manual retract for analog probing

What controller do you have? Many (if not most) don't support ManRetract.

In my case, I have a Global FX using a DEA FBII controller. I can get ManRetract to work IF I turn it on in the Terminal editor every day at power up (a PITA and something I DON'T want to teach co-workers to do). Worse still, with my machine, especially in the Z axis, If I don't use the joystick controller to IMMEDIATELY back off the part, it won't back off AT ALL. If I leave the probe in contact with the part for more than a half second, I have to physically remove the TP20 module to get it to move away from the part or move the axis arm up by hand which generates an error that requires turning the CMM off and back on. I only learned of the Terminal Window method a couple of years ago and we've all developed a second nature method with the joystick to back off on manual hits. Having the ManRetract on now is more of a nuisance to us.

However... for those controllers on which it does work (without having to go through the terminal window to turn it on), you can use the ManRetract command in your program to change it to whatever you wish. But you shouldn't be having argument errors. Try placing the command n the first few lines of our program and see if it works there. Typically PCDMIS should make the conversion from metric to inch at run time anyway. If you are still getting argument errors that way, I'd revert back to an earlier version of PCDMIS or upgrade to 2017 and see if it's a problem there as well.

What controller do you have? Many (if not most) don't support ManRetract.

In my case, I have a Global FX using a DEA FBII controller. I can get ManRetract to work IF I turn it on in the Terminal editor every day at power up (a PITA and something I DON'T want to teach co-workers to do). Worse still, with my machine, especially in the Z axis, If I don't use the joystick controller to IMMEDIATELY back off the part, it won't back off AT ALL. If I leave the probe in contact with the part for more than a half second, I have to physically remove the TP20 module to get it to move away from the part or move the axis arm up by hand which generates an error that requires turning the CMM off and back on. I only learned of the Terminal Window method a couple of years ago and we've all developed a second nature method with the joystick to back off on manual hits. Having the ManRetract on now is more of a nuisance to us.

However... for those controllers on which it does work (without having to go through the terminal window to turn it on), you can use the ManRetract command in your program to change it to whatever you wish. But you shouldn't be having argument errors. Try placing the command n the first few lines of our program and see if it works there. Typically PCDMIS should make the conversion from metric to inch at run time anyway. If you are still getting argument errors that way, I'd revert back to an earlier version of PCDMIS or upgrade to 2017 and see if it's a problem there as well.