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How Did You Get Into CMM Programming?

ALousyUser
Just as the title says - how'd you first make your stake as a CMM programmer?

For me it was when a recruiter on LinkedIn randomly reached out to me asking if I was interested in being a Metrologist for an international company while I was working as a Quality Inspector at a job shop in 2020, just before the pandemic. I knew nothing about Metrology/CMM programming until I blew the technical portion of the interview process and got hired anyway haha! Ended up being mentored by a professional for 2 years before moving onto a specialized CMM programming gig at another company in 2022.

I figured - as it seems like a lot of us got on-the-job training for CMM programming, you guys/gals must have some interesting stories to share about how you got to where you are now, as CMM programmers.
  • The year was 1986 and the CMM was a manual Cordax 1808 running a "slower than molasses on cold winter day" IBM computer. I watched the code as we measured features and along with the code cheat sheet learned what it was doing. I've been beeping my life away ever since.
  • 1997 on an old Numerex Manual machine running Virtual DMIS. Then in 2008, the company went out a bought a Xcel running PC-DMIS 4.3, been programming ever since, along with Quality Engineer role, along with PC-DMIS training and programming as a side job.
  • I was a quality tech and floor inspector. The programmer I shared the lab with was a guy who had been running CMMs and such since probably the 70's and he was showing me how to setup and run his programs. It was a way to help him out when he had to do work with the roamer arm we had. 6 months after I started intermittently working with him on the CMM, he got diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and took a leave of absence. The company knew I knew how to run his program library and sent me to CMM 101 at Hexagon. That was over 10 years ago. Between what he left me and what I picked up from Hexagon training and here, I pretty much taught myself what I could.
  • I was a mechanic working at car dealership 1984. Hot hard work i was 25 and decided that i couldnt /didn't want to do this when i was 50. So i got a job in a wood pattern shop as an apprentice making wood models but found out that the industry was going out of busines, CNC machine's were taking over. I asked to go into the cad room and make cutter path for the cnc's. General manager liked me so he said yes, i had never even seen a computer before. But after 4 months i found out that it was a terrible job just sitting starring at the screen all day. So i asked to go to inspection working on the CMM and they said ok.
    At least you moved around a bit on the CMM.
    So I got lucky i suppose Since then I have been Quality manager at couple places but never left the CMM for long.
  • I was working on the production floor. About a year after I started they had a second shift programmer position posted, so I applied. I operated the CMM a few times for some projects, but did not know how to program. It took them about 4 months to finally get me in there as their programmer put his 2 weeks in. So they threw me into the fire with him for 2 weeks and then I was by myself for about a month until they hired a QE that had programming experience. I worked with him for about a year until he moved onto a different role within the company. At that point, I was proficient in programming to handle it by myself. That was 11 years ago. I do not program all the time anymore as my role has evolved into mainly a QE role.
  • In 2006 I was working in a shop as an inspector while going to school at night to get a degree in computer engineering. The Quality manager decided the company needed a CMM and offered me the job as programmer. He knew I was a few months away from completing my degree, so it was a way to keep me there - at least a little longer. It worked. I finished my degree but stayed with that company another 9 years doing CMM programming and QE work.
  • I started as a Quality Inspector in a foundry in 1973 while attending the local tech school studying Machine Shop/Tool & Die Technology, later completing that program and earning the degree. I was later asked to join the Layout Dept doing surface plate inspections, which I picked up quickly. After about five years of this, the company purchased their first DCC CMM in 1990, a B&S Excel 7-10-7 with AVAIL software, later upgraded to MM4. They already had a manual Validator with MM3 that I had been learning to program. Been programming CMMs pretty much since then, several languages, now PC-DMIS for several years.
  • I worked my way up from a machine operator, material handler, floor QC inspector, QM assistant (still a QC inspector), and then a PPAP coordinator in the span of 8 years. One day I was asked if I wanted to try the CMM out since our programmer had just put her two weeks in. I said sure, and was told to learn as much as I could in 10 working days. This was 2007 on a PFX 454 using V2.063. Many hours lost on that version to software crashes. Definitely, learned by the errors I made.
  • I was the 4th person working in a 3 person calibration lab. I was "leading" the lab when the company was looking for ways to save money and was re arranging people and their positions. Since I had a college degree, management decided to purchase the company's first CMM in 2015 and have me program it. 8 CMMs, 5 Equators, and 1 Scanning Faro Arm later, all I do is program, prove out, troubleshoot, and 3D print fixtures. First ever software to use was PcDmis.
  • After completing my apprenticeship as a machining mechanic in August 2019, my company was looking for a metrologist because a colleague retired at the end of the year. During my apprenticeship, I spent 2 weeks in quality assurance in our production facility and must have made a good impression.
    Then I had the PC-DMIS basic course and taught myself the rest so far.​
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