Removing .(M) from Piweb report

[[Ca...]]

I know there have been a few threads about the .(M) line on Piweb printouts, I just can't find them because I'm not as smart as the forum's search function.

Is it possible to REMOVE the .(M) characteristic from the printout? It makes machine operators nervous....

[[Br...]]

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=864

[[Ia...]]

This very lengthy thread may help - viewtopic.php?f=14&t=864

I still find it comical that there isn't just a toggle to turn it off and on. It's absurd. I had to stop using PiWeb and go back to default printout at my last job because of it.

[[Ca...]]

Thanks guys!

[[Ri...]]

Is it not possible to educate the people reading the report?

It seems silly to abandon something because people don't understand it.

[[Ca...]]

I completely agree Richard, but I would have to educate myself first. As best I remember, the .(M) has something to do with SPC, or trending how much MMC/LMC is used over the entire manufacturing lot, or something like that. I don't honestly remember. Someday, when I'm "All caught up.", I'd REALLY like to know, but today isn't that day. I'm really only asking because I've started converting all our programs to PiWeb printouts, and just the report itself looking different will cause some nervousness and questions.

[[Ri...]]

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I've dealt with this first hand with employees, ISO Auditors and customers.
How can a part be accepted and the report has an out of tolerance condition on a "Modifier" or the "Coordinates" of the Profile and or True Position?

Its ridiculous that I have to explain this to anyone at all, neither of the above should have tolerances. Masking the tolerances still doesn't prevent a FALSE OOT condition on a report.
The modifier is controlled by its feature and tolerance.
The coordinates are BASIC's.

I do not have time to educate every person that reads a report, reports that never had this type of information before. The time involved has greatly out weighed any possible gain of education, in particular when you have a exceptionally large group of customers, repeat and new. With current studies and cost over runs due to this we could have bought nearly two new CMM's.
Zeiss touts helping your bottom line, the fact is, this is not helping our bottom line at all.

[[Ri...]]

I think there are some huge misconceptions as to what the .(M) value is. It is not your bonus tolerance. It is a percentage value of your tolerance usage. You cannot do Capability Analysis (Cpk, Ppk) on a feature that has a material modifier without converting it to a percentage of tolerance usage. If the .(M) shows out of tolerance, than your feature is out of tolerance. In addition, you cannot have coordinates for Profiles/Positions that show out of tolerance, but the feature show in specification.

I understand the frustration, I worked in a manufacturing facility for nearly 13 years, and I have had operators complain to me because the report went from one page to two pages because I added a characteristic for reference only (had no tolerance).

It's the horse and the rider problem.

If you go to Resources - Characteristics Settings Editor - Report - Transfer tolerance from the 'additional printout' option to PiWeb, you can turn off the tolerance function on the additional printout options.

For the .(M) edit your StandardProtocol doing the following:

- Open your StandardProtocol for editing
- Click on Page structure on the left hand side
- Expand Main area
- Select Protocol
- With Protocol selected click on Data provider on the left hand side
- In the Name area at the top, enter {^((?!\.\(M\)).)*$}
- Click the blue arrow to the right
- Click on Only transfer name filter

That should remove it for you.

[[Ri...]]

Unfortunately, the above doesn't work sometimes.
Not sure why, but I will get reports without and reports with modifiers.
There is only one template on our system. Even the generic report was replaced with ours in case someone forgot to select the correct report.

[[Ri...]]

Rick,

Would you be able to share reports that have and don't have it? I've only tested removing the (.M), and it works successfully on all of my tests, but I don't use it across the board as there is no need for us to.

[[To...]]

Maybe the M should be a selectable option.

[[Ri...]]

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"It's in the works" is what I've been told.

[[ri...]]

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Our administrators have reported this multiple times after we converted all our programs to PiWeb printouts... Every time I need to make amendments to the report it causes numerous questions.