Cylinder

[jmgreen]

OK, I'm going to try and get through this without a rant but I'm frustrated.
3.7mr3, I'm trying to measure a cylinder. It sticks straight up out of a block 15 mm and is 8 mm in dia. I can't use clear plane due to location and alignment. I have all the correct things marked, stud, height, dia, # hits, depth, etc. I have initial, perm and spacer at 0, although I've tried various configerations. I take 3 hits on the block surface and the 6 hits (3 on 2 levels), on the cylinder. When I tell it to measure, the probe goes right to the center of the stud and straight down. Fortunately it is a bushing and it doesn't crash. I just get an unexpected probe hit. Even the graphics screen, if you click on the little green pointers, has the probe going to the center.
WHY!!! This should be a no-brainer, but it is Monday and maybe I'm missing something. I've attached a screen shot of the pop up. Hopefully, I'm just full of stupid this morning.
Also, once I click off the clear plane box, why oh why does it keep coming on every dang time I F9 the cylinder to see if something is off. I've already made one fishhook this morning because of this.

[#2#]

First, I would make sure your cylinder vectors are entered properly.

Then, if I remember correctly, when measuring an auto cylinder and you enter a height it will take one hit at the top of the cylinder to verify the height and then move to the side and progress with the hits around the diameter. Since you have a bushing it is not registering a hit on the top of the cylinder.

[Mike N.]

just one thing i noticed....

you have a depth and a height value in both area's

one or the other is necessary

I would do editing in the command window instead of "F9"
I found that sometimes this editing method does more harm than good

I have asked most (4 different) AE's and they all say they edit in the command window.....this is how they do it and don't find the things (bugs,issues) we do when we use F9 instead

[#2#]

Ok, I was wrong. It doesn't take that hit I mentioned. Not sure where I got that one from.

[Jeffrey Lovely]

Is the hole or stud box checked

[tking]

You said the cylinder sticks straight up yet your screen shot shows a predominately -Y vector, did I miss something?

TK

[jmgreen]

Thanks to all for the quick responses. TK, it sticks straight up from the table and gauge, the vectors are just following the alignment.

I got a call back from BnS and they suggested I change the move (toward the bottom center) to NO and whaddaya know, it now works. Now they are trying to figure out why I had to do that.

I've heard about and frequently do edit from the command window. I guess I'm stubborn in that if they are providing the popup menu then it should work. My feeling is, was, and always will be that for the money we are paying for the software not to mention the SMA's we should expect and recieve good service and a decent product. I think the tech support guys are pretty good and try hard, but several of them are still learning and judging by response times, they must be overwhelmed on many occasions. That is still no excuse.

[tking]

Thanks to all for the quick responses. TK, it sticks straight up from the table and gauge, the vectors are just following the alignment.

I got a call back from BnS and they suggested I change the move (toward the bottom center) to NO and whaddaya know, it now works. Now they are trying to figure out why I had to do that.

I've heard about and frequently do edit from the command window. I guess I'm stubborn in that if they are providing the popup menu then it should work. My feeling is, was, and always will be that for the money we are paying for the software not to mention the SMA's we should expect and recieve good service and a decent product. I think the tech support guys are pretty good and try hard, but several of them are still learning and judging by response times, they must be overwhelmed on many occasions. That is still no excuse.

What was your move distance, greater than 15?

TK

[jmgreen]

Nope it was 10

[tking]

Nope it was 10

That I believe is the cause of the problem, set to 20 it would work fine.

TK

[jmgreen]

Thanks I'll check as soon as I can.

[jmgreen]

That I believe is the cause of the problem, set to 20 it would work fine.

TK

TK, I checked and you are correct. I can see now that it was going inside to 15 before it was going to move to measure. Two questions now,
Why does it have to go to the center anyway and why didn't BnS know this.
Kudos to you.

[NikoM]

If I remember correctly...

If you specify hight to your cylinder/stud PC-DMIS should take a point on the top of cylinder to measure this hight.

[tking]

TK, I checked and you are correct. I can see now that it was going inside to 15 before it was going to move to measure. Two questions now,
Why does it have to go to the center anyway and why didn't BnS know this.
Kudos to you.

jmgreen,

Sorry, can't answer the 2 questions. I am glad it worked for you, I've found this feature to be quite handy. I can't believe I had to ask you for the move distance when it was clear in the screen shot, duh!

TK