Combining fixtures in the New Fixture window

Application

The New Fixture window allows combining several fixtures and saving them as a new fixture. This enables realizing and monitoring complex clamping situations.

Requirement

  • Fixtures of suitable format:
    • STL file
      • 20,000 triangles maximum
      • Triangular mesh forms a closed shell
    • CFG file
    • M3D file

Description of function

To navigate to this function:

Tools Combine fixtures

The control also makes this function available as a selection option for opening CFG files.

Combined fixture with variable transformations

The Add fixture button selects all required fixtures one by one.

If one of the transformations contains the ? character in the key, you can enter the value of the transformation within the Combine fixtures function. This allows easy positioning of clamping jaws, for example.

The control displays a preview of the combined fixture and the total number of all triangles.

The Save as button saves the combined fixture as a CFG file.

Notes

  • For optimum performance, HEIDENHAIN recommends that combined fixtures contain no more than 20,000 triangles.
  • If the position or the size of a fixture must be adapted, use KinematicsDesign.
  • Editing CFG files with KinematicsDesign