Iterative Alignment Question

[Liambo734]

I plan to use an iterative alignment at the start of a program that uses Cad. I need to first load an external fixture alignment at the start of the program, the next alignment will then be the iterative and it will recall the fixture alignment. The reason I ask is I only ever recalled the startup alignment into an iterative alignment in the past and I wondered if this new method would cause me any issues. Thanks.

[caryweaver]

There should not be an issue with recalling your fixture alignment and doing an iterative alignment from there.

[Underspec]

Iterative alignments are relative to your actual noms. Your fixture should be identical to this datum structure if you're using the external alignment.

[Liambo734]

Iterative alignments are relative to your actual noms. Your fixture should be identical to this datum structure if you're using the external alignment.

Thanks. I though that, I will make my fixture alignment origin identical to the cad origin. Maybe just align the part in the fixture.

[DaSalo]

I do this in every program. When you make your fixture alignment do the following:

1) Align to your fixture
2) create generic features to define a coordinate system for your current alignment
3) Do a manual iterative alignment to your part
4) report out the location and orientation of your previously created generic features.This will give you the exact translations and rotations required to transform from your fixture alignment to the part iterative alignment.
5) Go back to your alignment from step #1 and input these translations and rotations into the alignment.
6) Delete the iterative alignment and all of the generic features.

This will leave you with a fixture alignment that will get you really close to where you want to end up after your iterative alignment. Now recall that alignment in your iterative alignment program and your first iteration should already be close enough that it can run through with a pretty close prehit and retract setting. From there you should be able to converge to a very accurate alignment within 3 iterations.

[Liambo734]

I do this in every program. When you make your fixture alignment do the following:

1) Align to your fixture
2) create generic features to define a coordinate system for your current alignment
3) Do a manual iterative alignment to your part
4) report out the location and orientation of your previously created generic features.This will give you the exact translations and rotations required to transform from your fixture alignment to the part iterative alignment.
5) Go back to your alignment from step #1 and input these translations and rotations into the alignment.
6) Delete the iterative alignment and all of the generic features.

This will leave you with a fixture alignment that will get you really close to where you want to end up after your iterative alignment. Now recall that alignment in your iterative alignment program and your first iteration should already be close enough that it can run through with a pretty close prehit and retract setting. From there you should be able to converge to a very accurate alignment within 3 iterations.

Thanks, I will try this.