huangyhg

I need to rotate my completed program 180 degrees about "Z" axis. Please tell me how?

I have finished a very long CMM Program for a part set to arrive in a few days. Today I have been informed that the holding fixture will locate my part on the CMM at 180 degree off (about "Z") of what I programmed it to. Hopefully, this is something that most of you come accross on a regular basis. this is a first for me.

So, how do I go about rotating the whole program before the first measurement and what should I watch out for.

Thank you in advance.
3.7 MR3
Big Red

huangyhg

File>Operation>Mirror
Pick the appropriate axis (sounds like Y but you can figure that out)

It doesn't happen to me often but if they told me that after I finished the program I would tell them it would take me a week to fix it..Eric Hollenbeck

huangyhg

Hmmm, is there some reason you cannot just turn the fixture 180 degrees?
John Riggins

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huangyhg

You could rotate the initial coordinate system 180º but you will also have to take care of all of your probe anglescmmguy

huangyhg

Also, prior to making any change like this, make a backup copy of your program. Anytime I am trying to make a major change I make a backup copy so I can revert back to it if the change didn't do what I expected. (This came from losing hours of work more than once!)
John Kingston

huangyhg

Sounds to me like you have a BIG problem.

First of all, mirroring it will not do any good, you are not getting the opposite hand part, but the same part in a different orientation.

If you programmed it X+ to X+, Y+ to Y+ and Z+ to Z+ but you are getting a fixture that holds the part either X+ to X- and Z+ to Z- (Y the same) or Y+ to Y- and Z+ to Z- (x the same) you will basically have to fix the entire program.

Each and every point will need the vectors flipped
Each and EVERY point will need a STOCK THICKNESS either added (if none used to begin with) or removed (if you used stock thickness to begin with).

There is NO easy fix for what you describe.

IF you were only 'spinning' the part as it would sit on the table, the only thing you would have to do is change the tip rotations.
Matthew D. Hoedeman

huangyhg

All you should need to edit is probe rotation angles. Assuming of course that you have a full manual alignment. All you need to do is take the manual hits where you originally planned. Everything will look all turned around on the screen but it should run just fine.

If you just used a readpoint for a manual alignment, and ran DCC from there, it will need a little more work.

Make a backup, give it a try (slowly!) and see if it works. You might consider trying it out with a simpler part that you have on hand to get an idea of what is involved.
Goodluck

huangyhg

Make a separate Fixture program to align and setup the fixture coordinate system. This could be manual or dcc. Save this Fixture to an external Coordinate system. Then no matter how the part is rotated it will run ok. BUT the probe angles will all need to be changed to 180º of their current orientation.

I wouldnt touch the original program except for the angles and add a recall of the fixture coordinate system.
cmmguy