Using 2023.1, Can't get the "Load Machine" when trying to insert a machine into the program. But once I go into offline mode, it becomes functional.
Is there a setting for this?
There was a change made a few versions ago. We currently only show the machine when offline. This is because there were cases where the machine model caused false, out of axis errors due to virtual machine volume not matching the physical machine volume. Management decided to have us temporarily disable the online machine model functionality whilst we work on implementing a true digital twin.
davehocum, yes, it should improve the offline experience, at least in terms on ensuring the offline environment matches the physical machine more closely. It's still early days as we need to wait for a different team to provide the digital twin. That team is looking at things from a Hexagon wide perspective as the digital twin will need to work across all Hexagon metrology and production software products, not just PC-DMIS.
Thank you, Neil. This will be a time saver for offline programming. Right now, I have to measure the CMM and the CMM surface plate. Then use that information to adjust the CMM.DRAW and the usermachine.dat files. When a newer version of PC-DMIS is installed, I have to back up the default CMM.DRAW and the usermachine.dat files and then replace the originals with the customized files.
davehocum place those files into their own repository and simlink them to the final destination... when you get a new version of PcD repeat the process of moving them into the final destination. You can get fancy and write a BAT script to handle all of this but eh it's not a difficult task anyway.
I used to put a lot of effort into matching up my offline environment with my production as the CMM was locked away in an automated cell that in order to access it you had to interrupt production so I reilied heavily on my offline seat. Hearing about improvements around this topic makes me excited and wish I had a side CMM gig just to continue to "play" with PcDmis.
Thank you for the suggestion. I am planning on creating a C# application to automate the usermachine.dat file after CMM.DRAW file is created. I can then add a validation check to make sure that the previous file from an older version is present in the current version. With the CMM.DRAW files sometimes being generic is the reason why I have to import the CMM.DRAW file into PC-DMIS and change each component origin and then use that data to adjust the usermachine.dat file.
Thank you for the symbolic links (symlinks) idea.
