How do you measure a cylinder with no relative surfaces to pick

[Rocktoy]

Hello All

I am trying to measure a hole that is at a compound angle to the alignment. There are no surfaces perendicular or parallel to this hole and I do not know the angle it is at. If the part were a cube the hole would be at a random angle starting from the intersect of 2 edges and going out one of the others. It is also intersected by three other holes that are also at a random angle. I have tried to make a circle to get the vectors but everything i tried results in vectors that are not even close to correct. The proble angle I'm using is close enough to measure the hole but clearly not perfect. By the way there are 30 more holes like this on the part that I need to measure as well.

Any ideas on how to pick these?

PC-DMIS 3.5 MR1
PH10M
TP20
Sharpe 32 controller

Thanks

[craiger_ny]

Measure it as a cylinder.

If you insist on doing it as a circle for some reason rotate your alignment to the basic dimensions that define that circle's location then you will be "normal" to it's nominal location anyway. You may need to tweek it from there.

[#2#]

If I don't have enough information to create an auto-cylinder...I measure a 'learned' cylinder and then create an auto-cylinder using the learned cylinder's vector and location info. Then, I execute the auto-cylinder and then modify the nominals of the auto-cylinder to match the measured values.

If you know the angle of the hole, you can offset your alignment by the angle and then measure as a circle.

[craiger_ny]

If the drawing defines the position orientation (assuming you are working from a dwg and not cad) then you can do the math on that to figure the vectors, it's all cosigns. That is what I do sometimes. But you can align to it's nominal location, then measure it and give it the appropriate nominal vectors. Then delete your alignment and when it asks to update say yes and it will adjust the nominal vectors. I do that a lot, it is quicker than doing all of the cosigns.

[Rocktoy]

Thank you Goodluck. The measured feature worked. Kind of a pain though the darn thing kept picking the intersecting holes but I got enough hits to make a cylinder and the graphics look good so I'm off and running again. Thanks again

Thanks for the input craiger. I have used that meathod before. This part is cad only no drawing.

[JamesMannes]

CAD?

Use AUTO-CYLINDER. No sample hits. adjust depth and ending. Done.