Constructing a square slot...

[CMM Guru]

Having a bit of trouble with constructing a square slot. The help files on this are not clear enough as to what should be included in the costruction nor if any order needs to be considered. Has anyone had experience constructing a square slot using the "Insert, Feature, Construct, Square slot" ? When using this medthod what is PC-DMIS looking for and does the picking order have a impact on the results? Lines, planes, points? I'm not interested in using a generic feature on this one. If the option is there to construct the slot it should work, I'm just not clear on the trick o' the trade . Thanks in advance for any help.

[Jimmy Hirsch]

Using CAD++ 4.3 Release here, does not have construct square slot, just round slot.
As usual, I do not know !

[John Kingston]

I looked in the help file in V3.2063 and it's pretty clear to me. You may have to delve into deeper levels of the help file.

WITHOUT CAD
1. Find the top surface using 3 hits
2. Take two hits on one of the long sides of the slot.
3. Take one hit on each of the three remaining sides in a clockwise direction. ( There should be a total of eight hits.)

NOTE:The order of the hits should be in a circular pattern (clockwise or counter-clockwise).

[John Kingston]

I just wandered over to my machine that has Ver2010 on it.
The help file is similar... albiet hard to find.
Open the help file and click the search tab. Type in "Measuring a square slot".
The third item it lists is what you are looking for.
But it's basically the same as above.

I hope that helps.
One thing I did notice is that the older version I have has more info in the help.
It covers with cad surface data and with cad wire data..... Interesting that they would make it less clear....

[Jimmy Hirsch]

I looked in the help file in V3.2063

so the above mentioned version has "construct" square slot ability and 4.3 release doesn't.
Humm..........................imagine that..........

[CMM Guru]

Here is a little more info:
I'm programming off line in v2011 release with a cad model. I'm trying to construct a square slot with pre exisiting measured features. 2 planes, a center plane and a pre exisiting contructed line. The measured planes are the sides of the slot. The constructed line is the bottom of the slot and the center plane is (between the 2 measured planes) the slots middle or center. The physical bottom of the part is not 90 deg to the 2 measured planes. Thats why I'm using a constructed line, to have 90 deg bottom to the "constructed" slot. Thank you for the answers so far...

[Jimmy Hirsch]

have you tried using 6 vector points to accomplish this task?
as mentioned above, total of 8 hits for that method from the help file as John posted
I use auto square slot alot, only takes 6 points (not including the sample hits) 2 on the length side and one on each end.
It doesn't seem you will have enough points with planes & lines
Planes produce 1 centroid point, same goes for lines.
2 Planes = 2 points
Center Plane = 1 point
Constructed Line = 1 point
not enough points to construct the square slot

.02