## PC-DMIS Planner 2012 MR1: Introduction

PC-DMIS™ Planner is an independent software application that works in conjunction with your CAD software package and PC-DMIS for Windows to aid the Design Engineer or Quality Engineer in designing a plan, called an inspection plan, that determines which features of the geometry and GD&T/dimension to use in the inspection process.

Unlike its predecessor, Inspection Planner, PC-DMIS Planner 2010 or later is a stand-alone package that can create inspection plans that are used with PC-DMIS; however, PC-DMIS is no longer required to use PC-DMIS Planner.

PC-DMIS Planner uses the PC-DMIS CAD engine, providing access to IGES, STEP, and the other translators, as well as PC-DMIS’s supported Direct CAD Interfaces™. This gives you wide coverage of available CAD engines and systems. You can save the inspection plan directly into a .cad file or you can output it to a text file (an .ip file). You can then use PC-DMIS to automatically generate a part program from an imported inspection plan. This part program can be used for either a CMM or CNC machine tool for in-process inspection.

The topics below will walk you through the steps to create an inspection plan from your CAD data and then store that plan in either a .cad file or exported as a text file for use with PC-DMIS.

Several options must be enabled on your portlock to use the various PC-DMIS Planner capabilities.

This documentation covers these topics:

- Using PC-DMIS Planner: An Overview of Essential Steps

- Installing PC-DMIS Planner

- Understanding the User Interface

- Setting Preferences

- Importing and Exporting Files

- Working with the Graphics Display Window

- Working with CAD Files

- Working with Inspection Plans

- Using the Change Manager

- Creating Auto Features

- Constructing Features

- Adding Dimensions to Features

- Creating Alignments

- Inserting Comments

- Working with Section Cuts

- Creating Slot Edge Points

- Creating Tab Vector Points

- Adding GDT CAD Callouts

- Adding Features from GD&T Callouts

- ISO Dimension Tolerances

- Defining Material Thickness

- Using the Add Find Features Dialog Box

- Viewing Toolbars and the Status Bar

- Using Shortcut Menus

- Updating Software

For information on working with inspection plans inside PC-DMIS, consult the "Using Inspection Plans in PC-DMIS" topic in the PC-DMIS Core documentation.

Help Last Updated: September 04, 2012