Clearance and Retract Distances

[[La...]]

I am having trouble with clearance distances and retract distances. I don't understand exactly what they are and what they do or how to best apply them and was wondering if anyone could give me some insight?

[[Ri...]]

Clearance Distance is the distance that the stylus travels at the beginning and end of the feature. The direction of the Clearance Distance is parallel to the axis of the feature. This may not appear obvious on a feature that is parallel or perpendicular to the a side of the cube, but when you have tilted holes it becomes obvious. Without a clearance distance that is parallel to the hole, you would have no way to properly navigate in and out of a feature without the aid of position points. 

 

Retract Distance is the distance that the stylus travels between strategies. The direction of the Retract distance is perpendicular to the surface of the feature. Think of this one as a "backoff" amount. How close do you want the probe to be to the surface before it takes a hit. 

[[Ri...]]

 

Here is a quick video showing the clearance distance in action. 

 

[[To...]]

There are 7 moves for a standard feature in Calypso

1 - Clearance Plane

2- Clearance Distance

3 -Retract Distance

4 - Probing/Scanning

3 - Retract Distance

2 - Clearance Distance

1 - Clearance Plane