Part alignment

[Anonymous]

This is probably a question for @Richard.stubley but how do you get tool orientation to work with part alignment? The option is there to select it when picking points but I can't seem to get it to work, either on it's own or in multiple "inspections" under one part alignment.

[Richard.stubley]

Hi @Anonymous,

Ive just tried in Fusion and can apply tool orientations to the Inspect surface toolpaths inside or out of the part alignment node. 

Could you send a screenshot of what you are seeing please.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Richard.stubley,

Everything looks like it's working until I post it, then the first probing orientation seems to post fine but the second gets 5 lines in and then fails and tells me to refer to a log. This is with the Haas inspection post.

Just to confirm, multiple orientations within the same alignment should actually work and I'm on the right track? 

I machine a lot of 3D printed titanium parts that have odd geometry, part alignment has been a life saver so far.

I had another weird thing the other day where I was probing in Y which was giving a 0 delta, but I was getting a Z delta for some reason?

[Anonymous]

Was just playing with the results a bit more, it looks like the XYZ given in the results is based on the model orientation and not the work coordinate system for the operation? These 5 points are being probed in Z but all have the same nominal Y value. This would explain my problem from the other day with the Z delta but no Y.

[Anonymous]

I also tried to post the probing ops with tool orientation by itself and I get an error file and for some reason a screen shot from Fusion?

[Richard.stubley]

Hi @Anonymous 

I've just tried a simple example and got it to work.

Can you attach that project and the post, if you would rather email its (My first name "dot" last name "AT" Autodesk "dot" com)

Im thinking this may be a post setting we will find out. If you could also take a photo of your post settings as unless they are hardcoded I wont see them when you send it over.

Yes you have guessed it, we display the results relative to CAD co-ordinates. we were having talks on Friday about changing this to the setup co-ordinates, I think your feedback has confirmed what we were talking about. That setup co-ordinates are more useful and the expected direction. 

[SithechCustoms]

@Richard.stubley  recently picked up a UMC500SS and am trying to work my way through the part alignment video you made, thank you for the great beginning.  I haven't been able to get the inspection results to overlay my part like I would expect, reading through the forum has only left me with more questions.

I am simply trying to rotate a part about C axis based off some counterbores, but I need to keep the WCS to the center bore of the part, which is being held by a MiteeBite ID expansion clamp.  I am able to to post out the inspection routine to probe 5 counterbores (think bolt hole pattern), save the results to a dprnt file on the Haas NGC, and import the inspection results.

The problem is that the inspection point overlay on the model doesn't really make any kind of sense and it's difficult to tell if what I'm doing is correct or way off base. To further exacerbate the situation, my inspection points are on a piece of modeled REST material, with the part model ending up having geometry where the original 5 counterbores are machined away except for at the bottom of the part and are not accessible to the probe after they've been machined.

I uploaded my Fusion f3z file to take a look at if you're interested.  I know not everybody has mfg extensions so the topic interest may be limited, but it would be awesome to see some more youTube tutorials on different scenarios.  Thank you for your time and that first video!

[Richard.stubley]

Hi @SithechCustoms,

Thank you for the kind words about the videos already existing. I am currently doing exactly what you suggest. I am trying to get a series of real world examples together around part alignment. You have definitely given me an idea for another example. 

I've taken a look at your example and spotted 2 things that I think were causing the issue. I made a video on this too as it would be a lot to type.

Surface offset:
You have a 1.0in surface offset applied to the inspection points, I don't think this is correct four your case. Surface offset is used when you know the part you are inspecting is different than the part on the machine. This is brilliant where you have painted parts, or you have intentionally left stock on a feature.
In you case I do believe that this should be set to 0 as the holes you are machining look to be made at the correct size.

Body to project to: The issue we have with part alignment is we know the part is in the wrong place, if it was in the right place then we wouldn't be doing this. So how do we trust the inspection data when we know its in effect incorrect. Well our amazing team doe something called projection, as far as I know this is some form of wizardry that looks at the inspection point given by the machine and then manages to work out where on the CAD that was actually taken. 
Now for this to work we of course need to know the cad model that the probe touched, we do our best guess and include the model you select in the setup, however in your case the "stock" model is actually the CAD model we want to project onto. Not the model defined in the setup as this will be the finished part. 

By changing the surface offset to 0 and selecting the stock body to project to we have a really good alignment calculated.

Hopefully this sorts out the issue you were seeing, if not let me know.

[SithechCustoms]

Thank you for the very quick response! I think I understand what you are
saying. When I originally setup to probe the counterbores, I was trying to
do it off the finished part model, which of course doesn't have the
counterbores in full feature at the top of the part like the stock does. I
must have messed with that offset, not understanding what it actually was,
in an attempt to get the probe to probe at the top of the part and clear
the small boss at the top instead of the bottom...and never changed it back
to zero. A friend also recommended only probing 3 points inside of each
counterbore.

For the selected body to project onto, you are saying to keep it on the
stock model instead of the finished part. I think I was worried that the
correction in orientation to the probed stock part, would in effect change
the original WCS. In this case the WCS has to be the center of the bore on
which the miteebite ID clamp is clamped on to maintain balance on the hub,
and NOT based off the counterbore pattern.

All in all I think I get it now, but whole inspect/part alignment feature
in Fusion IMO, needs to have way more visual cues/confirmation of what's
going to happen when you hit cycle start. I realize of course this
difficult at best, and that there are a few visual cues already in the
software feature. Just something to think about I guess. I'm also a
little confused on how to limit axis rotation or translation past the
3-axis setting. 4th axis gets a little less clear and 5thaxis is even
worse. For example if all I want to do is rotate my part about C axis in
order to get aligned, am I supposed to select 3-axis and only allow X/Y
translation, or 4th axis and allow rotation about Z axis, or do I pick 5
axis and hope that it doesn't also try to align the vertical alignment of
the counterbores as well as rotate about C axis?

Hopefully some of the above will help out with the video content. Thanks
again for your help on this, I'm eager to get back to the shop and try the
adjustments.

[SithechCustoms]

I read my email from your response and didn’t see the video before I replied as above. I have to mucho mahalos, many thank you’s!  Plenty of visual cues when Inhave the correct settings.  In my best British accent, “Brilliant, cheers!”

[Richard.stubley]

Hi @SithechCustoms,

No problem, part alignment can be a tricky subject. So I thought a video was going to be easier than typing it all out.

This is the main reason why we are going to create specific tutorials around different industry examples. 

[SithechCustoms]

Just thought you may like to see the part, I only had one to do.  Your help and this forum were a great exercise on a real world example, and I am very stoked to you guys as a resource!  Thank you again for all your help.

Michael

Sithech Customs, LLC

[Richard.stubley]

Oh wow that looks amazing!!

Thank you, its great to see what people are making using the software.