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Incremental (delta x,y,z) measure tool in Creo 2.0 implemented

tbraxton
21-Topaz II

Incremental (delta x,y,z) measure tool in Creo 2.0 implemented

I am in the process of updating mapkeys from WF to Creo 2 in preparation for using Creo 2 for production work. I have seen comments for a while asking for a measure tool to report the delta with respect to a Cartesian reference frame. This was a WF mapkey that does just that and I have updated it to work with Creo 2. I am uploading here and asking for users to try it out and provide some feedback on usability and reliability.

Is it possible to add it to the Analysis tab in the ribbon? I have added it to the the quick access toolbar for testing but the WF custom icon is cropped there rendering it confusing and I would prefer to have it in the Analysis tab if possible.

The functionality is intended to measure the incremental distance relative to a Cartesian reference frame that exists in all of my start models (a default CSYS). So this sequence configures the measure tool to measure with a projection reference of CS0 so you will get the delta X,Y,Z reported directly in the measure results.

Caveats:

1) You must have a CSYS in your model with the tag (name) "CS0", that is a zero and not "o". This exists in all of my start parts so if you don't have this in your model it will not work. If your default csys has a different tag then replace CS0 with the appropriate tag for use in your environment.

2) You will need to copy all of these mapkeys into a config file that gets loaded and insure the mnemonics do not conflict with any of your existing mapkeys. The attached imdi mapkey.txt file contains the mapkeys needed to execute this command sequence.

3) My testing has been limited and the automated selection of CS0 explicitly seems to be the weak link in terms of reliability. I have nested the mapkeys for debugging and have asked PTC support for about the 7th year in a row for some documentation on trail file syntax to help me decipher command handling but they will not share anything to date and have been towing the line that trail files are for PTC development use and are not for end users.

You will be able to launch it using "imdi" within Creo 2 once loaded.

The results box should report the deltas as shown here when using this command.

imdi+results.jpg


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Involute Development, LLC
Consulting Engineers
Specialists in Creo Parametric
6 REPLIES 6

Definitely one way around the shortcoming

You can add it to the analysis tab but first you have to create a new group. Even better would be a way to add it to the measure drop-down menu...but I couldn't find a way.

How is the mapkey different than using measurement summary instead of distance and just clicking on a point? Granted you have to expand the results dropdown...but once expanded in a session it stays and opens expanded.

Correction: you don't have to expand the results section since there is a popup. And I guess the only difference I can see so far is that it (measure summary) doesn't allow you the freedom to pick the default CSYS like a mapkey does when you first make it; you're limited to the first csys I believe...

Ok, sorry for all of the consecutive replies....I promise I'll stop talking to myself . So I created a new group and called it measure, then a new dropdown called Measure and added all of the measure dropdown and also a mapkey. Lastly, I hid the old disfunctional measure dropdown.....unfortunately the new measure icon is rather hideous....I'll have to work on that one. I didn't bother to change the mapkey icon.

measure_better_1.jpgmeasure_better.jpg

tbraxton
21-Topaz II
(To:tbraxton)

I have it working now in both part and assembly mode. The same mapkey "imdi" is invoked in both modes and it runs so far. So for you GUI fans if you imbed this in a ribbon tab you will have a measure that will report the deltas with an icon pick plus 2 refs.

Caveats: The active model (.prt, or .asm) has a Csys with a tag containing string "CS0". In my start assemblies it is ACS0 so I modified the search parameters to search names using "*CS0" which captures both. It seems to be pretty robust using this approach.

I had to record a separate search in assembly mode to find the CSYS of interest due to the inclusion of submodels tab in the search dialogue defaulting to yes. That is the mapkey ".acso" which uses nested ".ics0" created to work in part mode.

Let me know if you break it or see a better way to do this. I have enclosed the mapkeys in the txt file here.

imdi asm mode.jpg

========================================
Involute Development, LLC
Consulting Engineers
Specialists in Creo Parametric

The measure I use often is the clearance between 2 diameters where, by default, it assumes centers (obviously 0.0).

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