equate alignments

[d.evans]

Every time I have ever tried to use this feature of PCDMIS, I can never get it to work.
I've tried the "instructions" in the pdf 3.7 manual to no avail.

I have a rectangular part about 19" long and about 13 inches wide. It is about .062" thick.
I've measured all I can reach from one side. Then flipped it, and measured what I know to be the same features used to create the first alignment, except I'm leveling to z-minus instead of z-plus (this is because the instructions say to view the part as if the trihedron was actually taped to the part). After creating this flipped alignment, I go
Insert/Alignment/Equate...New align to Original align
OK
Then the everything looks weird. The features I created on the other side of the part are now about an inch higher on the screen (in relation to the CAD model) than they were prior. Is this right? Do I need to turn off the labels and features created on the other side of the part so I don't get confused?

Anyone with experience with this, please help me understand this better. Thanks in advance.....

[Don Ruggieri]

If your part were 1 in ch thick, the next question would be "did you measure the same physical plane for the level and Z 0 part of the alignent?" Being that the part is only 0.062" this may not be the problem, but let me proceed with a few more questions anyway.

Did you actually measure the same physcal features, especially the plane? If you can't get to the same features then you most likely need to use an offset value for the origin prior to the equate alignment part.

Another thing to try is this. With the part in its original position, do the alignment and measure half the features. Without moving it, do the same alignment, Equate Alignment, and measure the other half. This is a simple test to see if your procedure is okay and to verify that the software is doing what it needs to do.

[Vic Watson]

What version of PCDMIS are you using? In 3.7 or 3.7mr1 there was an issue with the Equate window. The top drop down box should be for the new alignment and the bottom should be for the old alignment. The wording was reversed in one of those versions. This realy screwed me up a few times.

[Andrew Gardner]

That was in version 3.7 - I used to use it all the time. It really messed me up the first couple of times also. Just another little bug to get used to.