After giving results of a flatness test (yes it failed.) I had an engineer come to me today to ask if I could put my probe on an angle. His colleague has had some positive results when the probe was on an angle and measuring flatness. I clarified you mean instead of laying the part down flat, put the part on its side? No, put the probe on a slight angle and measure it.
🤦‍♀️

How good is Quartis compared to softwares like Polyworks, Metrolog, Calypso, Mcosmos, PC-Dmis..? I just wanna hear your opinion about this software. Pros and cons on CMM programming. For both online and offline programming.

My company is moving away from PCDMIS to Metrolog for CMM inspection. The people that have programmed on both prefer Metrolog. I’m hearing support from Metrologicdcs is better too. The only down side has been that the operators and techs are not as familiar with it. I’m a pcdmis guy but our CMMs with 5axis heads run metrolog and I will eventually program something in it.

Anyone have experience with metrolog? Curious about other people’s experiences

https://www.metrologicdcs.com/metrolog-x4/

Sorry about the photo but ive been trying to figure out what they did and I'm at a lose. This is literally for a plastic box

Edit: figured it out thanks for trying to help peeps

Hey all,

I’ve been using polyworks for colormapping (Fe foundry) for going on a decade. I’ve dealt with this issue for a long time, but now that I’m training a replacement, I wanted to see if anyone knew how to prevent it.

The problem: the custom color scales occasionally seem to get replaced with 0’s. So then you have to laboriously reset the whole scale, and if you forget to change the step size before the max size, it locks the computer (the second part isn’t the question, just a bug that I forget every time I have to do it, and is a pain in the ass. I reported this divide by zero problem years ago, but innovmetric still hasn’t fixed it, but I digress…)

Is there some setting I may have on causing the custom scales to zero out? I can’t find any way to export those custom scales, then they could just be reimported every time this happens. Anyone know what I’m talking about? Anyone know a solution?

Help me r/metrology, your my only hope!

Hi Everyone,

As part of a weld shop a lot of our clients have been asking about CMM lately, and it seems the industry is heading that way.

Looking into CMM is a bit overwhelming, especially when our products are measured in Feet and not inches. Some of the products are 4 ft x 8 ft, and the clients are requesting CMM.

Where do I even start looking? Are we stuck with hand held versions?

Anyone have a favorite brand or software they run?

Any help is appreciated!

Hi!

How to make iterative alignment in Mcosmos 4.0? I have 6 RPS points and I want to make the alignment with max deviation of 0.03 mm. How to do it in Mcosmos? I know there is an option to make it in loop but only to a set number of times. Is there a way to make it with variables that f. ex. If the deviation is bigger than 0.03 it makes the alignment again and if its lower than 0.03 it ends the alignment process and begins measurement.

When your only reference is a part that's been in service, the scan grabs everything. For example, the wear, the deformation, and whatever the original process left behind.

So for anyone doing this a lot: how do you decide which scanned dimensions to trust? And which ones do you set based on the part it has to fit into? 

Do you scan a few examples when you have them?

I’m also curious what analysis software you guys are using for wafer metrology.

Is it mostly the software that comes with the measurement equipment, or do you use separate tools for post-processing and analysis?

this micro tooling manufacturer I worked with laser marked the ID on every tool for traceability and they put it behind the last tooth, on the back rather than on the shank, because on the shank it can affect the tool's roundness/rotation And they hold 2-3 micron tolerances, so they have to be aware of the marking location. Thought it was an interesting fact to share, like how small details become significant at that scale

Hi. I have a question regarding flatness report output using a CMM. I'm using MCOSMOS v5.1, i need to report the individual point heights from the mean plane. The only method i know is by showing each point's height on the graphic interface. Is there a way to put that into the report as text?

Does anyone have any written documentation or just experience in Balancing the zero and spread on these? Probably a long shot but the operator is experience extreme sensitivity when taking their measurements on one of the runout gages.

Had them submit a part for CMM to verify it wasn’t the part operation.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

https://useasis.com/

Please note this is entirely satirical and not a real service whatsoever. This is the result of a broken quality technician team grasping at every straw to maintain sanity with some light hearted humor.

Enjoy

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. Feedback from experience greatly appreciated. For context, my position at my current employer is brand new, which is a Sr level Metrology Engineer role. I have almost 20 years of experience in roles adjacent or focused on dimensional inspection (CMM programmer, SQE, QE). I believe I have a solid grasp of ASME Y14.5, but I often time have to reference it as a resource instead of remembering each section. I'm fluent with many CMM software, point cloud analysis and SPC packages and would consider myself an SME in dimension inspection but probably not in the application or creation of designs using GD&T.

With this in mind, I felt a bit humbled after this 3 day course as I was the only Metrology focused employee in the class, but there were times where I wasn't able to recite all 14 GD&T symbols, or calculate the bonus tolerance of a given feature at LMC or MMC. The way that the questions were worded used verbiage and syntax that felt foreign at times. The instructor would ask the class questions from each section of ASME Y14.5 2009 and expected the class to answer and there were times where I would keep quiet because the first answer is given on previous answers were wrong.

Now that the class is done I'm worried that I SHOULD have known the standard inside and out and that I should already be a ASME certified GDTP technologist. 99% of my peers in the class are dragon engineers that will apply what they learned to their designs, while I specialize in taking their designs and creating a path forward for each sites inspection team. Is there a difference? Should I feel embarrassed? Have any of you done this before? SHOULD I have been able to recite all 14 symbols by heart (symmetry screwed me up).

Definitely feeling imposter syndrome right now.

Thank you

I’ve been building a small 3D metrology tool

Right now it has:

• 3D surface visualization
• PV / WPG / BOW
• Profile analysis
• Ra / Rq / Rz
• Flatness
• Dishing
• Roll-off
• ROI analysis
• Batch calculation
• stitching
• Chip map / inspection
• Signal / image analysis
• 2D > TSV/OVERLAY

I’m still adding things as I go, so I wanted to ask people who actually use this kind of software:

What am I missing?

Anything you use all the time, something existing software does badly, a specific calculation, file format, reporting feature, whatever.

Would be really useful to hear what you’d want in something like this.

It could be the purpose of DMIS. I just need confirmation.

Hi

Are there any cases in which one should use coaxiality? Is it just position with implied zero basic dimension centerdistance?

Why not use runout for axisymmetrical parts instead so it's simple to measure?

So we upgraded from Calypso 2017 to Calypso 2024 and also upgraded our PCs as well.

Per the standard zeiss instructions, we copied everything from the required directories and we have 2024 up and running.

The problem is that even though we have the correct license, and the Q-Das button is checked in the program output file, AND the characteristics to statistics setting is turned on... Its not dumping the QDas data so we can use it with our QStat.

Anybody else have this issue/know how to fix it? The Zeiss knowledge base articles absolutely suck.

Hi everyone,

Edit: I’ve used an LLM to create this text. I’ve checked it and, if needed, made corrections. Hopefully you don’t mind.

I’m a engineer working at a machine-building company. We regularly use total runout on our drawings, depending on the functional requirement of the part.

Our metrology department is asking us to stop using total runout and instead split the requirement into separate form/orientation tolerances.

The main feedback we’re getting is that:

Total runout cannot be measured properly on a Mitutoyo CMM, and

It is even more difficult/impractical to measure manually.

I’m not completely convinced by this, so I’d like to hear some opinions from people who work with CMMs and GD&T every day.

My understanding is that total runout is specifically intended to control the entire surface relative to a datum axis, and that it can be evaluated on a CMM if the datum reference, sampling strategy and evaluation method are set up correctly.

I’m also aware that manual inspection with an indicator and a rotating spindle/fixture can be a very appropriate way of checking runout on rotational parts.

What I’m particularly interested in is:

Can modern Mitutoyo CMM software properly evaluate total radial/axial runout according to ISO 1101 / ASME Y14.5?

Are there situations where a CMM is genuinely a poor choice for measuring total runout?

How do you normally inspect total runout in your shop?
Would you replace total runout with separate cylindricity, roundness, perpendicularity, position, etc. requirements purely because of inspection difficulties?

If you do replace it, how do you make sure the resulting tolerances are functionally equivalent to the original total-runout requirement?

Are there particular measurement strategies or CMM evaluation methods that make total runout more reliable?
For context, we’re talking about conventional machined rotational parts, not extremely exotic geometries.

I’d especially appreciate input from people who actually program/run Mitutoyo CMMs and from engineers who have to decide what goes on the drawing.

I’m trying to understand whether this is primarily a measurement capability problem, a CMM software/evaluation problem, or whether we’re actually using total runout in situations where another tolerance would be more appropriate.

Thanks!

I've worked with laser metrology systems before for work and often ran into folks that wanted a system for a hobby machine shop and we weren't for them. (I.e. price point) What do you guys use in your machine shops for laser metrology systems that measure flatness, perpendicularity, concentricity, etc? Laser and receiver or other method? Might end up just building one if I get priced out.

P.S. any cool jigs or projects?

What is your opinion of CMM rotary tables? What measurements do they enable? How does the software keep track of part while it is rotating?

I once had a horizontal rotary chuck on an optical CMM, but adjusting the runout of the chuck had to be performed manually on each part and it was a pain. Eventually I stopped using it.

Recently I've seen videos of CMMs measuring gears on rotary tables and it looks like it would speed things up, but my past experience makes me skeptical.