Do I need to physically perform an alignment before programming the rest of the moves? I assume not but I cant figure out how to get around this.
What I've done is programmed all of the features. First a cylinder and plane (for alignment) in manual mode, and the rest of the features dcc mode. When I hit execute I first manually measure the cylinder and plane, then dcc takes over and tries hitting off in space. It seems like its using the pre-programmed coordinates for hits rather than adjusting the dcc hits based on the alignment.
You need two alignments. A manual alignment and DCC alignment. The simplest way to do that is create the manual alignment and just use the same exact alignment for DCC. Then you can program your features.
Gotta tell the machine where part is & how it is oriented. Using some alignments from somewhere is crap waiting to happen. Manual alignment: 6 hits on cylinder for level & origin Z&X. Face plane for Y origin. Position the part so one spline is as vertical as possible. 1st point on left top spline 2nd on the next right one to construct mid point. Rotate cylinder to mid point to Z axis. Repeat in DCC.
Program in "manual mode" (CTL+ Ff4 key),
virtually, by clicking your initial align features
on the cad.
create an alignment, and align to those virtually created features. level, rotate, translate as
bfire85 mentioned.
then run that routine. and physically take the manual hits
from that point forward your CAD will match the physical location of the part on the machine.
If you probe the part manually, you might be able to get away with doing a CAD=Part align (save a backup copy of your routine first).
--I've avoided that button like the plague as it never worked right for me. Maybe it works better now.
I reenabled manual to take the hits on the 27 spline major and minor. Since the splines aren't timed with each other they will be in different orientations each part.