Start Alignment

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I have a cylindrical part with its axis along the X axis. I have 3 programs, one for 3 different rotations due to features at different angles. I use the same features for the base alignment, but rotate the alignment about the X axis in the Special window.

For each rotation of the part, I have 2 programs. The first one runs the base alignment and then checks the planar clocking to the machine coordinate system. If the angle is off, I make a slight adjustment of the rotation and run the part again until I am within an acceptable angle. This allows me to get the part aligned to the star stylus system. Once this is done, I run the actual part program.

Similar to "Load a saved base alignment", I see that I can "Load an existing start alignment". Has anyone ever used a "loaded start alignment(cnc)", to drive the Base Alignment? If so, can you list the steps? I've loaded Base alignments before but not sure of the steps of loading a start alignment.

Yes, I checked the Knowledge Base. 😃

Update: I loaded the Fix Align(cnc) in the start alignment window. Then, selected this alignment as my base alignment. The program runs like I was hoping, but I'm not sure if it is doing a true base alignment or only referencing to the fixture alignment.

Update 2: I believe it is doing a new base alignment but it is referencing the fixture alignment as to where to look for the part. I know this because the X zero is not the same and the probe missed the part during the base alignment run. So, I am going to add a translation in X in my fixture program.

Update 3: This is working now. This leads me to think of another solution. To keep this to one program per rotation, can I run a Start Alignment in Automatic and do my rotational testing with a condition to abort the run if the angle tolerance is not met, or continue the run the criteria is met? The only problem is I'm running from Features List, which means it may be easier to keep using 2 programs.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

start alignment2.JPGstart alignment.JPG