I've been in the Aerospace industry for roughly 15 years. Through a series of events I was introduced to Jig & Fixture builder with laser trackers & standard optics back when I was 21 and now work in a group that utilizes similar measurement instruments for production inspection.

Lately I've been thinking of using one of the App Builder applications to create one that would tailor to other users to help with situations we commonly experience.

I wanted to get feedback from others in the field to ask what you would want to see in an app like this?

Currently this is what I'd like to include:

Providing information and resources to your job-related questions with...

- The answer

- The formula

- Visual diagrams

- Standards references (ANSI or ISO, DRF rules, etc...)

- Saved company procedures

I'm open to all input. I won't take offense if you think this is useless as well. I just have a hard top accepting that if it isn't broken then it shouldn't be fixed lol.

Howdy everyone. I work at a company that's native software for laser tracker data capture and inspection is Verisurf. We're currently using 2025 and know that we are significantly underutilizing all of its capabilities when it comes to the MBD and GD&T analysis features.

Lately I've been trying to help our small team on a specific program to format and use a PDF or PowerPoint template that confirms with a report format that we normally use. The problem is that it seems like it's limited in adaptability for customizing these templates.

Have any of you made a more customized version of either format? TIA!

I've been talking with a few people here about wafer metrology, and I realized the workflow seems to vary a lot depending on whether you’re in production, R&D, or equipment development.

In high-volume production, it sounds like most of the analysis stays inside the metrology tool software.

But in R&D or development environments, people seem much more likely to export raw data and use their own scripts, Excel, JMP, or other post-processing tools.

So I’m curious:

How often do you actually take raw 2D/3D measurement data out of the equipment software and analyze it yourself?

And when you do, what are you usually trying to calculate or visualize that the original software doesn’t handle well?

Mostly interested in real workflows rather than specific software recommendations.

I have an old, manual CMM that's broken.

Cost to repair is ~20k, replace with used or portable Keyence XM is 60-70k, or new CMM up from there.

I have management not wanting to spend a dime.

What's a cheaper alternative? Accurate to .001"...?

Thank you.

I work in automotive, and I'm currently a master technician. I recently saw a job opening on Indeed for a QC parts inspector and decided to apply. The posted requirements for the position are to be proficient with metrology equipment, but nothing was mentioned about prior QC experience. Well, I had a Teams interview this morning, and they want me to come in for an assessment. I am nervous because I don’t really know what to expect and was hoping someone could shed some light on the assessment process for me.

Hey, i might be changing company that’s using mitutoyo’s cmm and i should learn to program with MCOSMOS. How hard is it to adapt to MCOSMOS from Calypso with 1 and half year daily programming experience?

Is there a way to duplicate this in PCDMIS 2025.2? Greatly appreciated all the help.

Thanks.

I am thinking of this in terms of music. Example, I have had to go down these deep dark rabbit holes trying to find artists I would have never heard of unless someone sent me a link or I randomly came across them.

Cad, pdf, communication, data organization, AI "stuff", reporting or excel tools, etc..

A few months ago we purchased EngRevision Pro and my entire workflow has changed for the better. Cut my drawing set up, programming and reporting by 30% easy. I had never heard about it until an Engineer from a company I used to work with introduced me. I wish I would have known about it sooner. We went from 1 seat to 15 in a matter of months.

We also found this spec test app on git hub that allows you to import a datasheet from Inspection Xpert or EngRevision Pro and it will analyze the nominals, tolerances, gd&t to the ES-BL34-1298-AA spec sheet and shows conditions that do not meet the recommended tolerances based on material. (This one was great for plastics) SO we can go back to the customer during feasibility with some data driven ammo.

Now I am curious if there are tools out there that most are not aware of.

What are other softwares that Engineers, programmers etc are using in our field that you found to have really helped eliminate the nonsense or increase efficiency, etc..?

Free or Paid

First. I'm no expert in metrology or CMM. Very much a beginner and just started watching tutorials and product overviews this week.

[Pic for Attention]

A friend asked if I could look into learning how to write programs to do (semi) automated CMM for some parts his shop is making.

Currently they're running PC-DMIS Pro and the shop techs use it to manually check some crucial feature dimensions, datums, etc...

My understanding is that you can't bring CAD files or drawings into Pro...? You have to have CAD (or CAD++) for that.

Is it technically possible to write pretty thorough programs that can later be run with DCC (after manual alignment) with just Pro? My assumption is that it's possible but you have to interpret all of the features, datums, relationships etc... yourself.

Where CAD can help with a lot of that because it's baked into the CAD file, or you can bring in the drawings derive it from there.

Am I way off base with this? I'm watching through tutorials/training from Hexagon, CMMXYZ and others to get up to speed as fast as possible.

Any help is appreciated.

[Edit: any reason for the down votes? Is this not something appropriate for this sub?]

Mech eng student here, so apologies if this is a basic question.

I've been reading about how ISO 9001 shops handle gauge calibration and I keep

seeing spreadsheets mentioned, sometimes alongside dedicated software. What I

can't tell from the outside is whether the spreadsheet approach is actually fine

or whether it just barely holds together.

A few things I'm curious about:

- How many gauges are you tracking, roughly?

- Has anything ever gone overdue without someone noticing, and how did that surface?

- When an auditor asks for a cert, how long does it take to actually produce it?

Just trying to understand the workflow versus how the textbooks describe it.

So more info, I am working in polyworks and this report was made in polyworks, this is a type of plastic tote, B32 is a mold line that surrounds the box on 4 sides. The print just has the call out and the control box but that's it

I know its a pattern feature made from line features but I can't figure out how they are getting the 4 true positions (whenever I make it with lines it only gives me one control once I make it a feature) and how they were setting it parallel to the datum plane.

I just don't know what the features actually look like and how to set up the geo controls to make it look like theirs. And it has to look like theirs :/

Hello all! Wanted to ask some insights from those who torque calibration experience. Our torque sensor and torque analyzers have always been calibrated as a system- together. When calibrating the sensor, vendor will use our analyzer. But our most recent calibration, we noticed they used a different analyzer not ours. And sensor failed at all test points with consistent bias across the range. Does the different set up could have caused this? Not sure why they used a different analyzer. Thanks in advance!

A technical specification can look extremely convincing simply because the number is precise.
For example:
Accuracy: ±0.01 mm
But without additional information, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
What was actually measured?
What standard or test method was used?
At what temperature?
Over what travel range?
Under load or no load?
Is the figure guaranteed, typical, or based on an ideal setup?
This makes me wonder how people working in metrology actually treat manufacturer specifications.
If two machines publish similar accuracy numbers, but one manufacturer provides the measurement method and the other doesn’t:
How much weight would you give the undocumented number?
And are there certain specifications you simply refuse to compare unless the test procedure is known?
Curious how people here approach this in practice.

I just got approval to buy a new CMM. We currently have a mitutoyo brm507 running geomeasure. It has failed calibration. It is x-500 y-700 z-400 and did pretty much anything we needed size wise. I am looking to replace it with a similar size but not smaller. I need the software to be user friendly as it will be used by shop workers as well but accurate enough for inspection with some tolerances around +/-.001 with the ability to do gd&t. What recommendations do you have and what experiences have you had that make you suggest to (or not to) go with a particular CMM

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

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!