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Anyone use Discus and PC-DMIS?

drewk1
Just trying Discus http://www.discussoftware.com/ to see if it will speed up our FAI process.

Just wondering if anyone is using it in anger and has any tips etc.

One thing I would like to know is how to generate pcdmis reports in .txt format.

I'm sure I know but am having a blonde moment and all is blank.
  • Anyone use Discus and PC-DMIS?

    nope ..................... and good luck !
  • I think several people have used Adobe Acrobat and are quite pleased with the results.

    Do a search for bubble or balloon.
  • We use Discus to "balloon" the CAD screenshots or drawings and to prepare the 9102 spreadsheets.
    We do not use it in conjunction with PC-DMIS to populate any of the Discus documents.
    To us it is not worth the extra effort to write the CMM program to work with that. We have other methods that work well for us.
  • I recently created bubbles using Adobe and the time savings is huge. I also like that I can zoom in as much as I want and not lose clarity. I created 4 groups of 50 bubbles each to equal 200. This way it is not so cluttered when you pull up the palette. I have never had a print that required more than 200. Each bubble is made individually so it took a while to make them. You must have a full version to use them though. If anyone wants them I will share. It is 5 files and equals 600k; 4 files each containing 50 bubbles and a word doc to show you where to place them in Adobe with two examples depending on your version of windows. You can't network the bubbles but you can insert them into other computers quite easily.
  • One thing I would like to know is how to generate pcdmis reports in .txt format.
    It's a pretty clunky process when performed manually. First generate a rtf file with the report in text only mode and no header / footer. Then open the rtf file in word or wordpad and save as plain text.

    I've written a script so that these steps happen with the click of a toolbar button.
  • To us it is not worth the extra effort to write the CMM program to work with that. We have other methods that work well for us.
    I've found that the time spent mapping the characteristics in the program is way less than I anticipated. I fought it in the beginning, but lost the battle. It saves the inspectors an enormous amount of time. They absolutely love it.

    I would be very interested in hearing more about the other methods you use.


  • I use legacy dimensions. They take up less space and I think it's easier to read.
    I insert report comments before each dimension that note the FAI balloon number.
    I don't bother to use special names for the dimensions or features (other than to help me ID them), and I don't usually try to keep the numbers in order.
    CMM items are circular balloons and manual inspection items are hex balloons.

    First step to creating a CMM program is to create the ballooned FAI document.
    Then I enter the report comments into the program as each dimension is created

    In the above examples item 1 is the diameter of cylinder C, item 1.1 is the TP of that cylinder, item 16 is the diameter of a bunch of pilot holes and item 38 is a note in the P/L than defines the tolerance for the location of the pilots.

    (I'm glad I put up this post. I just found an error in the program; the tolerance on cyl C diameter.)
  • It's a pretty clunky process when performed manually. First generate a rtf file with the report in text only mode and no header / footer. Then open the rtf file in word or wordpad and save as plain text.

    You could skip the RTF step in the process by adding a Windows 'printer' on the port "FILE:" with the printer type "Generic / Text Only" and printing directly to that 'printer' from PC-DMIS.


  • I insert report comments before each dimension that note the FAI balloon number.
    I don't bother to use special names for the dimensions or features (other than to help me ID them), and I don't usually try to keep the numbers in order.
    CMM items are circular balloons and manual inspection items are hex balloons.

    First step to creating a CMM program is to create the ballooned FAI document.
    Then I enter the report comments into the program as each dimension is created

    In the above examples item 1 is the diameter of cylinder C, item 1.1 is the TP of that cylinder, item 16 is the diameter of a bunch of pilot holes and item 38 is a note in the P/L than defines the tolerance for the location of the pilots.

    (I'm glad I put up this post. I just found an error in the program; the tolerance on cyl C diameter.)

    You are already doing everything that is required to facilitate automated results import into discus using their cmm results module. All you would have to do is change the report comments to the format that DISCUS needs (documented in the help file).

    I really like your idea of using a different shaped ballot for manual checks! That's a fantastic idea.

    Ballooning the screen shots of the MBD tolerances is a pretty cool idea as well. They have a 3D module for this - but I've no idea how well it works, or how many CAD packages are supported.

    And I'm glad I could help out with the tolerancing issue Wink
  • You could skip the RTF step in the process by adding a Windows 'printer' on the port "FILE:" with the printer type "Generic / Text Only" and printing directly to that 'printer' from PC-DMIS.

    Great tip - thanks!
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