I'm using Custom Probe Builder Utility in PC-DMIS 2020 R2 SP1 to define a new probe. In principle, it's working as it's supposed to. The trouble starts when I try to calibrate the new probe in a bunch of different tip orientations. It's working fine for the first one for which I do a manual hit on the calibration sphere, but for the next orientation which gets run automatically, there seems to be an offset between the probetip's real location and the one assumed by PC-DMIS. I already confirmed in the probebuilder.dat file that the coordinates and the diameter of the hotspot row do in fact reflect the probe sphere's correct location relative to the M3 interface. This is the file's content:
ITEM:Zeiss_626103-0354-050 M3 begintip color 128 128 128 ribcount 20 cylinder 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -3.000 5.000 cone 0 0 -3.000 5.000 0 0 -9.000 2.000 cylinder 0.000 0.000 -9.000 0.000 0.000 -48.500 1.500 color 255 0 0 sphere 0 0 -48.500 3.000 hotspot 0 0 -48.500 0 0 1 3.000 3.000 ball endtip
(Note that the nominal length of Zeiss's styli are defined to range from the M3 interface to the far side of the probe sphere's surface, not to its center, which is how those 48.5 mm come about.)
Naturally, I went ahead and tested with different lengths instead of 48.5 mm though----and this is what puzzles me most: It doesn't matter what I input in Custom Probe Builder Utility and what will be in the probebuilder.dat file instead of those 48.5 mm. The apparent offset between real and assumed probe tip center stays unchanged!
Do you have any idea what I might be doing wrong?
I should maybe mention that I started out with a program I had already written in which I updated the LOADPROBE command to include the new probe. The new probe sphere has a different diameter from the old one's though (3mm vs. 5mm), so I don't think there is any confusion between the two. Just wanted to mention it nonetheless for completeness's sake.
Thank you very much and cheers,
Daniel