Many metrology applications require equipment, machines, structures, and foundations to be both flat and level. One example is aligning carts and rails that are used to transport heavy materials.

The ability to accurately measure gravity and keep track of level throughout repeated instrument moves and part alignment operations can be a critical component in a measurement job's success.  Understanding the underlying principles and tools in SpatialAnalyzer can help users utilize SA for many level measurement applications.

Flatness vs Level to Gravity 

It is important to understand the fundamental difference between the terms "flat" (or planar) and "level" with respect to gravity.

Flat refers to a planar property and measurements of flatness, parallelism, and perpendicularity can be accurately determined and perfectly described in a Cartesian coordinate system.

Level, on the other hand, is a measure of orientation relative to earth's gravitational pull; it is a directional measurement that depends upon the location on earth where the measurement was taken. Click here to read the entire article.