PC-DMIS External Alignment |PC-DMIS Tech Tips - CMMXYZ

This Tech Tip from CMMXYZ shows you the External Alignment feature in PC-DMIS. External alignments are needed when you want to use an alignment from one program in another program Welcome to Tech Tips from cmmxyz.com. Today, we will discuss how to perform an external alignment. External alignments are needed when you want to use an alignment from one program in another program. A typical application is creating a program to align a fixture and a separate program to measure the part. This can also work without a fixture just as long as the part can be repeatedly placed on the CMM table. Let's go through an example. You can see on my screen I have my test block, I've measured a plane, my line, and my circle, and I've created an alignment. Now, this is the alignment I want to use in my second program. The default naming convention is 'A1'. I'm gonna right-click on this and choose Edit, and I'm gonna suggest we change it to something that has more meaning for the other program. So, in this case, I will rename it to 'A_MANUAL-ALIGN' and hit OK. We now go up to the Insert menu, select Alignment, and click on Save. The file name listed is the name of the alignment I created, also indicating the active alignment name, which is the same name, and the only thing you need to focus on is the Both option. The Both means that it will save the alignment from the part coordinates. It will also save the CAD transformation. If you're using a CAD model, you definitely want this one checked. And then we can hit Save. And that's all there is to saving the external alignment from the main program. The next step we'll go through is importing it into the new program. We are now in the second program that we're gonna use for measuring our part. So, at this stage, we can import our CAD model, and the final step is to import our alignment from the previous program. Go up to your Insert menu, Alignment, and click on the Recall button. Now, your list of alignments will be every alignment that's currently in your open program. It will also list every external alignment created from other programs. So, as you see, A_MANUAL- ALIGN is here, and it's a much easier way to find it than having a whole bunch of A1s and A2s listed all over the place. So, when I select this one, take a look at the trihedron's location on the model, and remember, our previous alignment had it aligned to the center of this diameter. When I hit OK to this alignment change, we are now aligned to the center of this part, and then we can start our program in DCC mode, and then carry on measuring the part without needing any manual interaction with it in the program. My name is Stuart Burke for CMMXYZ. Thank you for watching. 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/