PC-DMIS - Transform | PC-DMIS Tech Tips - CMMXYZ

This Tech Tip from CMMXYZ shows you the Transform feature in PC-DMIS. Transform allows you to modify the relationship between the coordinate system and the CAD model
Hello and welcome to another edition of Tech Tips from cmmxyz.com. Today we're going to discuss the basics of using Transform. Transform is a feature in PC-DMIS to allow you to modify the relationship between the coordinate system and the CAD model. The example we have on the screen, the coordinate system is at the corner of the part. You may have a print or a zero of the print is somewhere else, maybe it's the circle center for example. We're gonna go through some of the steps to change the coordinate system to better reflect either the way you have the part mounted on the machine or the way your coordinate system is set up on your part print.
To find the Transform function, we go to the Operation Menu, Graphics Display Window, and then click on Transform. In the Transform dialogue, we have two main sections we focus on, there's the translate section and there's the rotate section. The translate section allows us to move the coordinate system and the part relationship. If I wanted to manually type in an X shift of 50-millimeters, just type in the value of 50 in the X and hit the Apply button. On the screen, you can see, the part moved 50 mills, not the origin. Well, take a look at the top name of the dialogue, it's called CAD transform. What this means is we are transforming the CAD's relationship to the coordinate system. So, in this example, if I went the wrong way I can go back and make it negative. I do negative 50, hit Apply, we're right back to where we started. So if I wanted to go and move the coordinate system 50, it's really the CAD model I'm moving minus 50. Hit Apply and the part has been moved to that coordinate system there.
Now, an alternative way is to use actual features in the part. Take a look at the sphere on the part. Maybe we want to use that for our y-axis origin. If I want to select a feature component, click on the Select button. And before just clicking on CAD, you can choose which coordinates you want to relate to that feature. In this case, I'm only interested in the y-axis so I will uncheck the X, uncheck the Z, and then click on the sphere. You see a little drawing on the screen showing you how the part is going to move and it's only in the one axis. Hitting okay to the next screen shows you how much the offset is gonna move to make that happen and you always have to click the apply button to make the change happen.
Now, maybe I need to rotate my coordinate system, so we're going to look in the rotate area. Right now X is moving along the length of the part. Maybe I need X to move along the opposite 90-degree direction. To do that, we can also use select, so I'll click on select and when I'm moving the axis I need to click on two points. Point one is the starting point, and it can be anywhere in the part, but the second point is going to finish the direction from point 1 To point 2 and that will be used for the x-axis rotate. So when I hit okay you'll see it's populated with minus 90, that's the calculation from my collective points. Hit apply, and the model has rotated that 90 degrees.
Now, if you inadvertently rotated the wrong direction, which can happen sometimes, the easiest fix is just to rotate 180 degrees to make the effects. Hit apply, and we have now rotated the other direction, and you see X is pointing the other way. If I needed to move back to my corner I can go back to select, highlight all my X, Y, and Z, click on the corner, hit okay, and one last apply, and my origin is back to where it is even though my axes have rotated. When I rotate back one more time, if I know the direction I want to rotate, you can type it in. I believe in this case it's minus 90. Hit apply, and now I'm rotated back to where we began. One key to remember, always hit apply after each option for it to remember. So, those are the basics of using CAD transform in PC-DMIS. My name is Stuart Burke, thank you for watching.
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