Selecting or Creating a New Animated Machine for Display

If you use PC-DMIS in offline mode, you can use the Load Virtual Machine dialog box (Insert | Hardware Definition | Machine) to select or create a virtual machine or table to use in PC-DMIS's Graphic Display window.

The Load Virtual Machine dialog box contains a list of machine and table models that you can add into the Graphic Display window. These are organized by type in an expandable / collapsible Name list.

To add a virtual machine:

From the list of machines, expand a category type to see the brands within that category.
Expand the desired brand name.
Select a machine to see a preview of the machine in the Graphic Display window.
Click Apply or OK to accept a machine and insert a LOADMACHINE command into the Edit window. This command also shows the machine's model into the Graphic Display window.

To add only a virtual table:

From the list of machines, expand the Table category.
Expand the Size list.
Choose a table to see a preview of the table in the Graphic Display window.
Click Apply or OK to accept a table and insert a LOADMACHINE command into the Edit window. This command also shows the table into the Graphic Display window.

You can change a machine's limits on the fly for any machine and store it as a custom machine.

From the list of machines, select an existing machine. PC-DMIS automatically shows a preview of the current machine. PC-DMIS also automatically creates a temporary custom machine name for you in the Custom Machine Name box. The custom name is the machine's name preceded by a "Custom_" prefix.
If you don't like the automatic name, type a new name for the machine. If you use spaces, the software converts them to underscore characters.

Specify the 1st axis by selecting X, Y, or Z from the 1st axis list. Type the length of the machine's base in the 1st axis box.
Specify the 2nd axis by selecting X, Y, or Z from the 2nd axis list. Type the width of the machine's base second axis in the 2nd axis box.
Specify the 3rd axis by selecting X, Y, or Z from the 3rd axis list. Type the height of the machine in the 3rd axis box.

Click Apply to insert a LOADMACHINE command and a machine model in the Graphic Display window with those values. The "usermachine.dat" file is not actually modified until you click Apply or OK. If you click Cancel all changes are ignored.
If you want to save the customized machine, click Save to add the saved machine into the dialog box. PC-DMIS adds the machine under the USER category.

For example, suppose that you have a machine that's similar to another machine, but it has a smaller volume. You don't have to recreate the entire machine. Instead, you can modify the axis values of the similar machine to reflect your machine's volume for the current measurement routine. When you click Apply, PC-DMIS applies these changes internally to the LOADMACHINE command.

A Chameleon machine with a modified, smaller volume

You cannot edit the LOADMACHINE command in the Edit window. To make changes to the machine, press F9 on the Load Virtual Machine dialog box and make your changes there.