Iterative alignment.....

[bob mappes Ultra Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bob mappes]

I had a part yesterday that I had a solid model for. The part has this parabola as the main feature, and is at an angle to the reference features.
The first op done was on the lathe and the only actual features were the parabola and the face of the part. The origin on the model is at the oposite end of the part and again at an angle. After several unsuccesful attempts at using iterative alignment, I tried something different....I started by doing an alignment on the cad and moving it to the center of the parabola at the intersect with the one face on the actual part. IT WORKED!!!! so lesson learned is that if the origin of the model is not where you want it...you can move it! WOO WHOO!!!

[Andrew Gardner Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Gardner]

In a past life, when I checked aircraft parts, I would do something similar. I would do an iterative alignment to the model (in aircraft coordinates), then, I would to a 3-2-1 alignment (no find noms) to the print, and do a CAD=Part. That would snap the model that was in aircraft coordinates to print coordinates. This worked on the simpiler parts, but not so good when I had to start best fitting.