I have used the clearance cube function with most of the programs I have written when I download a CAD file. Occasionally they don't work. The cube is activated, it is displayed on the graphic window and the probe paths seem to avoid it when run in offline mode, When I run the program online the probe tries to take the shortest distance through the part. Any ideas? I have tried re-writing the program and got the same result. I cant post my code here because our security protocols do not allow the CMM to be connected to our network because of the administrator privilege required to run PCDMIS.
I have tried a few other things to get this working. I wrote a new program, loaded CAD, turned on clearance cube and did the manual and auto alignments and the clearance cube moves worked properly. I copied and pasted some points from another program where clearance cube was not functioning and the points I pasted in did not obey the clearance cube motion but the original points did. I then wrote another program, loaded CAD, did not activate clearance cube, did my alignments and of course there was no clearance cube logic to the moves. I turned clearance cube on and it still did not function. My conclusion is that something is set differently within the point depending on whether or not clearance cube is turned on when the point is created. If so, the help function should specifically address this issue because I can find no way to retro-actively activate clearance cube and I have wasted a lot of time writing my program.
So to summarize, if you want to use the clearance cube, turn it on immediately after loading your CAD model. If you forget, erase any auto-points that you have picked and start again. The clearance cube function is not retro-active. Please correct me if I am wrong.
If you open up Clearance Cube definition and click on the Status tab, there's a table that lists all the features. You can turn Clearance cube on or off or individual features there. You can also tell the CMM which direction to clear i.e +X, -X, +Y,-Y, +Z,-Z or along the tip vector. You can also tell it to Clear before or after the feature or both.
I've had Clearance cube turned off for individual features without knowing for sure how it happened.
Like I said, might solve the problem or might not. I think the table does not exist in the 2023 version of PC DMIS but I'm not using that version.
What version of 2023 are you using? Are you using any MOVESETS? If so, give 2023.2 the latest version a try. There was an issue with MOVESETS in these versions that have been fixed.
As you've worked out, the CC setting for the feature is set when it's created so if the CC isn't turned on it won't be activated for a particular feature.
In older versions - you have to go on the status tab in the Clearance cube settings to activate/deactivate CC moves for a particular feature.
In later versions, this has been moved to the Status window (View > Other Windows > Status) - when you select (move cursor to) a feature in the edit window, the CC settings for that feature will be displayed in the Status Window.
Thanks NinjaBadger. So in my 2023.1 release, I can check the CC status for a feature but I cannot retroactively activate it if I created the feature without CC active? If so, that does seem like a software change that is not so good.
Thanks NinjaBadger. So in my 2023.1 release, I can check the CC status for a feature but I cannot retroactively activate it if I created the feature without CC active? If so, that does seem like a software change that is not so good.
Glenn
You can retroactively activate it, but only on a feature by feature basis.
