Benefits of upgrading software

[[Ma...]]

I'm looking for any valuable information I can provide to ownership in regard to upgrading our software from 2016 to the newest version.

My company has recently transitioned to new ownership who seems to have a very dedicated focus on improving our quality department and standards. We currently have Calypso 2016 along with FFS and Curve on our two Contura G2 CMM's with Vast XXT sensors. Like most companies it's hard to get money allocated to newer resources in the quality department but I'm hopeful that I can get us out of the stone age with the software. Since I've only ever used newer versions of calypso in the basic, advanced and curve courses I'm having a hard time making a sound argument for why our company should upgrade. Can anyone provide some things they've found useful with the newer software in hopes that I can persuade the new guys to give me the green light. Thanks in advance.

[[Cr...]]

My company has a Zeiss care agreement for all our machines. A nice benefit of this is the Zeiss hotline is included for any programming or machine issues. Software upgrades are also included.

There's many changes between Calypso 2016 and 2021. Some big and some small. Take a look at the release notes for each version and that can give you an idea of the new features. I can't remember which version it came out in, but my favorite is the Caliper Distance characteristic.

Most all our updates are because we have a few facilities that all use the same programs and if a new machine is bought, it comes with the newest version of calypso so we try to keep all our machines at the same version for the ability to run any program on all our machines.

I believe Calypso 2022 just came out. I would wait awhile before updating to this. I'm sure there's bugs that need to be worked out.

[[Ow...]]

The reasons for updating the software are numerous, from keeping up on evaluation changes made by different engineering standards for GD&T to keeping the CMM compatible with any new technical/functional updates that make it better and generally easier, to having free access to programming help through phone support and on-line computer connectivity where they can see exactly what calypso and the programmer are doing and offer better efficiency tips along with ensuring the program isn’t giving bogus results which is time saving and critical especially for new programmers.

Zeiss updates the software every year and the release notes on each update generally number between 150 to 200 pages in new capabilities and change descriptions. The updates/SMA are not cheap but, with an active SMA you do get a % off yearly calibration.