Cannot construct plane.....

[Rick Coleman]

DMIS ver 3.5 MR2
When starting to program, I am getting an error message that I have not seen before;
Cannot construct PLANE 'M Z PLN'. Features do not intersect/math does not converge."

Is the model garbage? I have looked at the coordinates in both DMIS & UG and everything seems to be OK....

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

You are getting that error because you didn't set the CAD to MACHINE axis before you started. It is in the F5 setup section. You have to do this AND then set the correct workplane before you start your measurements.

[Rick Coleman]

Thanks

Done a bunch of programming off CAD, but never have I had to do that before. Usually just program alignment off CAD, mark, measure and everything came in......

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

I never used to get it either, until I started using V3.5. If you are doing a 3-2-1 (regular) alignment and NOT an iterative alignment and the part is sitting on the table with ANYTHING other than the Z axis up and down (if your machine IS z-axis up and down) you will need to do this. IT is VERy annoying since you never had to do this before V3.5. BUT, with the advent of V3.5, they changed the way that features are 'held' together in the program. It used to be that features AFTER an alignment were only held BACK TO THE ALIGNMENT features. Now, they are held all the way back to the machine axis. Quite annoying. In pre-V3.5, you could make an adjustment to the alignment (3-2-1) to try to balance the pickup on a fixture and it would show you NEW dimensional values for all the features AFTER the alignment, but not anymore. and I think it all goes back to the way they changed the feature/alignment/machine position stuff. Just another case of, "Hey, it works, but let's change it ANYWAY!" from the makers of Pcdmis.

[Rick Coleman]

Another one of those 'It ain't broke, let's fix it.'
Why is New and Improved not always New and Improved----not just here, applies all over the place...............