Changing the Blocked Clearance Plane

[[Ty...]]

A little background: I found a couple of programs that were made upside down (Z+ in the program is Z- on the machine). Calypso blocked off Z+ clearance plane which has allowed the programs to run fine for months. I've been tasked with adjusting feature names in these programs to get the results to work better with out database. I made all of the adjustments, checked to make sure Z+ was still blocked off, and ran a simulation. Calypso is now blocking off Z- which prevents these programs from working.

Is there anyway to prevent Calypso from automatically blocking off one of the clearance planes? Can I manually pick which clearance plane I want to block off?

Also hoping that it might just be something with the offline seat and these programs will work fine when running on the Prismo (the offline seat doesn't have the probe data from the Prismo computer).

[[Ro...]]

Plan> Navigation> Block Edges

My personal default is to block all but the 4 top edges, meaning the only freedom my cmm has to get around a part will be "up & over".
I don't know what issues you may have since your program was upside down at one point......

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[[No...]]

When you were running the simulation, was the part placed upside-down on the virtual machine table, like on the real machine?
When the part orientation differs from the machine orientation, Calypso should choose the correct plane to block automatically. So if the part wasn't placed correctly in the simulation, that would explain the problem.

[[Ro...]]

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Very true.
Good reason to always translate a cad model to the machine XY&Z before starting your base alignment.

[[Ma...]]

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This exact situation can happen when the incorrect features are used to manually align the part on the CMM. The fact that it runs okay on the simulation tells me this might be the case. Check the alignment in the program and if it seems acceptable I would go to Resources/ Utilities/ Set Base Alignment to zero. This will clear the previous base alignment measurement data. Then manually remeasure the base alignment. Now look at the Blocked Edges and verify it is correct.

Mark

[[Ty...]]

Maybe a little more background...

The program uses a start alignment with the granite surface as it's Z and Spatial. But the Z+ in the program would be Z- on the machine. I was able to get the simulation to work by clicking the other side of the part during the start alignment.

My question is more for future use/fixes, is there anyway to stop Calypso from automatically blocking off one of the clearance planes or at least choosing which plane I want to block off (the black circles on the block edges screen)?

[[Me...]]

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Is Blocking Edges beneficial for RDS heads? I rotate a lot in my programs & I've never used Block Edges before. Still do not quite understand.

[[No...]]

Blocking edges is for situations where the machine would collide with obstacles outside the clearance cube if it took a path around a certain corner of the cube. So yes, blocking edges is beneficial for every head, but not everybody needs it. The plane that gets blocked automatically is (or should be) always the one facing the granite, as this one's unreachable with most heads/probes.

[[Er...]]

It only switched it because you ran the simulation the way the program was written, where z+ is actually z+ so it recognizes z- as the "bottom". The next time you run this on the machine it will run normally as you're used to it running because when you pick it up it will recognize that it is upside down. After your first machine run, if you check the block edges window it will have flipped the automatically blocked edges. So basically, there's nothing you need to do in your offline program to fix it, just transfer it to the machine and run it.

[[Br...]]

Try selecting "Set Base Alignment to Zero" in the base alignment window and run the start alignment as it should be. If the default blocked edges are at the Z- plane, this might fix them and send them to the Z+ plane. I'm not sure with your situation because the the base alignment axis' don't correspond with the machine axis'. But this usually works in the case when the blocked edges end up on the wrong corners.

[[Te...]]

I agree with Roberto Flores 😎, I always do the same thing block everything but the top 4, it is part of my template program. The reason I do this? I now know without a shadow of a doubt how Calypso will run feature to feature. ALWAYS up over the top! Without those blocked it can go around the sides or along the back or along the front and I have no real idea with 100% certainty of the movement from feature to feature with the 4 blocked this is no longer an issue I now how it will move every time.