How Did You Get Into CMM Programming?

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.

From your first CMM in 2015 to 14 measuring machines in 2023! Your company really went all in on CMMs.

How do you program those all those Equators? Do you have a CMM running Modus to create .CAL files?​ Or do you establish master parts some other way?

I have just started to use 3D printed fixtures for some tricky to hold parts. Designing and making them is pretty fun. It sure can be a gamechanger.

​What is a rotary? I'm not familiar with that term.



I haven't heard of Johansson brand CMMs. Is that the same company that made gage blocks a thing?

I like how your boss went from an old manual machine right to a machine with an SP600. What a step up! You must have really convinced them that a CMM was a good investment.

I use "rotary" to say rotary table. The exact name of lever comparator is "lever-type dial test indicators". The part is centered on the rotary table, and you can measure displacements on the indicator, then calculate some dimensions with least squares on Excel.

Yes, Johansson is the same company than gages blocks (Carl Edvard Johansson). There were some good inovations there, like absolute scales. Hexagon bought this company, and close it...
A very good member of this forum ( AndersI ) worked there. He is retired, now, but fixed a lot of threads here !

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We establish master parts. We are using dimension compare which is probably the worst way to check parts because it ignores form error.

I got a 2 year votech pedigree in CNC programming. Worked as CNC machinist in implantable medical at few places for 10years. Did all my own inspection and cnc set ups and not just an " operator ". Started a new machinist job after I moved across the state and applied for the opening in quality after I had been there about 10 days. I made a few enemies because the new guy go the cush job everyone else wanted. No one knew my background of course. We shared the prgramming job over the 3 quality people. Within a couple on months after my training and some on the job learning there was a mutiny and the other 2 wanted me gone because I was changing the existing programs. Well..... I was just fixing so the parts would actually check correctly and I kept a " before and After " printouts with detailed notes on what was wrong and how I fixed it. When they brought this up in a meeting I asked them to go through and point out what changes they were unhappy with and the boss just waited patiently for them to explain........ Crickets... So soon after that I all my other duties were removed and I took over programming all the jobs 100%. I did this for 12 years. I only " consult " and help out now at the same company but I am pretty much still involved all the time.

Yep. a good book explaining in detail not a tiny binder that only has as much as a week of training can do. I told Hexagon instructor how abut 2 weeks at least per level. He said no way because 1) Companies don't want to pay for 2 weeks they only want to pay absolute minimum. 2) Hexagon itself doesn't want to pay their apps engineers 2 weeks just for talking.

acgarcia, I like that Renishaw added that dimension compare option. It sure seems a lot simpler than using a CMM to make a .CAL file, but I can image it is limiting.

I do QC and couldn't measure GD&T on parts since we don't have a CMM. Told the boss. He said find a CMM on ebay for under 50k. Got a 2016 hexagon cmm for 26K but ended up spending another ~15k on software & calibration & fixturing. Now im learning from videos.

Worked at an aerospace titanium supplier as a quality inspector (one of many positions held there) and a forging was rejected due to pitting after some machining had been performed. It blew my mind seeing those beautiful machining marks and couldn't believe something existed that was strong enough to cut something as hard as titanium. Found out what a mill was after that. Applied at a local mom and pop machine shop as a delivery driver with intentions of being a mill man, first got placed in inspection to learn to measure and read prints... I stayed in inspection as I felt like you saw more action. We had a manual Numerex running QC5000, great little software! Moved on to a company with a CMM with motors on it and did that for a couple years. Started back in 2012.

The manual Numerex CMM was my first start in the CMM world in 1999. The CMM was placed in the corner inside the quality lab with a tarp over it. I asked what is that under the tarp? The QA manager stated that's a Manual CMM that no one here knows how to use. I said really! Then I asked can I give it a try after working hours to get it up and running and take home the instructions manual to learn how to use it. He said sure. Why not. And that's what I went out to do. I got that old CMM up and running enough to have it calibrated for production. After a year they wanted to upgrade that CMM to use QC5000. After a month of testing the QC5000 software they decided to purchase a different CMM instead. That was the start of the Measure Max CMM software and CadPath days for me. Well, he I am now posting this on a user forum that I didn't even know to exist back then.

I did machine tool repair and welding/ fabricating for many years. After 12 years at my current job I wanted a change and I asked to help the metrologist do gage calibration when I wasn't busy fixing machines. After a year I was asked to train on the CMM. The guy who trained me knew the very basics and after he left I was on my own. All the people who went to Hexagon classes never figured it out and I just learned what I could without classes. I had a few outside people who helped me immensely when I got into a jam. I had a strong desire to be good at programming and that helped me learn the job. I actually enjoy running/ programming the Demon. Easier on the body too.