PC-DMIS Read Point Alignment | CMM Tech Tips - CMMXYZ

This Tech Tip from CMMXYZ will show you how to use the read point alignment feature in PC-DMIS

Hey. So, on this video I'm going to talk about the read point alignment. So, this is a single-point alignment, real time-saver, is something we do teach in our training. But I just wanted to share it with you because every time I teach people that they're extremely appreciative, and they love it, and want to start using it right away. So, the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna actually import a model of the machine. So, you can find that under Insert, Hardware Definition, Machine. There we go. So, this is actually the new interface, introduced in 2018, so you may notice it looks a little different than your version if you have an older version of PC-DMIS.

So, I'm just gonna go ahead and find my Bridge CMM under Hexagon. So, I'll use this Hexagon SF the shop floor model. It's a nice model. And the other thing I want to do is actually enable the Show Machine Volume, so you can see that green square there. And if I rotate you can see it's the cube. So that's simulating the machine measuring volume. Okay. So, let's click Apply and OK. Okay, so, in talking about the read point alignment, we really need to understand the purpose of manual alignment. So, really all we're doing with a manual alignment is telling the software where the part is in the machine measuring volume. And what I want to show you is a bit of a shortcut, so we don't need to spend a lot of time probing our part, probing planes, and bores to get our manual alignment. What we can do is take advantage of the machine access or what's called the Startup Alignment. So, the Startup Alignment is the machine alignment. And before we do anything, we always have that machine alignment. So, if I zoom in here, you can see the machine is moving square to that axis. So, we can see the [inaudible 00:02:16] at the upper left corner, and even take note of the readout. So, this is where we are in machine coordinates, this is the squareness, how it's traveling. And if our part is pretty close to that, I mean, pretty parallel and pretty squared to the machine axis inside the measuring volume, we can actually skip the level and rotate part of the alignment. So, in other words, a read point alignment is essentially just an origin alignment. So, we need to tell the software where the origin on the part is, but we can rely on the machine's access in squareness and parallelism if the part is reasonably squared and parallel to the machine axis. So, let's get our part in there and I'll show you what I mean.

Okay. So, there's my part. So, you can see the software is also shifted the [inaudible 00:03:13] on to part coordinates. And now, the readout actually represents that. But we're just in virtual mode here. In the real world, we need to relate that part access to the software, so that it knows where it is on the machine. So, what we'll do is use a read point for that.

Okay, so let's go ahead and insert that read point. It's actually considered a feature by PC-DMIS, so let's go to Insert Feature, and you can see it down here. You can also see the keyboard shortcut, CTRL G. Okay. So, there's my read point in the edit window. So, what I want you to take a look at is the coordinates of my read point. You'll notice that is the exact same coordinates as my probe readout window. So, I'm simulating actually moving the probe head, ruby center point to my desired location on the part. And what I need to do is translate that into part coordinates. So, I don't want to change the actual in my read point, but I do want to update the theoreticals to the part origin. So, this case, what I'll do is prompt the operator to move the probe center point to my part XYZ origin. So, first thing I need to do is update my theoreticals from my read point. So, in this case, I do not want to update measured values, so I answer no to that. The measure values will be the actual machine coordinate positions of where that part is sitting on my CMM.

CMMXYZ - Coordinate Measuring Machines - http://www.cmmxyz.com/
Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cmmxyz
Get the latest on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CMMxyz
Follow CMMXYZ on LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-measurement---metrology-inc.
Learn more about CMMXYZ on our blog - https://blog.cmmxyz.com/blog
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/CMMXYZvideo/

Видео PC-DMIS Read Point Alignment | CMM Tech Tips - CMMXYZ канала CMMXYZ