Creaform just announced the latest release of VXinspect, a part inspection and quality control software for manufacturing companies. The company is touting the new version of the software as readymade for the production line or the shop floor.
What Is VXinspect for?
VXinspect allows users to create a measurement sequence while controlling multiple parts and has a built-in centralization function that enables push button efficiency in picking inspection elements to create a final report. VXinspect is built to coordinate directly with VXelements, per Creaform’s ethos of creating closely integrated software, with this case being no exception. VXelements is a 3D software platform and application suite designed for meeting quality requirements in any industry. Depending on how much probing, 3D scanning and photogrammetry measurements a company takes to gather data, Creaform’s platform and suite is more or less useful.
Creaform has been on a product release blitz lately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this strategy demonstrates overwhelming integration with their own products. Take for example, the new and redesigned MetraSCAN 3D optical coordinate measuring machine coordinate measuring machine (CMM) scanner and the HandyPROBE Next arm-free portable CMM. VXinspect’s 3D inspection software upgrade underscores the need to use these products together for a readymade end-to-end inspection solution. Creaform’s VXinspect is noted by the company for its ease of use regardless of the experience of the operator—though I’m sure there’s a learning curve. With any new technology, operators are looking to reduce measurement times but not at the expense of creating too much down time, which is a careful consideration of any company. If there isn’t a clear way to phase it into existence, it might as well not exist.
VXinspect Features and Hardware Integration
HandySCAN 3D also seamlessly integrates with VXinspect. The juiced-up new version of VXinspect has some interesting features that include “smart control,” which allows users to interact and monitor VXinspect from mobile devices if they are using the MetraSCAN 3D and HandyPROBE Next, which have new multifunction buttons. VXinspect was designed in an attempt to make building inspection programs—and following through with them—far more efficient. Creaform’s goal is to help operators slash measurement times and reduce annoying back-and-forth trips from the part to the computer and back again.
Another interesting feature is “automatic optical alignment.” When used with Creaform’s C-Track optical tracker (available with HandyPROBE Next and MetraSCAN 3D), the optical alignment feature of VXinspect facilitates the setup and positioning of a part.
One of the most useful features of VXinspect in this end-to-end system is “easy color mapping.” Users can begin color mapping with a single click, and the new version of VXinspect simplifies and amplifies the color-mapping process so that users can spot problems, faults and deviations on a part before production starts, avoiding costly errors. For Creaform users with sheet metal workflows, Creaform built VXinspect to improve boundary inspections with improved accuracy.
The end-to-end integration leaves out people who aren’t already using Creaform products, and it is a continuation of an unevolved philosophy of closed end-to-end integration for better performance. The products are great, but the interoperability issues in engineering software continue unabated.
Jérôme-Alexandre Lavoie, product manager at Creaform said, “With our tripod approach of fully integrating VXinspect with the MetraSCAN 3D and HandyPROBE Next systems, we are offering users the perfect combination between highly accurate results in shop floor conditions, unmatched performance and efficiency and an effortless measurement process. By bridging together physical and virtual realms in manufacturing, inspection and quality control has never been this easy.”
True, if you’re already a Creaform user.