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Offline Program with an Online Seat

I know this isn't news to many currently using the forum, but for those interested in offline programming when all they have is an online seat (dongle's married to a CMM), there was in the past a workaround to programming offline, that may still work for you.

Download and install PCDmis version 3.5 or earlier on a computer you want to offline program from. Locate the file interfac.dll in the install folder and rename it to anything other than interfac.dll. Plug your dongle into the USB port, and you're good to go. You may not be programming in the latest version, but any newer version will open the older versions saves, and furthermore, with a program like UltraVNC, you can remote access the computer you've set up and program from anywhere.

The only issue is that you can't run your CMM while you have the dongle in another computer.
Parents
  • When our management learned of this "Background Editor," they took this up as the torch for why we did not need an offline seat. "We can program while we run production!"

    Try programming a part while another is running. That is, if you do not have any objections to accepting bad parts or crashing expensive equipment. If a program ends with you still in the background editor, it screws up the printing of the report royally. On top of that, I have had it put in autofeatures, movepoints, etc, into the currently running program, not the background program, and vice-versa. After wiping a TP200 and accepting bad parts twice because of this problem, we no longer have more than one program open at a time.
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  • When our management learned of this "Background Editor," they took this up as the torch for why we did not need an offline seat. "We can program while we run production!"

    Try programming a part while another is running. That is, if you do not have any objections to accepting bad parts or crashing expensive equipment. If a program ends with you still in the background editor, it screws up the printing of the report royally. On top of that, I have had it put in autofeatures, movepoints, etc, into the currently running program, not the background program, and vice-versa. After wiping a TP200 and accepting bad parts twice because of this problem, we no longer have more than one program open at a time.
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