Probing Cycles in Assembly Mode

You can assign appropriate part instance and mill part setups for each probe operation generated in Assembly mode. This ensures an accurate Part Setup Origin while posting the toolpath of the probe operation.

In previous releases, if only probe operations existed under an operation setup of an assembly, SOLIDWORKS CAM measured their coordinates from the fixture coordinate system (FCS). SOLIDWORKS CAM did not list the instance and relevant feature setup on the Offset tab in the Setup Parameters dialog box. Even if you specified the output origin as Part Setup Origin, the toolpath coordinates referred to the FCS, leading to inaccurate posted code.

In the Operation Parameters dialog box, on the Posting tab, under Part/Setup, you can specify parameters in Assembly mode.
Parameter Description
Assign reference part and setup Enables the Reference part and Reference setup parameters.
Reference part Lists all parts in the Part Manager.

The default selection is the part (with the part instance as a suffix if there are multiple part instances) whose face you selected in the Probe tab for the Probe operation. If you did not select a face, SOLIDWORKS CAM uses the first part listed in the Part Manager.

If the post processing requires you to specify the Part Setup Origin, SOLIDWORKS CAM uses the values of the origin of the selected part as reference. SOLIDWORKS CAM also uses the Part Setup Origin to calculate the coordinates when executing Step Through Toolpath and simulation commands.
Reference setup Lists all the part setups associated with the part or part instance selected in Reference Part.

The default selection is the valid feature setup for the part or part instance selected for Reference Part whose features can be machined from the selected operation setup.

SOLIDWORKS CAM uses the origin of the part setup that you select to compute the coordinates of the toolpath while posting.
For Probe operations, the selections you make for Reference part and Reference setup are displayed in the part instances and work coordinates on the Offset tab of the Setup Parameters dialog box.