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Everything is official Zeiss gear. I will take a look at plastic buildup, including on the other two adapter plates. This machine is not in a production environment and gets very light usage. It is off more than it is on. I'm going to focus on the balance though I've used unbalanced stylus systems in the part and never had an issue. I do try to use some kind of counterweight most of the time. Everything I'm currently using is carbon fiber with the exception of the 3x58 stylus with the steel extensions. Maybe the steel extensions are too much weight in the -Y direction.... Any suggestions on how to balance a tool? I also don't have any issues with the other probe with the extended +Y. I think the only 3 things left are the cleanliness, the balance or the new VAST-Gold, though I tech told me it couldn't be the sensor. And, the suggestions by Scott W. Thanks to everyone for the feedback.

Ugh - still bad. Maybe I buy some stepped probes to get a little more rigidity...

I think you have two things going on: Those are some long skinny styli shafts, so they are flexing. You have some long M3 extensions/styli. M3 stuff isn't robust enough for standard qualification on an active sensor. You can start by lowering your measuring force to 100, but you might have to go to 50. I would also reduce the probing dynamics to say 30%. Please note that even with this it is possible that you still don't achieve the results you are after.

@Richard Shomaker Hi Richard! I'd already cleaned the spheres and the probe tip, I'd remastered the sphere - just in case... The reference sphere sigma is 0.0001 (On the bright side - after cleaning and remastering - it came in at 0.0001 vs the previous 0.0003. The sphere is tight down to the machine. ALL my other systems come in beautifully. It's a primso. I tried to balance the probes when I built it. I even replaced this plate. It made zero difference.... I really appreciate your help!

@Steffen Mayer Same issue here. My guess is it has something to do with Windows Update that happened last night across the world.

Those are rub marks from the holder. I usually get those on the most used stylus systems and adapter plates with rough anodize. I usually clean my plates twice a year to remove it. I had a similar issue with adapter plates not engaging or disengaging in a holder. Couple of things I did was change the name of the probe assembly and build it with just a single stylus in the Z direction. Then if it changed with no issues, modify it to be what I needed. The other thing I did was clean all the bays really well and polish the fins that guide the adapter plates in place. If none of these worked, I re-weighed and re-balanced the assembly to ensure it was as close to even on each side. Another thing to try is possibly put small extensions on the X+/X- directions to see if there is an angular issue preventing the change from happening.

That looks like plastic residue from the probe holders. I have holders and plates that are a decade old at this point, and they all have stuff there from the flanges in the holders being slowly ground away by friction against the plates over time.

Hey @Donny Fraser. I'm curious... what's the overall aim of this project? Sounds interesting. Is there a reason for best-fitting based on the origin of a tooling ball? I assume there is, but before commenting on the process, it would help to hear the end goal.

@Andrea Stancin Unless you are using some old Renishaw M2 styli, all of the M3/M5 styli are typically either carbide, carbon fiber, or ceramic - meaning they can't be bent without them breaking. Have you cleaned the reference sphere? Ensured that the reference sphere is tight to the reference sphere body? Ensured that the reference sphere body itself is locked down on the machine? What does your MasterProbe sigma values look like? Can you show a picture of the buildup? What machine/sensor is this?

@Tom Oakes Is this an authentic Zeiss adapter plate? What is marking on the plate? Damage or wear? If you manually place it in there, how does it feel if you attempt to manually slide it in and out?

Likely not your issue, but I had encountered a probe change issue in the past as well. Zeiss techs came out and thought it was likely a short in the cabling. I found out we had water/oil getting into the machine that was causing the limit switch to activate randomly during probe changes (always when dropping off). In my case, the probes/bays were random so trying to pinpoint the issue took some time. Ended up deep cleaning the bowls, replacing the filters and adding additional filtration to the incoming air line to resolve the problem.

I’m getting the same error message as HoangD when I try to sign in to Zeiss Quality Suite. Is there a solution for this? @Richard Stanich: I can’t make sense of your proposed solution. Was it related to the issue mentioned above?

Hi everyone! I.. am baffled.... help! I have one star stylus that I cannot get to come in when I calibrate it to the reference sphere. All my other probes are running at S values of .0009 or lower. The problem star probes vary from an S of .0050 to .0020. So far... I have changed out one probe that was a tiny bit bent, I've put the star on a new plate, we've put the probes on a lathe to ensure they aren't bent, I've cleaned everything, I've looked at the balls under a microscope.... I feel like there must be something incredibly obvious that I'm overlooking. Any help is appreciated! 🙂

I agree that its odd that changing adaptor plates or probe holders didn't help. I don't think balance is your issue. I use one stylus system that is way more out of balance than that one, and it still picks up and drops off fine. Gremlins or Voodoo is the only logical explanation here.

I guess I'd have to see the drawing and the intent. I haven't measured too many fixtures with tooling balls, but of all the ones I've seen while there are tooling balls, they are still broken down to a 3-2-1 alignment. In all of my years I've only ever used a 3d best fit alignment once, and that was on a part that was just essentially a free-form blob. I think the most use cases for it is in the medical world (mainly orthopedic implants). Either way - to use it for tooling balls it should just be rather straightforward. Load the cad model - Created a new base Alignment (3d Best Fit Method) - select your tooling balls - ensure that the nominals are correct - turn on a Loop (probably minimum of 5x with a break condition). For measurement of tooling balls, unless there is some crazy requirement or concern, I would just measure the spheres with the Sphere Macro (looks like the Geometry Qualification). If you want to scan them, you can, but most of the time it is unnecessary.

@Luke Cashman That is correct.

I do not have it activated on my machine. BTW, the ID chip can be switched on or off on VAST-XXT, too. Typically, it only comes into play when loading a stylus system manually or via cnc change. It ensures that you have loaded the correct stylus system. I am able to pick up this stylus system, just can't drop it off.

You don't necessarily need a CMM with PC-DMIS, you need a licensed copy of PC-DMIS installed. However, you can read PC-DMIS as a text file, you should be able to duplicate the program. You would have to understand PC-DMIS commands, which is not to difficult.

Oh, it's actually implemented. Sorry I missed that. Thank you @Christoph Schult, thank you Carl.

You have not to put any value. The value field remains insensitive if you choose OZ. You can only put a value inside if you choose Unequally disposed tolerance zone from the combo box. You only say that you like to specify your tolerance oder OZ and ZI do the complete computation for you. If you do it on a cylindrical shape without any datum system it should result in the same value as a cylindricity. See the following example:

Hi, in order to help you further, I need the details (version, report and database file). Please call the hotline and have them create a ticket for you. Then you can send us the data.

What value would you put in for the offset? Can it be done with formula? Have you checked for example the correlation with cylindricity?

I only have Vast XXT with RDS. But doesn't Vast Gold also have the ID chip? Could that be the reason?

As Christian has written the dynamic profile tolerance modifier is to our understanding "a feature control frame symbol that allows a profile tolerance to control only the shape (form) of a feature, separate from its size". If we are talking from the same you can use the OZ modifier (as he said the name comes from the ISO standard) to achieve the same: I would assume that @Christian Fitzner has planning to notate the OZ modifier inside the 3D label as its ASME counterpart if the project standard is set to ASME. But if this is really what he want say with his statement and if yes, what are the time table for this has to be clarified from Christian. If I misunderstood your requirement please let a short note so that we can add it to our requirement list. Christoph

We are preparing to move to 2026. I don't see the dynamic modifier available. We wouldn't use it much at all, but I had a project recently that I wanted to use it on. Is it being considered for the next release? @Christian Fitzner I don't understand this statement: "We will have to add the ASME conform display, though."