Test point changes

[Angela]

After attending a calibration course, I changed the points we are measuring for internal calibrations on our calipers. Is there a way to change all test points for the same gage name at once rather than changing them individually? Right now, I am changing the test points when each comes due for calibration and editing the test point before making the calibration entry. But this is time consuming (as we have close to 100 active calipers that we calibrate each year) and I was wondering if there was a way to mass edit test points on existing gages. New gages are easy, I just clone a gage I have already made changes to.

We name our calipers in the same format: example CAL-SIZE-ID# so CAL-04-0001 CAL-06-0001 CAL-08-0001 and so on.

So, is there a way to use the filters, bring up all CAL-04 gages and change the test points for all gages starting with that? Then do the same with CAL-06 and CAL-08 with each having their own test points? I could not do it en mass under a gage type as each size will have some same points but the larger they are the more points there are to measure.

I haven’t seen any way to do this as of yet so I thought I would check here.

Thank you.

[DaveM]

Funny you should ask as I am in the middle of this now. I’ll use a caliper as an example.

I am making templates (in the “Configuration Menu” tab on lower left corner of the screen.

Since we use everything from an itty bitty 4” caliper all the way up to 60” calipers, and a mix of digital and dial, I am making one template that covers from 4 thru 24 inches. Anything over 26 inches goes out for calibration so it falls under a different template for “outside calibrations”.

I can then attach the procedure for dial digital and vernier type calipers, and I create all the test points for all caliper types.

Once you do that, click GAGE LINK and you can link that template to every caliper you want it to apply to, for all future calibrations.

The key step is when you go to calibrate that caliper next time, you delete all the test points that don’t apply.

Let’s say you do a 12” caliper. Open a new calibration for that gage and perform the checks related to a 12” caliper, but delete all the test points which are for 18, 24, and 26” calipers.

In this way you get a customized calibration for each gage, but at the same time the test points will follow the same procedures up to that gage’s maximum. This makes it easier to teach junior associates to calibrate because the calibrations will be identical, just more of them for larger gages.

It also comes in handy when you have gage which get modified, such as a caliper that gets the ID jaws removed because someone damaged them beyond repair. You’d simply delete the test points for those ID jaws.

Same goes for the specific check of the dial, I have one test point asking if the bezel lines up with zero near the 12:00 position. If I’m calibrating a digital caliper, I’ll delete that test point.

Hope you find this useful.

[Angela]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for replying to my question. By exploring and following your path, I was able to create a template with my changes, attach the gage to it and it worked! This will save me so much time moving forward- I wish I had asked sooner Thank you SO much!

[DaveM]

Angela,

I just figured that out the other day to tell you the truth. I’ve been here almost 10 years and have never gotten too deep into Gagetrak, as on this crappy little laptop it didn’t function very well. So I just dealt with all its oddities and crashes.

Turns out 90% of those oddities were gages entered wrong, incorrect reference standards linked, wrong procedures etc. We had an ISO audit and the nice girl pointed out a few things that were wrong.

Now I am on a great quest to get every gage on a template, every procedure correct, and every reference standard linked correctly. I was going thru every gage individually and doing just that, but it felt like a HUGE waste of time. THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!!

Then I found templates…. and the dark clouds parted.

Starting to sound like an infomercial hey? Like Billy Mays is about to break in with a jug of OXI-Clean.

[Angela]

That’s great. Well, when you find something that works then share it!

Same here- I have only been using GAGEtrak for a year and just got inhouse training. I disliked using it so much from what I had at my prevous job, until I figured out just what you did. No consistancy, incorrect information, incorrect linking, missing information. It made it so difficult to use the software. Now the more I learn, the more I change and the better the software works. It’s turned into a valuable software for our company and I look forward to continuing to improve our calibration department with it. I am glad we have this forum now to share ideas and experiences.