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Inspect Element

In one sentence: Inspect Element switches the cursor to a pipette and, as you hover or click over an Inspection::Feature result in the 3-D view, shows the signed deviation distance at that point.

Overview

Workbench: Inspection
Menu: Inspection → Inspection…
Command: Inspection_InspectElement

Inspect Element is a point-by-point read-out tool. After running Visual Inspection to create an Inspection::Feature, use Inspect Element to interactively hover over the coloured surface and read the stored deviation value at any individual point.

The tool is only available (enabled) when the active document contains at least one Inspection::Feature.

Step-by-step

  1. Run Visual Inspection first to create an Inspection::Feature with computed distances.
  2. Go to Inspection → Inspection….
  3. The cursor changes to a pipette icon.
  4. Move the pipette over the coloured inspection result in the 3-D view. The distance value at the nearest stored point is shown in a tooltip or in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Click to fix the reading.
  6. Press Escape or click Inspection → Inspection… again to exit pipette mode and restore the normal cursor.

Reading the distance value

The displayed value is the signed distance stored in Feature.Distances at the closest sampled point to where you clicked or hovered:

Value Meaning
Positive Actual is outside the nominal — excess material
Negative Actual is inside the nominal — missing material
Zero (≈ 0) Actual coincides with the nominal surface
Very large / grey Out of Search Radius — no valid measurement

Availability

The command is greyed out (inactive) unless:

  • The active document contains at least one Inspection::Feature.
  • The active view is a 3-D view that is not already in an editing state.

If the menu entry is greyed out, run Visual Inspection first to generate an Inspection::Feature.

Common mistakes and pitfalls

Command is greyed out

Cause: No Inspection::Feature exists in the document.
Fix: Run Inspection → Visual Inspection… first to create one.

Clicking outside the inspection result does nothing

Cause: The pipette only reads points that belong to the Inspection::Feature. Clicking on other geometry or empty space yields no result.
Fix: Aim the pipette at the coloured surface of the inspection result.

See also