Recalling external alignment

[RussL]

I'm having no luck recalling an external alignment.
I had made an alignment and saved it to a file in the current directory,
When I try to recall it in a different program in the same directory,
using recall/alignment,external,<file name> - I get no alignment.
Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
(I am currently trying it in V4.1 but never could get it to work regardless of version).

[bboyd]

Original Program
A0 =ALIGNMENT/START,RECALL:STARTUP,LIST=YES
ALIGNMENT/ITERATE
PNT TARGET RAD = 0.2, START LABEL = , FIXTURE TOL = 0.05, ERROR LABEL =
MEAS ALL FEAT = ALWAYS ,MAX ITERATIONS = 99 ,LEVEL AXIS=ZAXIS ,ROTATE AXIS=XAXIS ,ORIGIN AXIS=YAXIS
LEVEL = AL_PT1,AL_PT2,AL_PT3,,
ROTATE = AL_DATUM B,AL DATUM C PT,,
ORIGIN = AL_DATUM B,,
ALIGNMENT/END
MODE/DCC
SAVE/ALIGNMENT,TEST1,test1.aln,MACHINETOPARTS

Recalled program

STARTUP =ALIGNMENT/START,RECALL:,LIST=YES
ALIGNMENT/END
MODE/MANUAL
FORMAT/TEXT,OPTIONS, ,HEADINGS,SYMBOLS, ;NOM,TOL,MEAS,DEV,OUTTOL, ,
LOADPROBE/100MEXT3X20
TIP/T1A0B0, SHANKIJK=0, 0, 1, ANGLE=90
RECALL/ALIGNMENT,EXTERNAL,test1,TEST1:test1

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

If your saved alignment file is in the same directory as the new program (after you have saved the new program in the same directory) the alignment SHOULD show up in the drop-down list of alignments. Of course, if your SEARCH PATH is set to something other than "CURRENT" or "ACTIVE" for recalling external alignments, it won't look. Check your setting for search paths and make sure that the ALIGNMENT search is set correctly.

[johnboy]

As Matt said, if the search path is correct and the saved alignment is in the same directory as the program it should show up in the alignment dropdown list.

Also, I've had problems using recalled alignments (screwed-up coordinates, etc.) and found the fix to be recalling the STARTUP alignment IMMEDIATELY before the desired recalled alignment. I never figured out why, but it corrected the problem.

[RussL]

I tried all you suggest.
I pick the alignment off the drop down.
I tried recalling Startup first.
Alignment from file is not taking.
I execute the programs off-line
Don't suppose this would have anything to do with it?

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

After you recall the alignment, do you do a CAD=PART?

[RussL]

We were told by B & S to never use it.
I found/tried it, still no good.

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

NICE, B&S tell you to never use CAD=PART. No wonder they don't teach it's use, they don't under stand whatinthehell it is. I use it on 100% of EVERYTHING and do NOT EVER(!) have any problems with it's use, what-so-ever. It is under OPERATION ~ GRAPHICS DISPLAY WINDOW. It is PART of the alignment process when using 3-2-1 alignments (regular alignments) and CAN be used when doing ITERATIVE alignments (I do, and no problems doing so) but when they made V3.5, they moved it OUT of the ALIGNMENT command section and put it in the GRAPHICS DISPLAY section (even though it is STILL in the ALIGNMENT creation window, where it belongs).

Well, if they told you to NEVER use it (wrong, wrong, WRONG, a million times WRONG!!!!!) then that tells me you didn't use it in your alignment program, where you SAVED the alignment to the external file. What type of alignment did you do in that program? If it was a regular 3-2-1 alignment? If so, then YOU MUST USE the CAD=PART. Then save the file again. Until you do the CAD=PART in a regular 3-2-1 alignment, the cad data STAY IN RELATIONSHIP to the MACHINE X0 Y0 Z0 point, not to the alignmetn you just created and thus the cad data will NOT 'sit' on your alignment, but will be way off in space somewhere. So, then when you recall that saved alignment in a second program, it will still show the cad data way off in space.

[T Miller]

I very seldom use cad and still use cad=part just to square the graphics window display.

[bboyd]

If you are not using CAD then you must use CAD equals part, the code I posted has a CAD model with a iterative alignment. My apologies for not pointing that out.

[RussL]

We generally do a manual iterative alignment,
followed by a DCC iterative and/or 3-2-1 alignment.
This particular test program uses a 3-2-1 DCC alignment
I did a CAD=Part in the program that creates the alignment and executed it.
I opened the program that recalls that 3-2-1 alignment and executed it.
Still no luck.

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

Well, the next question is, does the cad data 'sit' correctly on the alignment features in the alignment program?

Another question, are you using 'math' operations in ANY of the feature or alignment ID's? Things like * and - and / as well as a space are HUGE "no-no's" for labels. If you used DOS in the old days, can you remember the naming conventions used then and what were NEVER to be used? If you follow those, then you will not have 'label' problems.

ADDITION****
Are you sure you are saving the correct alignment from the alignment program and not a preliminary alignment?

[RussL]

The part used to sit correctly after the alignment in the alignment program.
It no longer does.
Problem is I have programs that add up to over 10,000 points for just one side of one part.
I ended up cutting up the program into four and adding the alignment to each program.
(if I have that many points in one program, the PC generally dies on me)
I don't like having the same alignment in multiple programs.
If it needs to be changed, it must be changed in multiple places.
I am way past my alotted time for R & D (which is zero hours).
Will have to deal with multiple alignments.
Thanks for all the assistance.