Mathematical softgauges for material ratio parameters

Editors of surface texture analysis software need to validate their parameter calculations, ideally in an implementation-independent way. Today, there is no universal reference method for validating parameter compliance and more specifically with regard to material ratio parameters, Rk parameters, and volume parameters that are based on the Abbott curve. Several years ago, at Digital Surf, we developed parameter validation methods that are based on mathematics. A mathematical softgauge, defined by an equation, is injected through the mathematical parameter definition, to obtain a mathematical true value of the parameter value. In a parallel path, a discrete softgauge, derived from the mathematical softgauge, is injected through an algorithm and the resulting value is compared to the approximated true value. This method makes it possible to check the accuracy of an algorithm for calculating a particular parameter. For this study, two families of mathematical softgauges were specifically designed to test material ratio parameters. More precisely, the two main goals of this study are, (1) to advocate an algorithm validation approach that is independent from any software implementation, and (2) to obtain true values for all parameters based on the Abbott curve.