Odd Question

If the length of the round slot is long enough (judgement call here) then I always switch it to a square slot, for a couple reasons.  One being that it takes less hits to measure a square slot than a round one (if you do it right, anyway, 6 hits is NOT enough for a round slot, 3 at each end, while a square slot, width measurement, is 6 hits).  Two, when working with pierce sheet metal, the actual radius at each end can be slightly boinked, so by measuring it as a square slot, you get a better length result over round slot since the square slot (width measurement) measure the flat sides first, then takes hits at the mid-line of the sides on the ends of the radii.

I work with castings and solid pieces of steel or aluminum, very few sheet metal items. Normally, I do 4-6 hits on each end and 2-4 along the flats. A part was checked and all the slots reported as .005" below nominal. I knew that the CMM result was correct because the machinist told me he had a wrong tool and confirmed it with hard gages. This new guy was going to write off the .005" deviation as "machine error" because he claimed PC Dmis cannot calculate round slots correctly. I could see maybe .0005"-.001", but .005" seems a bit excessive.

This guy is a younger programmer and is constantly criticizing older programs that our other programmer and myself wrote and have been using for years. At first, it was just we were not using the latest and greatest features. Now, he is telling us things like PC Dmis cannot calculate round slots or Keyin dimension can be used to insert text/comments in reports.

I'm trying to figure out if he is full of it or there is something I was unaware of. It's been about 10 years since I've been through and formal CMM training.

I would have to imagine they mean Tracefields as ArkansasBeeper had suggested. Key-in Dimensions only accept numerical inputs to my knowledge. But you can do things like set an assigned variable to be the measured value, and it will display the Variable's value when the Key-in Dimension pops up and not just "V1". It must also be numerical, or it will just display 0. Either that or they simply mean standard Input comments. I'd certainly like to see their answer if they can ever truly give you one.

My shop has PC Dmis 2018, which I believe was the 1st year they started using tracefields. I was trying to do something with tracefields a while ago and the things the Hexagon help site was telling me were not options I had available. Someone said 2020 was when tracefields really took off. I'm pushing my shop to upgrade as we speak.

We used them on 2016 to add items to the report header? 

lmao 

tracefields have been around as long as Datapage has been around, way back into prehistory (DOS).

He said DOS!

I still use DOS on a daily basis.....

we have WEDM that still use DOS

Ain't nothing wrong with DOS.

ok i'll bite, what do you you use it for? 

EDIT: OH for your wire machine? 

Nope, I have several DOS batch files on the main CMM PC (XP) for setting up new jobs, archiving old jobs, daily backups, etc.

c:\batch\deltree.exe /y e:\backups\1-mon
c:\batch\deltree.exe /y n:\validator\1-mon
mkdir e:\backups\1-mon\pcdmis
mkdir e:\backups\1-mon\datapage
mkdir e:\backups\1-mon\pcdmis-global
mkdir n:\validator\1-mon
mkdir e:\backups\1-mon\docs
xcopy c:\pcdmis\jobs e:\backups\1-mon\pcdmis\ /y /e
xcopy n:\datapage\part e:\backups\1-mon\datapage\ /y /e
xcopy n:\jobs e:\backups\1-mon\pcdmis-global\ /y /e
xcopy c:\pcdmis\jobs n:\validator\1-mon /y /e
xcopy c:\my-docs\excel\plot-files\9-plot-files\z-masters\*.xls e:\backups\1-mon\docs /y

sample of a daily backup batch file.  Notice all those lovely DOS commands!!!!!!

Deltree is one of my favorites, especially with the /y added to the command, completely deletes the entire target address without prompting for approval.

Where is a good place to find "Tracefields for Dummies"? The few times I tried working with them, all the videos and stuff I found online was on 2020 version. I tried to replicate what I saw and I was getting syntax errors. Please tell me you have a link to the holy grail of tracefields.

Where is a good place to find "Tracefields for Dummies"? The few times I tried working with them, all the videos and stuff I found online was on 2020 version. I tried to replicate what I saw and I was getting syntax errors. Please tell me you have a link to the holy grail of tracefields.

The help files stored in the PC-DMIS install directory, from the hexagon downloads https://downloads.ms.hexagonmi.com/docs in the Core_Manual if you don't have offline help files installed. Or I can help you out. How does the UI for Tracefield window look in 2018? I have 2019 installed.

https://youtu.be/zg3tRsOXq-w?si=j6oFytjX_oL117XM