Yet Another Mirroring Thread

[jtrofatter]

I'm sure the problem has to be my brain is broken and just not putting the pieces of this method together correctly. I've poured over almost a dozen different threads and somehow nobody else on the forum has come across this problem.
I'm trying to mirror programs written for left hand parts for the opposing right hand parts cutting my programming in half. The problem i am having is that after i mirror the program and run the manual alignment the DCC features seem to rotate 180^ofrom the model. Before running the mirrored program all features appear to align to the CAD. All of the feature theos still say they exist in a Y+ axis yet the machine still travels in the Y- trying to find the features where they appear rotated 180 from the model. I'm assuming this has to be due the machine mirroring. Although the part is symmetrical and would have to be mirrored in X, its orientation on the CMM would be the same for both the left hand and right hand parts, so my brain truly cant comprehend why i would mirror the machine to make this work correctly. below is what I'm trying to accomplish. Has anyone ever had issues with this or am i just being dumb?trying_to_mirror.png

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

I never mirror the alignment. I make the LH program (complete) then I start the RH, make only the alignment, then mirror the LH program and copy every thing after the alignment into the RH program that only has the alignment. IF YOU HAVE more alignments in the middle of the program, you will have to F9 each one and set the RECALL alignment to the correct alignment.

[jtrofatter]

I'm going to have to give this a try in the morning. Thank you sir! I'm sure youre tired of posting on mirroring threads. I'm pretty sure i saw your posts on almost all of the threads haha. I didnt originally think it could be a problem with the alignment mirroring, because on paper the alignment all jives with the features so i was just at a loss. Thank you again sir!

[jtrofatter]

I'm also still super confused as to the machine mirror portion of the show.... it literally makes no sense in my brain to mirror the machine if the part would be in the same orientation on the machine table.....

[Mike Ruff]

My guess is you are clocking your alignment with a line and trying to do the same exact alignment with both programs. Keep in mind, when you mirror a program, your alignments also get mirrored! Which way a line points is determined by the order of the hits- lines ALWAYS point from the first hit/feature to the second hit/feature. So if you are probing the exact same alignment for both programs, make sure to pay attention to where the hits are supposed to be taken. It sounds like you are probing the points out of order, which is flipping the line. IF this is the case, you can do as Matt said to have both programs use identical alignments, or you can just make sure that you are probing the hits in the correct locations.

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

My guess is you are clocking your alignment with a line and trying to do the same exact alignment with both programs. Keep in mind, when you mirror a program, your alignments also get mirrored! Which way a line points is determined by the order of the hits- lines ALWAYS point from the first hit/feature to the second hit/feature. So if you are probing the exact same alignment for both programs, make sure to pay attention to where the hits are supposed to be taken. It sounds like you are probing the points out of order, which is flipping the line. IF this is the case, you can do as Matt said to have both programs use identical alignments, or you can just make sure that you are probing the hits in the correct locations.

This is correct, a line measure LEFT-TO-RIGHT for an alignment will need to be measured RIGHT-TO-LEFT in the mirrored program.

HOWEVER, all my manual alignments are done in a certain direction so there is LESS need for thinking. Lines are always measured LEFT TO RIGHT, FRONT TO BACK, BOTTOM TO TOP. See a manual line needs measuring, you KNOW which way to measure it.

ALSO, a mirrored program will look like crap until it is executed all the way through.

[A-machine-insp]

I mirror the entire program and it is very very VERY rare that I get the issue you are having but it has happened. The problem has always been the rotation. For example the alignment will rotate to X+ when the line is actually going X-. It will mirror the line correctly but not the alignment. Again, this is very rare but it has happened to me 3-4 times in the last 6 years.

A suggestion I would make is if the program you are mirroring has been run already (actuals don't match the nominals), open the program offline and execute the program before mirroring it. Offline execution will reset everything to nominal and make it easier to diagnose a mirror issue. I have never had a mirror issue when I zero the program before mirroring.

[Schlag]

Same here. I have done a TON of 100% mirror programs. I always import the actual part CAD and delete the "mirrored" version that DMIS makes for me after the mirror process. Then I can verify features to the actual model and not the mirror. I seem to get allot of part that are 99% similar and I have to add or delete a hole. I want the actuall CAD to match 100% and not be "close". Also, like Matt said, we always do LEFT to Right / Front to back. I will create new features and change my alignment rotations with the new Features so our manual alignments follow those rules . Always answer NO to those questions after the alignment changes on new features for rotations. Remember to work from a copy after you mirror to save a few steps if you mess something up..

[jtrofatter]

Havent gotten a chance to test it out completely yet (there is a long list of editing i have to do), but it appears the problem was that i zeroed the program before mirroring it. The constructed features after mirroring are being measured opposite of the theo vectors. The rotational line, after mirroring, nominal theo vector is +x and the alignment rotates xplus as it should, but when i open the constructed features and recreate them, the vectors then flip. So my guess is that the alignment was based off of the theo value so the tetrahedron looked correct even after running the part, but because the measured values were flipped the machine was looking for the part as though it were rotated 180. the ole double edged sword of constructed features.