Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
(OP)
Has anyone read of, used, or know of any laser hand-held measuring tools for benchmarking [a client's] water jet / laser cut piece parts, stampings, formed parts and fabricated subassemblies?
I am looking for a digital or laser [or other] hand-held technology to replace my mechanical rules and tape measures to travel to a facility, measure parts and fabricated subassemblies, and model them up back at work.
Thank you in advance for any guidance, suggestions or tool names you can share.
Chris in NC
I am looking for a digital or laser [or other] hand-held technology to replace my mechanical rules and tape measures to travel to a facility, measure parts and fabricated subassemblies, and model them up back at work.
Thank you in advance for any guidance, suggestions or tool names you can share.
Chris in NC





RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
Regards,
Mike
The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanner
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
So, what I do is complex, but works to 1/8 inch or so when you are on the floor, and the pipes are 45 to 90 feet up.
First, KNOE EXACTLY how accurate you need your numbers to be. Don't fool yourself, but don't pretend you can get 0.016 inch accuracy on a pipe location. Then again, when you cut a pipe, +/- 1/8 to +/- 1/4 inch is "less than the width of a welding rod" ...
And you can use this method for less than $200.00. Anywhere.
1. Go to your local Home Depot or Lowes. Get a TALL right-angle gage (I use a 4 ft gage used for marking 4x8 plywoods and a three-way level gage used for fence posts. Mount the 3-way level gage to the right angle gage so you can actually tell "what way is "up"" when you use the laser distance detector.
See, the biggest problem with those is that you CANNOT "look up at the pipe" while reading the laser while aligning the laser to a specific point while KNOWING absolutely that you are really are measuring some vertical point high overhead while telling when you are perpendicular to the floor/slab/gravel. While trying to hold the laser distance finder some exact distance from the floor/slab/gravel.
So you get very, very sloppy readings. Unless you are laying on the gravel trying to simultaneously click the laser distance while aiming the laser from the gravel at the bottom of the pipe!
In the photo's below, I'm simulating measuring the width, centerline, and heights-above-floor for a fan blade in the living room.
- Mount the 3-way level gage at a convenient height above the floor - I use 36 inches, since I can hold the square perpendicular in x while looking up at the pipe while holding it near-vertical in y. (A true 3-way level square on a tripod a fixed distance above the floor would be ideal, but then you are assuming your floor/slab is dead-level.)
- Set the laser range finder to "measure from the back of the range finder".
- Hold the laser range finder at the square on the 3-way level gage, then move the level gage and laser so you are aiming at the center of the pipe overhead. The square will keep you accurate to the floor, and you need to keep moving the assembly until the 3-way level gage is "near-zero" deviation and the laser pointer is where you want to measure overhead.
- Press the "measure button" when your laser is at the right point overhead.
-Have your helper (or yourself) mark the position on the floor where you measured! Use a marks-a-lot or crayon or Sharpie. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. After a few minutes, I will guarantee you will not be able to re-create the geometry.
- For pipes, look for the lowest point on the insulation, for a bare pipe at the low point, or for the "center" between two tangent points. The pipes will vary slowly with the cosine near the centerline, so you won't be too far off if you miss by a few millimeters or 1/86 inches left or right of CL.
- Near the same point where you took an elevation, take two tangent point measurements. Mark them on the floor or plywood panel you are using.
- Your CL elevation will be 1/2 (tangent distance) + bottom elevation above floor. Then try to figure out how high your floor is.
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
Some less expensive systems use laser line projection, such as seen at David's Laser.
You might also look at photogrammetry - it depends on how precise you need the results to be. It's how they map actors into scenes in movies.
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
Most importantly, it is not a simple task to create a good quality digital model from the database of points you will get from the CMM arm or the laser scanner. The laser scanner will output a point cloud, and these points will not represent perfect surfaces/boundaries. The database of points output from the CMM arm or laser scanner are typically overlaid/fitted to an existing digital model and checked for deviation from a control model's surfaces. If you need to produce a digital model from the point cloud, it requires a huge amount of manual clean-up work to sort thru all of the points and create a clean, usable 3D digital model. There are some software applications that can perform this task fairly well, but they are not cheap.
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
resolution/accuracy will vary..
https://www.fuel-3d.com
http://cubify.com/Products/SenseOrder?gdftrk=gdfV2...
my question would be the same as tbuelna though.. Why can't they simply share the CAD files (step file or similar neutral format)? No traveling/scanning/remodeling needed
If this was a QC/Inspection requirement then obviously thats not whats needed but the OP seemed to indicate he just takes measurements so he can remodel back at his shop..
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
I owe still pictures of the laser height-finding and distance-finding jury-rigs I've used for measurements. Haven't done them yet.
What's the best way to upload 6-12 photo's, without separately putting each up as separate reply and a separate image? One powerpoint-type group?
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
Welcome to my world.
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
homework forum: //www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies forum1529: Translation Assistance for Engineers
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement
RE: Laser alternative to tape measures and calipers and verniers? - No not distance measurement