Plotting thermocouple data on a flat surface of a 3dmodel?

[machartm]

So I have a wooden cabinet with thermocouples embedded into the wood. The cabinet is holding an oven. Using data acquisition, I've obtained an excel sheet logging the temperatures of each TC over time.

Currently I am using DIAdem 2012 and a .WRL mesh model exported from Solidworks where I can attach each column (each TC) to a point on the model id DIAdem and have it color code it.

HOWEVER, you can only create a sensor location for the thermocouple at the vertices of part of the mesh (triangles)... NOT on a flat surface. So in solidworks, I had created small cones at these locations to produce vertices, as well as doing large shallow pyramidal lofts.

Unfortunately the mesh geometry created seems to effect the propagation and interpolation of the temperature data.

Is there a better way to being doing this in DIAdem 2012? Or maybe another piece of software better suited for what I'm trying to accomplish.

Image HERE

[Kelsey_Weaver@NI]

Hi machartm,

The image you posted didn't seem to work. Can you create a .png or .jpg file to upload the image instead of a facebook link? 

In the meantime, take a look at the following help document. You may have already seen it, but it will probably be useful if you haven't:

3D Data Display - DIAdem Help:

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370859H-01/concepts/diadem_3_06/

[Otmar]

I am not a SolidWorks expert, but the answer seems to be to create a more detailed (i.e. more triangles) version of the surface, without the "cones".

The DIAdem example called "Synchronizing Videos, 3D Models, and Data" has a 3D model with a flat surface that has many triangles that make up a flat surface, and that would be the solution for your issue I believe.

     Otmar