Once you enable path lines and see them on your screen, you can change the route the probe follows as it moves between features. To do this, place PC-DMIS in Translate Mode and click on a highlighted path line. PC-DMIS splits the path line near where you clicked and adds a MOVE/POINT command at that location. Use the Move Path Line dialog box to adjust the move point location.
This method only works on the path lines between features. You can use a different method to reposition path lines within Auto Features. For information, see "Show Hit Targets Toggle" in discussed in the "Creating Auto Features" chapter.
If you click on a path line between features and the Move Path Line dialog box still doesn't appear, you may need to enable this functionality. To do this, from the Setup Options dialog box (Edit | Preferences | Setup), on Animation tab, mark the Path Line Moving Enabled check box. For more information, see the "Setup Options: Animation tab" topic in the "Setting Your Preferences" chapter.
Move Path Line dialog box
The dialog box contains X, Y, and Z axis boxes, allowing you to type a specific move point location, or you can use the Increment value with the small up and down arrows next to each axis box.
When you click the up arrow, PC-DMIS adds the increment value to the current value.
When you click the down arrow, PC-DMIS subtracts the increment value from the current value.
The selected path line is adjusted automatically in the Graphic Display window.
Delete - Deletes the selected move point. This button only becomes active when you click on or near a move point located along the path line.
Reset - Sets the path line back to normal as long as you haven't clicked OK or Apply.
OK - Accepts your changes and inserts a MOVE/POINT command into the Edit window at the appropriate location to reflect the adjusted path line and then closes the dialog box.
Apply - This functions the same as OK except that the dialog box remains open, allowing you to continue working with additional path lines.
If you need to adjust the move point later, simply click on the point on the path line. The Move Path Line dialog box appears again, allowing you to change the values for the MOVE/POINT. Alternately, you can press F9 on the MOVE/POINT command inside the Edit window, and then change the values using the Move Point dialog box.
It's often handy to rotate the part while adjusting path lines. The Move Path Line dialog box permits you do to 2D and 3D rotate operations using the standard Alt + right-click drag and Ctrl + right-click drag methods, respectively.
The only way to remove a path line modification is to delete the inserted MOVE/POINT command from the Edit window.
Movie Demo
In the small movie below, you can see that the red lines are where the Collision Detection functionality has detected sections of the path where the probe will collide with the part. Moving the affected path line sections and re-running the collision detection can clear up these problems. Notice how you can add move points and view the new path lines in 3D to verify that the move points were generated in acceptable locations:
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