is within tolerance in all views—without looking at the Scene Tree or numerical values. In VGSTUDIO MAX, the tolerance state of dimensioning features is now optionally shown in all views by evaluation indicators.

A new “grid-based” algorithm in VGSTUDIO MAX extracts surface meshes not only much faster. They are now also “watertight“, meaning that the meshes fully enclose a volume with no gaps or holes. This makes them perfect for most types of 3D printing.

Version 3.2 makes analyzing repetitive structures such as cylinder heads or Ball Grid Arrays a breeze. You can now quickly copy one region of interest (ROI) multiple times into a periodic pattern; all analyses within this ROI, e.g., a defect analysis or a nominal/actual comparison, will be copied automatically.

Perform micromechanical simulations of the effective elastic properties of compound materials, rocks, or bones. The Structural Mechanics Simulation Module now supports variable material parameters depending on gray values. Since no volume meshing is required, you avoid the high effort and potential inaccuracies associated with volume meshing.

Accessing the color bar settings directly from the 2D/3D views makes adapting them to your analysis even easier.

By including the tolerance indicators in the annotations, you can now localize defects that are out of tolerance in all views much more quickly.

The Volume Graphics Metrology Kernel VGMK 3.2.0 140356 (Windows 64 bit) is now tested by the NIST’s “Algorithm Testing and Evaluation Program for Coordinate Measuring Systems”.

Using the active column concept, any parameter of defects or cells can be displayed as main result in annotations, allowing quick and reliable manual review of results.

You can now define arbitrary directions, e.g., for porosity/ inclusion analyses, foam structure analyses, and gray value analyses. This way, the orientation of the object itself can stay fix while allowing different analysis directions in different regions of interest of the object, e.g., when analyzing assembled parts.

• Improved usability and performance during Shimadzu volume import (new in 3.2.5)
• Dragging and dropping mesh files into the scene now saves you time when importing meshes (new in 3.2.3)
• File formats with different source file types (e.g., Shimadzu, Toshiba, NSI, Aracor) are now supported by the data collect functionalities, e.g., "Pack and go" and "Save as" (new in 3.2.3)
• Respect the slice position when importing a stack of .tiff images, e.g., when importing image stacks with varying slice spacing generated by CT systems with line detectors (new in 3.2.2)
• More robust and faster import and export of JPEG2000 files, which are ideal for archiving because of their high quality and high compression, on PCs equipped with SSD disks
• Increased compatibility due to updated formats for the import of native CAD files

• Save time when analyzing repetitive structures such as cylinder heads or Ball Grid Arrays in VGMETROLOGY ES: You can now quickly copy one region of interest (ROI) multiple times into a periodic pattern; all analyses within this ROI, e.g., a nominal/actual comparison, will be copied automatically. (This feature was already available in VGSTUDIO MAX and VGMETROLOGY.) (New in 3.2.2)
• The assessment of defects or geometric deviations in components with mirror-symmetric regions of interest (ROIs) gets much faster thanks to a new mirroring option for the “Paste pattern of ROI(s)” option: ROIs on a mirror-symmetric part (including all analyses, CM elements, etc.) can be duplicated on the opposite side; all copied analyses can then be updated by one click using the "Update all analyses" button. (New in 3.2.2)

• Introduced local coordinate systems in the Scene Tree, which can be copied with CM templates from one object to another

• Added a handy new option for including or excluding holes when creating an ROI from certain geometry elements, e.g., for creating a cylindrical ROI with “lids” on the top and bottom
• Added an option to include or exclude holes when creating a mesh from certain geometry element types
• Improved freeform surface fitting logic to achieve better results with fewer clicks

• The option to “Project T.” for datum elements specified in the geometric tolerancing dialog is now enabled by default.

• New options to create small files with surface-only volume objects by creating golden surfaces, removing volume data or by converting CAD or mesh objects

• Import CAD files by simply dragging and dropping them into the scene (new in 3.2.4)

• Improved projection file import for CT Reconstruction Module resulting in a higher responsiveness and shorter reconstruction times (new in 3.2.5)
• Increased robustness of automatic misalignment correction in CT reconstruction (new in 3.2.4)
• New option to manually set the GPU memory for OpenCL devices to shorten startup times and to guarantee a higher stability (new in 3.2.2)
• Higher gray value stability between different scans with changing geometry settings when doing CT reconstruction using filtered back projection
• Improved performance, especially for region of interest reconstruction when doing CT reconstruction using filtered back projection

• The merging of multiple mesh objects into one new mesh object is now macro-recordable. This makes it easier to automatically analyze or measure objects that are represented by several separate meshes, e.g., when all of them should be displayed with a unified color plot with one nominal/actual comparison. (New in 3.2.2)
• Save time when generating jobs with parallel but similar branches by copying and pasting steps. (New in 3.2.2)
• Macros recorded on a single object can now be automatically applied to a whole set of similar objects for “in-scene batch processing”.
• Multi-applying a single macro can now be aborted.
• “Save movie/image stack” is now macro recordable and thus available in batch processing mode and VGinLINE.
• Create mesh from geometry elements can now be recorded in a macro.

• New option to define reference orientations for several analyses and simulations as an arbitrary vector in 3D

• Added the time-saving option to create analysis annotations by pasting previously copied coordinates from the clipboard

• It is now possible to export and import a volume’s meta information in .csv format (e.g., from a barcode scanner), both manually and via macros, saving time and reducing errors.

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