Surface Inspection Report

[Anonymous]

We have just purchased the manufacturing extensions package so that we can use the surface inspection feature for on machine probing. It works great but it's pretty frustrating that we can't do anything with the results other than look at them through Fusion.

Is there any way to export the results to excel or a printable format? It won't even let us copy and paste from the results table.

The DPRNT file from the machine isn't much use either as it doesn't include the deviation calculations and we can't add our own calculations as the results are a mixture of text and numbers e.g. X-266.837 rather than just -266.837

This is a great feature to have in Fusion but this really lets it down. Unless I'm missing something?

[Philip_Hewitt]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thanks for getting in touch.  First of all, I'm glad that you think it's fundamentally a great feature and that it is working well.

As standard I'm afraid that right now the results are just there in Fusion.  We recognize it would be useful to be able to export the results to a self-contained report or for calculations or analysis- we anticipate that people will want to export the data but we aren't yet sure how.  We are very interested in feedback.

Depending on what you need it might be possible to do something with an add-in.  In any case I would like to know more about what you are doing.  This is an important capability.

What is the top priority for you?  Being able to print a report / record of the results, or reusing the numbers in a separate package such as Excel?

[Philip_Hewitt]

Also @Anonymous , I forgot to ask.  What type of machine and control are you using?  (The reason for asking is that one alternative might be to output data from the postprocessor.)

[SimonTDF]

Hi Philip,

Thanks for the reply.

The data shown in the Inspection Results inside of Fusion gives us exactly what we need but we need to be able to use the data in an inspection report that is sent to the customer. The inspection report would need to contain a lot of information such as job number, customer name, date, machine serial number etc. so the best outcome for us would to be able to export the data in excel format so we can do what we need to with it.

We are using Haas NGC machines with Renishaw probes.

If you need any more information please let me know. I would love to be able to get to a working solution!

[SimonTDF]

Just noticed I replied off a different account!

SimonTDF or motorsport_machinist - same person!

[Philip_Hewitt]

Hi @SimonTDF  or @Anonymous.  Thanks for clarifying!

I hesitate to mention this because it's very much a short term workaround and you would have to go to quite a lot of effort...  But if you are determined enough, there is something that you could try-

 https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/powerinspect/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/...

The Surface Inspection result in Fusion uses basically the same data format as PowerInspect, which is more mature and has more sophisticated reporting capability.  So you could:

* Activate a trial of PowerInspect

https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/powerinspect/free-trial

* Export the CAD model from Fusion into a neutral (STEP) format that PowerInspect can read

* Make sure that the CAD model and the Inspect Surface files are in the same directory on your PC

* Follow the instructions as per https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/powerinspect/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/...

If you manage to get the results into PowerInspect, you have more options for outputting a report.  It's not 'right,' but it's a basis for experimentation and discussion, and it might be ok for the very short term.

[Philip_Hewitt]

Minor amendment.

* Activate a trial of PowerInspect

https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products/powerinspect/free-trial

* Export the CAD model from Fusion to the SMT format.  (This format has been optimized for sharing with specialist products such as PowerInspect or PowerMill.)

* Make sure that the CAD model and the Inspect Surface files are in the same directory on your PC

* Follow the instructions as per https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/powerinspect/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/...

[Philip_Hewitt]

Hi @SimonTDF  or @motorsport_machinist.  It's been a while but a lot has happened in the meantime so I thought it was worth revisiting this discussion.

You probably saw a few months back that we added the ability to 'Save Inspection Report.'  This creates a PDF file containing a list of whatever results you have selected, and an image based on the current screen view.  You  can save the pdf file either to your own computer or to Fusion Team.  This provides a more permanent inspection report document that you can share or archive.  The contents of the PDF file are also selectable so you will be able to copy and paste results to other applications- that aspect is quite basic, but should fill a need if you want to reuse results or do other editing.

That does not cover the other main aspect of your request- the ability to include other information such as job number, serial number of date.  There is now a way to do that too, but it is not so obvious- the manual inspection functionality (currently in preview) allows you to include and report information from a manual inspection process.  This now includes 'Text' information where the 'inspection result' will be a text string that you type in.  This means you can add additional information such as serial numbers or job numbers to your inspection report.

In case you missed it I wrote an introduction to the manual inspection at https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/whats-new-in-fusion-360-manual-inspection/.  It shows how to enable the preview functionality and includes a link to a simple instructional video.

I hope this is useful.  I'd be very interested to get your feedback if you've tried it!