CMM Programming?

[Cargeke]

Is it possible to program a CMM through NX? My boss insists there's a way to do it, but he doesn't know how. I showed him UGS's program for programming CMM, but he doesn't want to buy the software. I'm running NX4.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[JohnRBaker]

I sorry, but why would we help YOU find an alternative way to program a CMM simply because YOUR boss refuses to pay for the software that we have already developed that does exactly that? How do you think it is that we can afford to pay our R&D groups to create our software products in the first place?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Cargeke]

I understand completely. To be honest, your answer is exactly what I'm looking for, something to back me up when I tell him we need the software.

 

[jelmerra]

It is possible to program a cmm without the license. With custom operations you can program such an operation. I made a postprocessor for such a setup a while ago. I have also made postprocessors with ude based measurement cycles combined with is&v on milling machines. Downside of custom programmed products is that maintenance is most of the time required for each new nx release.

jelmerra

http://www.rouwe-analysis.info

 

[hudson888]

As a lateral question how old is the CMM machine?

The reason being that many systems up to 10 years old have had the ability to accept IGES or other translated data for on board programming.

Once upon a time many years ago we placed points on the model and ran a drill cycle over them. Then we output the code for an NC program as text. Then we wrote a simple string manipulation program that changed the text to the format expected for the CMM machine. Then we loaded it onto an 8" floppy disk and said "Open the Pod bay Doors HAL".

Cheers

Hudson

 

[Cargeke]

Thanks guys. Hudson, I know the machine can handle IGES files. I've had to construct surfaces through point data from the CMM and the data was IGES format. Which module do you need to run a drill cycle? (I'm willing to bet I don't have it anyways.)

 

[jelmerra]

The most elementary way of programming a cmm is with a mill_control and an ude. Not to forget a proper postprocessor and some creativity and lots of time.

I think drilling is in cam_base.