Any one Using 4.0

[Marty Schwab]

I have a few ?? for you.

[mtalla]

4.0

We have 4.0 in our grubby little hands, but will wait to install.
We have new parts to check due soon, and don't need the worry of testing a newer version while trying to get parts out the door.

[rebeldude]

The same here. We have it also, but we are waiting for a slow time to try it out

[John Kugler]

When you say you have it in your grubby little hands, does that mean you have a CD from Brown and Sharpe?


Just asking if they have officially sent it out.

Thanks.

[Mike N.]

I use it at my Part Time job for about 2 wks now.......very UNfriendly Reporting mode....font sizes by default don't auto scale to fit inside defined box windows within the report. The method of editing reports looks alot like hyper report editor....which in my opinion is very difficult to work with. Strange how hyper report is removed from 4.0 but the editor for the report window looks just like it.
I don't have any opinion of the dimensioning changes because I have not programmed in it yet....will do soon.

I would appreciate several reply's from others using 4.0 that have constructive critisism without ranting to help us all get through the next set of teeth we need to cut.

[mtalla]

reply

Yes! we have a CD in hand from B & S !
aarrr......genius!

[JamesMannes]

I can't swim but I jumped in anyways...

Now I know in previous posts I have stated that I was going to wait to try out PC-DMIS 4.0, but I saw that BNS had blessed the re-release version so I called 'em up and said "Hey smack me in the head with a 2x4 and send me a fresh copy of 4.0". They sent it to me and I've been slowly, but carefully, using it when I have had the chance(got it last week Tuesday). That being said, I have, since Friday, sort of been testing it full time during my time away from my AVAIL programming(by the way if any of you recall my rant on that subject, let me digress a little. So I finished re-reporting out my 2 AVAIL programs and went on to the next program. I was finished with the measurement and the report side(plus AUTOFIT) and went back in one more time to change a tolerance, and POOF!!! the program was gone. 2.5 days of work went into cyberspace. I know you will say "didn't you back up your program?? Nope. No server back up either)



Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I have been impressed thus far with the software, the CAD modeling engines seem to be very solid. Another plus is the fact that you can bring in a CAD model of any unit into a program of any unit(not a biggy but nice). The addition of a SOLIDWORKS type of toolbar to allow you to instanly move to any axis face(+x,-x,+y,-y,+z-z) of your part is really nice.



If you utilize scanning operations in your programs you will be very impressed. The introduction of a "FREEFORM" scan is the cat's meow. What it does is allow the user to define a path in any direction along the part surface. This was so easy to use I couldn't believe my eyes when the SP600 took off and started to do the loop 'd loops I had assigned for its' path (very, very impressive). Along with the scanning is the introduction of multiple indicators in you dimension info of both form and location while givng you the largest deviation from nominal(you get 2 bars in the report side, and two # signs in the edit window)(now all BNS has to do is tell me how to identify which is which). I haven't tried rotary scans yet(they were giving me grief in 3.7MR3 e.g. getting booted out of PC-DMIS.



Saving to an older version has also been improved. Once you select a version to save back to, it stays with that version designation until you change it. Prior to 4.0 you would have to save to the version you wanted and immediatedy quit without saving otherwise it would revert to the version you were in. 4.0 also doesnt hog all your probe configurations either. And when you close out a program in 4.0 and go to 3.7MR3 the files you were recently using show up as recently used so you can open them right away(did they know people were going to be "back saving" to an older version or what?).



Ok, so everyone probably wants to know about the report and label side of 4.0. It is a little intimidating at first but I would say within 45 minutes I was doing ok. Now that's not to say I know how to make a full-fledged report template or label template yet but that should come relatively easy(once the Applications Engineers become more proficient with this stuff because I have been on the phone with them and stumped them with almost every question I had). Now, with that said, aside from doing some fancy stuff, the default templates that come with 4.0 should work very well for everyday usage. They have everything you need, and are easily editted.



Dimensioning can be a little tricky(only dabbled a little bit with TP, but this what I want to talk about so be gentle). At first I was using my dimensioning icons to do TP and what you get is a window that incorporates a Feature Control Frame (FCF) in your graphics window. Didn't take too long to become used to it, but I don't know that I will use it too much. To get away from the FCF, use your pull down menu at the top to acces the dimensioning pull down menu and at the bottom of this you will find an item called "USE LEGACY DIMENSIONING". With that checked, you get the same TP stuff you have seen for the last umpteen versions. Without this box checked you cannot see the results of your TP dimension in the edit window, you will see it in the report window though(keep in mind that the "REPORT" window is not visible until you hit the icon for it(there is only code present in your edit window for your FCF and the datum selections)(not nice). Speaking of datum selection that is one nice thing about the FCF, once you choose the primary, secondary and tertiary datums you can recall them at any time in any order needed.



Analysis views seem to work properly now, they don't change their orientation after running your program or give you othet grief.
One thing I don't like is the fact that HYPER-VIEW reports work, but you cannot edit them(booh!!), what happens if some bitmap or othe rfile can;t be found? You are scre#ed.
Well, can't think of anything else at the moment so I hope that is a good start.

[slinky1561]

v4.0 Hmmmm....

Have v4.0 from Hexagon.....just for trial & to have a look at. Big changes in reporting, CATIA v5 Translator better than 3.7 (it works!) New IGES Alternate translator is good addition too. More scanning options, Grid scan looks useful, also improved layout of settings for scans. Looks good, BUT..........will it work???????

[ag1979]

Another Disappointment

I don't know why, but I am always excited when an update comes out. I was perticularly excited for 4.0. I thought that maybe they might have changed their ways and done things right this time. But no. Right now I'm running 3.7 mr3, and occasionally experimenting with 4.0. The new reporting system is terrible. A regular report that used to 90kb, takes up about 50mb. Instead of each .rtf report being regular text, each page is an object thats broken into smaller objects. They used text boxes for everything. I'm pretty lucky with the machine I running, it's pretty much loaded. These reports practically choke it out. Who ever came up with the menu layouts obviously never has to program a CMM. I really could keep going with this but I'll save my hostility for later.

[ag1979]

More Venting

Maybe someone should tell them to stop making improvemetns and just start fixing all the problems they have already. Once everything works properly move on. We should start a class action lawsuit to make everyone that works there use their software to inspect x number of parts and write programs for x number of hours every week as part of their daily routine.

Now I'll stop....

[Snaggy]

I am using the first release of 4.0 as I didn't think the boss would go for the software contract and needed to get 4.0 on before our contract was up (then the boss gets the ssg anyway)

I couldn't get on with the new style reporting either and so I use the legacy dimensions option.

Only other thing I have found on this release is on iterative alignments. PCDMIS doesn't ask you to move the probe clear, it just takes off ( not good when using a 0.5 dia probe). I have got round this by inserting move points and checking the measure all always box, which seems to work okay.

Other than that it seems okay to me. Just my two bobs worth, feel free to ignore

[JamesMannes]

I reported this to BNS/WILCOX immediately after i found this bug. One of the reasons for the "re-release" of 4.0. So far, with the released version of 4.0 I haven't found too many issues