The Inspect tab collects the tools that measure a model without changing it: distances and angles, wall thickness and curvature, deviation from a reference model, cross-sections, fitted features such as planes and cylinders, and statistics of a mesh or a point cloud. This guide shows what is on the tab, which tool answers which question and where the results go.
What Is on the Inspect Tab
From left to right:
- Surface Deviation: a color map of the distances from one object to another.
- Measure Distance and Measure Angle.
- Section and Mesh Cut & Measure.
- Measure Thickness, Visualize Curvature, Surface Distance and Signed Distance.
- The features: Point, Line, Plane, Circle, Sphere, Cylinder, Cone and Refine Feature.
- Bounding Box, Show Dense BBox and Show Normals.
- Mesh Info, Points Info and Object Info.
- Quality Control Report.
Which Tool to Use
| I want to… | Tool | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Measure the straight distance between two points | Measure Distance | Measure Distance |
| Measure an angle | Measure Angle | Measure Angle |
| See how far every point is from a picked point along the surface | Surface Distance | Surface Distance |
| Measure the length of a path along the surface, or cut the mesh along it | Mesh Cut & Measure | Mesh Cut & Measure |
| Find the gap or the overlap between two parts | Signed Distance | Signed Distance |
| Compare a scan with a CAD model as a color map | Surface Deviation | Surface Deviation |
| Give a customer a PDF with the results | Quality Control Report | Quality Control Report |
| Find walls that are too thin | Measure Thickness | Measure Thickness |
| Find dents, bumps and sharp edges | Visualize Curvature | Visualize Curvature |
| Get a profile or a cross-section | Section | Section |
| Get the overall size | Bounding Box or Show Dense BBox | Bounding Box |
| Measure a hole, an axis, a flat face or a sphere | The features of the Create group | Features, Point and Line, Sphere and Cone, Refine Feature |
| Check which way the surface faces | Show Normals | Show Normals |
| See the number of triangles, holes, the volume or the area | Mesh Info, Points Info or Object Info | Mesh Info, Points Info and Object Info |
Units and Results
- Units. Lengths are in scene units, that is, in the units of the model's coordinates, usually millimeters. How units are displayed is set in Settings.
- Results in the Scene tree. Measurements you keep become objects in the Scene tree: with Add to Scene on, Measure Distance puts Distance 1, Distance 2 and so on into a Dimensions folder under the measured object, and a feature such as Plane 1 or Cylinder 1 appears as a child of the object it was fitted to.
- Color maps of Measure Thickness and Visualize Curvature and the lines of Show Normals are shown only while the tool is open. They do not change the model.
Recipe: Check a Printed Part Against CAD
- Scan the printed part and open the scan and the CAD model.
- Align the scan to the CAD model: Align Manually by matching points, then refine with Registration. Do not use Freeform Align here: it changes the shape of the scan.
- Open Surface Deviation with the CAD model as the reference and the scan as the inspected object, and read the color map.
- Create a Quality Control Report to share the result as a PDF.
Recipe: Check a Part Before 3D Printing
- Check that the normals point outward with Show Normals.
- Find walls thinner than your process allows with Measure Thickness.
- Check the overall size with Bounding Box.
