A point of reference. For example, In the case of a CAD file of a circuit board, these fiducials reference the location of soldering. These references may not exist in the CAD file.

Current Help System: PC-DMIS Vision (View Core Help)

### Live View Alignment with CAD

This method is commonly used when you have a fixture but the fiducials
are not found in the CAD drawing. In this case, although you have the CAD drawing for the part, you will not be able to establish a proper alignment from the CAD file. You will need to establish the alignment in the Live View tab. Once you do this, you can then use the Cad View to measure additional features.

To establish an alignment that matches the CAD coordinate system, you will need to do the following:

1. Create the alignment features from the Live View tab using the method described in the "Live View Alignments" topic. Establish an alignment as follows:

- You should generally use three surface point features to construct a plane to level to, a line feature to rotate to and then a point feature for the origin.

- For simple 2D parts, however, you should generally use two circle features for leveling, rotating and setting the origin.

2. Translate, rotate, and level this alignment to match the CAD coordinates.

3. Tell PC-DMIS these two coordinate systems should be snapped together.

4. Create the alignment features (same features as above) from the Cad View tab using the method described in the "CAD View Alignments" topic.

5. Transform the alignment so that it matches the CAD coordinate system. To do this, click the CAD=Part button on the Alignment Utilities dialog box to tell PC-DMIS that the alignment you just created should match up with the CAD coordinate system.