## Aligning a Cylinder Gear for a CMM

The Align Gear dialog box allows you to edit relevant alignment parameters for cylinder gears on a CMM including the choice one of three routines to align the gear you are about to measure. These include:

- External Spur and Helical Gear

- Internal Spur Gear

- External Gear With Shaft

| Clicking the Align button or selecting the Measure | Alignment Creation menu option displays the Align Gear dialog box.

You can also use an existing PC-DMIS part program to create the alignment, or you can create a custom alignment.

Align Gear dialog box for a CMM

Align Type Area

External Spur and Helical Gear: This option creates a complete PC-DMIS part program to measure the alignment of the External Spur and Helical gear. The alignment consists of a plane to level the alignment, a circle for the origin of the alignment, and two points for the clocking
of the alignment. If you select the DCC option from the Execution Mode area, then the routine will also execute a DCC alignment on the gear.

Internal Spur Gear: This option creates a complete PC-DMIS part program to measure the alignment of an Internal Spur gear. The alignment consists of a plane to level the alignment, a circle for the origin of the alignment, and two points for the clocking of the alignment. If you select the DCC option from the Execution Mode area, then the routine will also execute a DCC alignment on the gear.

External Gear with Shaft: This option creates a complete PC-DMIS part program to measure the alignment of an External with Shaft gear. The alignment consists of a cylinder to level the alignment and set the center origin, a point to define the Z axis zero location, and two points for the clocking of the alignment. If you select the DCC option from the Execution Mode area, then the routine will also execute a DCC alignment on the gear.

Alignment Area

File name: This box displays a complete path and filename to which the Alignment information will be written after execution. You can specify a different alignment file than that used for the actual gear measurement. Click to select the Align file to use for the alignment. The pathway to this alignment file will appear in the Align File box.

Part Program Area

Either you can Create a new part program or Open an existing part program. In either case, specify the name of Part Program by typing the path and name for part program or clicking to select the Part Program file. The path to this probe file will appear in the Part Program box.

Probe Area

Probe File: This box displays a complete pathway to a probe file
you select for the gear alignment. You can specify a different probe file than that used for the actual gear measurement. Click to select the probe file to use for the alignment. The pathway to this probe file will appear in the Probe File box.

Probe has wrist: This check box lets you specify whether or not the probe configuration you are using contains a wrist. In PC-DMIS a probe configuration with a wrist uses the tip naming format “T1AXBY” where X & Y are the angles of the wrist (i.e. T1A90B180). Without a wrist PC-DMIS uses “TIPX” where X is simply the TIP #. PC-DMIS Gear needs to know whether or not the probe has a wrist so that it uses the correct tip naming format.

Import Initial Alignment: This check box shows or hides the Initial Alignment area. If enabled, the External/Internal Gear area (or External Gear with Shaft area) is hidden and the Initial Alignment area appears in its place. You can then import an initial alignment file that was previously created manually inside of PC-DMIS. This provides you with additional freedom to do custom gear alignments.

When creating this initial alignment inside of PC-DMIS, you only need to define the primary axis of the gear and the origin of the coordinate system. You can leave the rotation of X and Y axes free. Save the alignment as a an alignment file(*.aln) and then load this alignment into the Initial Alignment area discussed below. If Import Initial Alignment check box remains marked during measurement, PC-DMIS Gear will import this alignment and recall it at the beginning of the part program. PC-DMIS Gear will then write commands to measure the two clocking points only.

Initial Alignment Area

This area provides you with a File name box and a browse button to specify a predefined initial alignment (.aln) file.

External/Internal Gear Area

This area appears if the Align Type is either External Spur or Internal Spur Gear. In addition, to view this area, the Import Initial Alignment check box should be cleared.

Plane: If you choose to execute a DCC alignment then PC-DMIS Gear will measure a DCC plane. This plane is defined by the following three values as well as the first point of the manual plane. The XY location of the first point of the manual plane from the manual alignment origin will define the radius of a circle of points which will be measured as a plane. This plane is only measured for the predefined “External Spur and Helical” and “Internal Spur” alignments.

Number of Points: This determines the number of points that will be measured for the DCC plane.

Start Angle: This determines the polar coordinate location of the first point of the DCC plane. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin. Negative numbers are not allowed.

End Angle: This determines the location of the last point of the DCC plane. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin. Negative numbers are not allowed.

ClearPlane: Located under the Move heading, this check box determines whether or not the software moves the probe up to the clearance plane between each hit on the plane. The clearance plane height is defined by the Clearance Height box in the Execution Control area.

Circle: If you choose to execute a DCC alignment for the Internal Spur Gear alignment routine, then PC-DMIS Gear will measure a DCC Circle. This circle is defined by the following three values as well as the first point of the manual circle. The Z location of the first point of the manual circle from the manual alignment origin defines the depth of the DCC circle.

Number of Points: This determines the number of points that will be measured for the DCC circle.

Start Angle: This determines the location of the first point of the DCC circle. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin. Negative numbers are not allowed.

End Angle: This determines the location of the last point of the DCC circle. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin (Negative numbers are not allowed).

EXT./INT.: Select whether the circle is an external or internal circle. This only becomes available for Internal Spur Gear alignment types.

Circular: Located under the Move heading, this check box determines whether or not the software moves the probe along a circular path between each hit of the circle.

Shaft Gear Area

This area appears if Align Type is set to External Gear with Shaft. In addition, to view this area, the Import Initial Alignment check box should be cleared.

Cylinder: If you choose to execute a DCC alignment and are using the External Gear as Shaft alignment routines then a PC-DMIS Gear will measure a DCC cylinder. This cylinder is defined by the following three values as well as the first point of each of the two rows of the manual cylinder. The Z location of the first point and the fourth point of the manual cylinder from the manual alignment origin will define the depth and length of the DCC cylinder.

Number of Points: This determines the number of points to measure for each row of the DCC cylinder.

Start Angle: This determines the location of the first point of the DCC cylinder. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin. Negative numbers are not allowed.

End Angle: This determines the location of the last point of the DCC cylinder. The angles are defined as 0 being equal to the clocking axis of the manual alignment and increasing as you move counter-clockwise around the center of the origin. Negative numbers are not allowed.

EXT./INT.: Select whether the cylinder is an external or internal cylinder.

Use multiple tips to measure outer cylinder: This check box determines whether or PC-DMIS Gear will use multiple tips when measuring outer cylinder in DCC. If marked, the software will find the best tip in the current probe to measure the cylinder by matching the given A angle.

Use multiple tips to measure Z Point: This check box determines whether or not PC-DMS Gear will use multiple tips to measure the Z-Point. During execution, the software will find and rotate to the best tip to measure the Z point. If cleared, it will always use the tip with the shank IJK vector of 0,0,1.

Execution Control Area

This area contains values that control the movement of the machine while executing the DCC portion of the alignment.

Prehit Distance: This value determines the distance from the theoretical point that the machine changes from Move Speed to the slower Touch Speed. For further information on any of these values consult the main PC-DMIS help file.

Retract Distance: The distance away from the measured point location that the machine changes from Touch Speed to the quicker Move Speed.

Clearance Distance: This value determines the distance the probe will retract in the XY direction.

Clearance Height: This box defines the clearance height used to measure the gear alignment and the clearance height used at the beginning and end of the gear measurement.

Touch Speed: This value determines the speed the machine will use when taking a point measurement or approaching the first point of an analog scan.

Move Speed: This value determines the speed the machine will use to move from point to point and to and from the clearance plane.

Fly On: Causes the probe motion to move in smooth circular moves. This option depends on the capability of the controller to execute circular moves.

Fly Radius: Determines the radial distance of the arc path along which the probe will travel between move points.

Clocking Points Area

Use multiple tips: Use this check box to determine whether or not PC-DMIS Gear should use multiple tips of an indexing probe to measure the clocking points for your gear.

Use multiple tips when measuring Z point: This check box is only available if you first select External Gear with Shaft as the Align Type. Use this check box to determine whether or not PC-DMIS Gear should use multiple tips of an indexing probe to measure the Z Point of your gear.

Use multiple tips when measuring outer cylinder: This check box is only available if you first select External Gear with Shaft as the Align Type. Use this check box to determine whether or not PC-DMIS Gear should use multiple tips of an indexing probe to measure the outer cylinder of your gear.

“A” Angle boxes: If you selected any of the Use Multiple Tips ... options and your probe uses an indexing probe head, this value defines the “A” angle that will be used for the measurements. The “A” angle of the probe remains constant while the “B” angle rotates to the best tip angle for each tooth. If you use a star probe and you don’t want any probe head rotation, type zero into these boxes.

Rotation: This drop-down list specifies where to take the clocking point: X+, X-, Y+ or Y- (or in other words at the three o'clock, nine o'clock, twelve o'clock clock and six o'clock positions). According to the selected rotation, the probe will be changed to fit for the position if you selected the Use multiple tips check box.

Use different prehit and retract distance: If you mark this check box, the Prehit and Retract Distance boxes are enabled so you can type in different distance values for PC-DMIS to use before taking a hit (prehit) and after a hit has been taken (retract). If the check box is not selected, PC-DMIS Gear will use the value of prehit and retract defined in the Execution Controls area of this dialog box.

Prehit Distance: This box defines the overridden prehit distance for clocking points.

Retract Distance: This box defines the overridden retract distance for clocking points.

Measure: When this check box is selected, Gear will measure the alignment that is specified by the alignment parameters when you click the Measure button.

Generate: This determines whether or not a part program is generated as part of the alignment process. If this is selected PC-DMIS Gear will create a new part program, otherwise it will open the part program defined in the Part Program area.

Launches PC-DMIS and begins the alignment process. If Generate is marked PC-DMIS will generate the part program to accomplish the alignment and then execute the new part program. Otherwise, it will execute the specified part program.

Saves any changes that have been made in the Gear Alignment dialog box.

Closes the Gear Alignment dialog box and saves your changes.