About initial alignment

The initial alignment is used to create an approximate mapping between the Machine Datum and the PCS (CAD Datum) before creating a more accurate mapping using an alignment item.

Note: Measured alignment items automatically override the initial alignment.

You can create the initial alignment by:

• Probing six points on the part.
• Specifying the transformation matrix for the PCS (CAD Datum).
• Loading a transformation matrix from a file.

Creating the initial alignment depends on your version of PowerInspect.

If you are going to manually measure the features used in the alignment item, you do not need to create an initial alignment. If you are going to measure the alignment features by running the inspection sequence, you must create an initial alignment so that PowerInspect Ultimate can locate the features used by the alignment item.

If the CAD datum aligns with the active workpiece datum of the part on the machine, you do not need to create an initial alignment. If the datums do not match, you must specify a transformation to map the CAD datum to the active workpiece datum so that PowerInspect Ultimate OMV can convert the probe path coordinates to active workpiece datum coordinates.

If you are not using a model, you do not need to create an initial alignment. If you want to accurately represent the position of the probe relative to the part in the CAD view, you must establish the approximate relationship between the Machine Datum and PCS (CAD Datum) by creating an initial alignment.