Simple AutoRun instructions

[[Gr...]]

>did you see that post from shabu?

Yes. It is essentially a duplicate of a few other instructions on here, but I did go through this specific one step by step.

We have a 15" x 20" plate on our table with tapped holes on 1.5" centerlines, and multiple fixtures on the plate at regular (7.5") spacing. I have created a fixture alignment program using the top front left corner of this grid plate.

I saved that program and closed after running it a couple times to ensure it finds the front left corner consistently.

Then I loaded a part into the first fixture and did a manual alignment, then let the cmm measure the part. Up until this past week, we've run at least 150 parts using this program, so pretty sure it works.

I saved that program and closed it. One set of instructions I read said there's no need to save the part program after doing the alignment. I tried setting up autorun with and also without saving the part program after doing the alignment.

I set up the autorun screen exactly as shown, using the correct distances in the pattern txtboxes, and using the fixture alignment from the pallet alignment dropdown, and the part alignment (non-cnc) from the part alignment dropdown. To be honest, after 5 hours this past weekend, I can say that I have tried every combination of cnc/non cnc programs just in case there was a typo somewhere. I used the fixture alignment with and without the cnc suffix, and also the part alignment with and without the cnc suffix, and have tried all four combinations from a cold start.

Using this method, 100% of the time, when the cmm goes to measure the first part, it rapids over the middle of the plate, roughly 3.5" past the first part in X, and about 6" past the part in Y. It then rapids down to... I don't know where, other than it is definitely not at the correct Z height. It will eventually run into the back of one of the fixtures, so I don't know how far past Z position it is trying to go. This is especially surprising since there are no moves in the part program that would bring the stylus anywhere near any of the other fixtures.

One of the instructional posts I read on here suggested just using the first part as the pallet alignment and leave the pallet program completely out of it. Using this method, it at least always measures the first part properly, and it also always goes to the correct X/Y position for the second part based on the pattern distance numbers (Which led to an audible 'Whoo Hoo!",) but it is always roughly 1.75" too high, and can never find the second part.

The most helpful information I have found suggests using the editor to save a different alignment name for each fixture, then manually aligning every part in each fixture. I don't have time available to try this, unfortunately, we have just started a multiple-machine runoff, and we will have the cmm checking parts 24-7 for the next 2 weeks. With a 20-minute inspection time, I was hoping to be able to set up 6 parts to check at once. Unfortunately, we had a hard start scheduled for yesterday morning, so I litrerally have no time available to try to get this working for this project. I'm just hoping to gather whatever information I can so I can try it again the next time it would be helpful to try checking multiples of the same part.

Thanks everyone for your input.

[[No...]]

What you describe sounds correct to me, yet there must be a problem somewhere (by the way, which Calypso version are we talking about? A bug is always a possible cause.)

What I would try in your situation (if time allows) is to simplify the problem as much as possible to try and isolate the source.
I would put the actual part program aside for now and instead use the simplest possible program with a beginner's alignment (4 Pts plane, 2 Pts line, 1 Pt zero) and one simple measurement, so I can be sure nothing's possibly wrong there. With this I would try out the palette setup.

If it still fails, you can truly rule out the part program. I know, you said it ran many parts without issue, but I already saw programs who did the same, and yet they failed one day because there was a simple error in the alignment which only became a problem after the part had.changed a small bit. My personal maxim here is "Never say never". Simplification is always a good idea.

[[Gr...]]

Calypso 2020 7.0.0212

Thanks, but we are in runoff mode at this point, and we really have zero time... 4 machines, 4 stations per machine, 2 part numbers per machine... at 17-20 minutes per part on the CMM, we are literally going to be 2 full weeks of 24/7 measuring to get through this runoff. And after this cell ships, we won't see these parts again.
Generally, we can measure parts as fast as we can run them, but this job we ran a complete set of parts every 3 minutes on the mills, making the CMM the major bottleneck in the schedule. Needless to say, a lot of people are anxiously waiting for the data from the CMM so we can show capability to the customer! Otherwise, I would spend another weekend trying to get it running multiple fixtures.
The next time we see a job coming up that will require weeks of CMM time, we'll try doing a multiple-fixture setup again, it certainly looks like it would be very useful.

[[No...]]

I understand, and I didn't mean to impose anything on you. But that is how I would proceed when there's time for analysis.