Dimensional deviations are a typical problem of all manufactured parts, including castings. VGSTUDIO MAX allows you to fit geometry elements and create geometric dimensions and tolerances, giving you all the functionality of a physical coordinate measurement machine and even more, because, for example, internal and hidden geometries can also be measured quickly and non-destructively.

With VGSTUDIO MAX, you can compare your scanned cast part with its respective CAD data set: For fast detection and evaluation of shrinkage behavior and warpage, of missing or not poured areas of the casting, of sink marks and cold flow issues at castings, or upcoming wear and tear in molds. Color-coded comparisons provide easy-to-understand visual information of deviations. Manual, automated, or rule-based annotations provide local point- or area-based information, for example, to locate the three largest deviating areas or a specific number of predefined points.

Different wall thicknesses and especially large jumps in wall thickness have a major impact on the flow and solidification behavior of the melt in the mold cavity as well as on the shrinkage behavior including the induced, often unfavorable stresses, the amount, position, and shape of the porosities, and thus on the overall mechanical and physical properties of the casting. With VGSTUDIO MAX, you can determine the actual wall thicknesses in the casting and thus get an insight into the potential problem areas, e.g., material buildup. You can automatically measure the wall thicknesses or wall distances for almost parallel surfaces as well as for curved or branched surfaces.

Casting comes with challenges like voids, porosity, and cracks in the final product. With VGSTUDIO MAX, you can reliably detect discontinuities in castings, such as pores and cracks, even in lower-quality data, and determine their sizes and shapes. You can also calculate the defect size relative to the local wall thickness. Filtering the results by properties, such as sphericity, compactness, or distance to surface, allows you to distinguish between different mechanisms of porosity formation, such as air entrapments, gas porosities, and shrinkage cavities. Tolerancing criteria can also be adapted to different regions of the component.

In the automotive industry, special rules for porosity detection apply. VGSTUDIO MAX supports three of the most important guidelines for porosity analysis in order to make evaluations for cast parts easily understandable and reproducible: BDG Reference Sheet P 201, P 202, and P 203. 

VDG Specification P 201 (VW 50097) and BDG Reference Sheet P 202 (VW 50093) provide a digital, fully nondestructive take on the classic micrograph analysis, which was achieved by sawing open the component. The BDG Reference Sheet P 203 not only extends VDG P 201 and BDG P 202 to 3D but also puts an additional focus on the specific assessment of functionally relevant part areas by using freeform regions.

Porosities in the wrong places can have serious consequences for the further machining of a casting. That’s why VGSTUDIO MAX shows you if and how porosities like gas pores, air entrapments, or shrinkage cavities would be cut during machining—before actually machining the part (CAD file of the part required)