From Geopak to PCDmis

My company is currently running a retro-fit Mitutoyo that still has Geopak on it. At any moment the Geopak could die. I have been given the task of training all the inspectors how to use PCDmis. Problem is I am new to it myself, and I have never operated the CMM using the Geopak software. I have used alot of information on site to get through most situations. After training a couple of inspectors, they would like to find a way to run it somewhat like the Geopak runs. Ex. Position the probe at an approximate center of a hole at the depth you want to check it at, hit the circle key, tell it how many hits, etc..Basically, do an Auto circle without making a full blown program with alignments an such. We mostly just do round stuff that we can't check any other way. Can PCDmis do this? Or any other suggestions?

Thanks for any input on this subject,
Ron

My company is currently running a retro-fit Mitutoyo that still has Geopak on it. At any moment the Geopak could die. I have been given the task of training all the inspectors how to use PCDmis. Problem is I am new to it myself, and I have never operated the CMM using the Geopak software. I have used alot of information on site to get through most situations. After training a couple of inspectors, they would like to find a way to run it somewhat like the Geopak runs. Ex. Position the probe at an approximate center of a hole at the depth you want to check it at, hit the circle key, tell it how many hits, etc..Basically, do an Auto circle without making a full blown program with alignments an such. We mostly just do round stuff that we can't check any other way. Can PCDmis do this? Or any other suggestions?

Thanks for any input on this subject,
Ron

Ex. Position the probe at an approximate center of a hole at the depth you want to check it at, hit the circle key, tell it how many hits, etc..Basically, do an Auto circle without making a full blown program with alignments an such. We mostly just do round stuff that we can't check any other way. Can PCDmis do this? Or any other suggestions?

Thanks for any input on this subject,
Ron

Hi Ron, welcome to the forum.

I have a question - and don't take this the wrong way -

Why do you use a CMM if "alignments and such" aren't required? That's why
the CMM is used; it's a tool that can correctly align a part (per the specs.)
and inspect the features. There are other ways to check "just round stuff"
that will be easier (and maybe faster) than the CMM.

Ahhhh, Geopak. Those were the days. PL CR CS PN KI LN PP and all that good jibe.

RB, to do what you want, you would at least need to build a generic program that could be used over and over again. Many will tell you your methodology isn't good, but it sounds like you're using the CMM as bore gauge only in these cases. Build a program that starts with a readpoint, which will give you your center and depth. I think you need to assign variables to obtain the X Y and Z values. You can setup a comment to input the diameter. Now create an auto-circle with the X Y Z variables and diameter input. Make sure your autocircle has sample hits turned off and no depth set. Before Dimensioning the value, you may need a couple more input comments to collect the tolerance if you care to. You should be able to rerun that program anytime you need a diameter reading quickly. You can even loop it with a comment at the end of the loop (inside the loop) to pause the machine while you move to a new part.

Does anyone know of any conversion software that will convert old 3D Geopak(v5.41 running on windows 95) to PC-DMIS(1st choice) or Calypso(2nd option)??