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This is going to sound weird, but does the adapter plate sound correct when clicking in? I bought a bunch of adapter plates from a 3rd party once and had to return them all because they didn't sound right and had loading issues.

If you have a fixture that has surfaces that are datum simulators, why would you need a tooling ball reference? Wouldn't you just measure the fixture surfaces that are datum simulators, put your part in the fixture, and use those for your datums in the program? Sorry if I'm not understanding. I've heard this scenario before and I'm just not getting it. It must be a car coordinate thing or something.

Here’s the official error message

I assume this is an automotive check fixture.

@Jeff Frodermann I am looking at having to have a CMM fixture that locates the part on the physical datums and then has tooling balls that I can pick up on and off-set a best-fit base alignment based off of the XYZ coordinates of the balls back to the datum structure. I am being told that it is done for parts that have to be physically constrained on the datum where probing of the physical features is not possible. Then the tooling balls are picked up and then the Best-Fit Base Alignment is created from the exact XYZ coordinates that come from the fixture manufacturer and then the part can be measured from that point on.

Ryan, This is a known bug. As Richard suggested, install the latest service pack. This will go away,

Tom, I would suggest an exorcism on this system. lol... If you delete the model.sab file in the measurement plan directory, that model should not come back!! ..

Hello, I wrote a Knowledge Base article on this topic. Feel free to check it out!! FAQ: - You have to have Calypso and Pcdmis on the same pc - It is a paid option so you would need to contact your Zeiss Aftermarket Sales Rep - As with any translator, you will need to "clean things up" after conversion If Calypso and Pcdmis are not on the same system, the other route would be to export dmis out of Pcdmis and Dmis import into Calypso.

I would suggest what Sven said above. Its the Zeiss license.zlic file that you want. Make sure you import it and just not paste it in that directory. That used to work at one time, but no longer does.

Hello, I am suspecting either your xxt or plate are going bad. i would contact Zeiss Tech support.

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.