Merging old&new: ascii to PCDMIS to Blade

[thenettrainer]

We have 8 B&S CMMs using PCDMIS (3.7 & 4.0) Plus two 25yr old CMMS (Not B&S) We have about 4,000 programs on the old machines, so we're fazing them out slowly.

What I ultimately would like to do is run Blade on data from the old CMMs.

My ideas were something like this . . .

1). Old CMMs can output data in ascii format. We have a translator that puts the actuals into an XYZ formated ascii file.

Perhaps I can input this XYZ data into Blade from the ascii file in some way. ???

OR . . .

2). Fool PCDMIS into thinking it ran the part!?! OFFLINE: If I could import that ascii XYZ data as Nominals into a PCDMIS program, then run the program, being offline, there would be zero deviation. Therefore the actuals would be the actuals from the old machine.

THEN I could use Blade.

Comments welcome, and much appreciated.

[toffield]

BLADE using software other than PCDMIS

We were running B&S with mm4. We run our airfoil programs and have them output XYZIJK. You have to have the IJK for BLADE to work. We then copy in the correct header and name it *.rpt. Make sure that the actual data rotation is the same as your nominal. Then open the *.rpt in BLADE.

Hope that Helps.

Teresa

[thenettrainer]

Thanks! That's a great start.

Unfortunately, believe it or not, this old software will not output the ijk values. In fact, you can't input ijk into a program. You have to actually rotate each point so the approach will be normal. Rotating a Nom amount, calculated in CAD or by math. The software does not use vectoral info, nor can it output vectoral data.



That's why I was thinking maybe I could "fool" PCDMIS into thinking it "ran" the part.

[NZ CMM Girl]

I've never used Blade, but I've used the following method for importing lots of points into PCDMIS.

Can you turn you turn your ascii XYZ file into a comma delimited file? (You can usually do this through Excel). If you can, open the file in Notepad and check that you have one point on each line and the parameters separated by commas.

i.e

1.002, 2.003, 1.512
1.254, 2.002, 1.534
...etc

Then on the top line type "XYZIJK" (must be in capitals!!). So your file will look like this:

XYZIJK
1.002, 2.003, 1.512
1.254, 2.002, 1.534
...

If your values are metric then you have to add four spaces and "METRIC" (again in capitals). A metric file would be:

XYZIJK METRIC
10.02, 20.03, 15.12
12.54, 20.02, 15.34
...

Then you save the file as filename.xyz

You can import this file into a PC-DMIS program and it will give you all the points in the graphics window. To turn these into actual points - open the auto point window, click on a point and then click "Create".

Each auto point will then have the theo, actual and target values all equal to the values you put in your xyz file - as well as nominal ijk values.

If you've got lots of points you can open the auto point window then draw a box around the points you want it to create - it'll do them in a blink!!

I hope this helps!!

[thenettrainer]

Thanks tons! That's what I had in mind. Am persuing that right now!

This is a great forum!

[toffield]

I've never used Blade, but I've used the following method for importing lots of points into PCDMIS.

Can you turn you turn your ascii XYZ file into a comma delimited file? (You can usually do this through Excel). If you can, open the file in Notepad and check that you have one point on each line and the parameters separated by commas.

i.e

1.002, 2.003, 1.512
1.254, 2.002, 1.534
...etc

Then on the top line type "XYZIJK" (must be in capitals!!). So your file will look like this:

XYZIJK
1.002, 2.003, 1.512
1.254, 2.002, 1.534
...

If your values are metric then you have to add four spaces and "METRIC" (again in capitals). A metric file would be:

XYZIJK METRIC
10.02, 20.03, 15.12
12.54, 20.02, 15.34
...

Then you save the file as filename.xyz

You can import this file into a PC-DMIS program and it will give you all the points in the graphics window. To turn these into actual points - open the auto point window, click on a point and then click "Create".

Each auto point will then have the theo, actual and target values all equal to the values you put in your xyz file - as well as nominal ijk values.

If you've got lots of points you can open the auto point window then draw a box around the points you want it to create - it'll do them in a blink!!

I hope this helps!!

I tried the xyz file, but when I created the points the ijk came out 0,0,1. Did I miss something when I created my points? There are many times that I have the xyz, but need the ijk for air foil data.

Teresa

[NZ CMM Girl]

Hi Teresa,

No you didn't miss anything... this method doesn't take ijk values into account - it's purely for xyz positions.

You can create points with the ijk values by having six values per line in your xyz file - but you have to know what they are or calculate them beforehand. Your xyz file will look like this:

XYZIJK
1.002, 2.003, 1.512, 0.707, 0.707, 0
1.254, 2.002, 1.534, 0.862, 0.507, 0
...etc

However, when your points have different ijk values, you must select each point and create it individually - if you select them in a group they will all end up with the same ijk value.

If you have CAD data for your air foil, you can try creating the points with the correct xyz values and any ijk values. Then call up the auto point dialog box for each point in turn (F9) and click the "Filp Vector" button until the approach vector looks correct with respect to the model. This could be quite a slow process if you've got a lot of points!!

Good Luck!!

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Not "FLIP VECTOR", click on "FIND VECTOR"

Nice to see you back, NZ Girl. Haven't heard from you on here in a long time.

[NZ CMM Girl]

Well... the buttons are right next to each other... anyone could mix them up!!

Hey Matt - I've been really quite busy cos my boss was on holiday for six weeks. Only three sets of hands to run the lab!! As well as that our internet connection at work is really cr*p and so it's really frustrating trying to view the forum - and even more frustrating trying to post!! I'm currently reading from home where we have a respectable 500kbs connection.

Hope you're all enjoying the warmth up there - we've just plunged into winter!!

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

What are the temps down to for you there durning the winter, mid-50's?

[NZ CMM Girl]

Ha ha ha - point taken!!

It's been down to 8 degC (that's about 45 degF) - it's cold for us... but I heard it was down near -30 for you guys last winter!?!

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

30? Are you kidding! I go out HUNTING in temps that are around 5 deg-F, did it several times last winter. What is that for you? -15 C? Give that a try sometime. Maybe you could go to the local resturant and stand in their walk-in freezer for 3 or 4 hours! LOL

[NZ CMM Girl]

OK ok ok - so maybe we're just a bunch of softies down here!!

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Oooohhhhh, I like 'softies'!

Hey, on the 'main island' down there, it can be brutal too. The big desert is the worst one on the planet, isn't it? Dryer, bigger, badder, all that jazz. I would rather be cold that hot. I can put on more clothes, but I can only take off so much.......

[NZ CMM Girl]

So you don't volunteer to be a life drawing model??

Here in NZ we have three main islands - North Island, South Island and Stewart Island. Then there's this big one we call West Island (only they call it Australia!!) I think that's where the big desert is!!

Crikey - It's midnight here - I gotta get some shut-eye!! This has been fun... I might try logging in from home again.