Alignment issues

[[Dy...]]

Could you guys please explain the difference in the alignment options on the start menu.
Ex. “Test Program 1”

On the Run screen I have the option to run:
Current Alignment
Manual Alignment
“Test Program 1”
“Test Program 1 CNC”

I wrote the original program about a month ago as soon as I got back from Calypso Basic. The program ran fine but it was still a working progress, as it’s fairly lengthy.

When I re-ran the program I noticed that one Feature was off a bit; the probe was crashing before it could make it to the slot that it was measuring. So, if I remember correctly, I needed to do a manual alignment to make sure the part was in the same location, even though nothing changed as far as the setup. I just wanted to rule this out.

I did the manual alignment and at first the machine would alarm out while it was traveling to a feature because a “collision” was detected although the probe was in mid-air. I was finally able to get the program to run but the part was flipped 180 Deg. I am not using a CAD model to program. Could someone please explain the differences in the alignment options and how I should realign the part?

I’ve also heard of Start Alignment, but I don’t remember that being covered in basic class. Also, that option is “greyed out” in my run window.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am fairly new to programming CMMs. I was a CNC machinist for 6 years before doing this and I am the only person at my shop with any CMM knowledge. And that is very limited!

[[Ma...]]

Hello Dylan,

Alignments on run screen:

• Current alignment: You can use this while you are in programming window if you just run base alignment features
• Manual alignments: I don't know if i saw that, so I can not answer this - perhaps it will force you to measure features by hand
• "NAME_OF_PROGRAM" without "(CNC)": This is stored alignment which was performed by hand ( in programming window or in previous run with checking "Manual alignment" )
• "NAME_OF_PROGRAM" with "(CNC)": This is stored alignment which was perfomed by CMM by running program

Collisions which you described was due a part wasn't on same position as selected alignment was set to.

• If touch point is closer then setted value in clearence data, then it crashes.
• If touch point is not within setted value in "search after nominal" ( in my case is setted for 30mm ), then it pops up warning.

[[No...]]

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Manual alignment prompts you to manually probe the alignment prior to the run, just like the corresponding button in the base alignment dialog.
I stopped using this function in the run window, because in the past we observed flipped alignments in some special situations. This didn't happen when the same alignment was probed from the base alignment window, so it was clearly a software bug. I never checked if this has been resolved by now, I just continued probing from the BA window.

[[Ma...]]

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I had flipped mostly because of touching 2D line from wrong direction ( meant to be +X and i touched it like -X ).
But thanks for reply.

[[La...]]

Here is a link where Start Alignment is discussed.
viewtopic.php?t=1190

[[Dy...]]

Thanks for the info. This is so frustrating because this is the only part I have trouble with. The probe selected is the +Y probe and it is under my part and it appears that the -Y probe is selected when it isn't. I have no idea why this happens on this particular part. It would probe some features correctly and then totally miss others, so that why I ran a manual alignment to be sure my part is located correctly. Here is a screenshot of what I am seeing. Keep in mind that this is the +Y probe and I am in the +Z position.

ALIGNMENT 2.PNG

[[Ma...]]

Are you sure you got your base features correctly?
Seems like it's rotated 180° in Y axis ( flipped axis - somewhere you got +Z axis as -Z )

[[Er...]]

When running a manual alignment CMMs expect the points to be taken close to where the screen shows. Doing otherwise can confuse them.

How tight is the loop in the Base Alignment?

[[No...]]

I think we won't make much progress without seeing screenshots of your base alignment and its features.
Trusting the CAD view can be very deceiving.