Creating a Spot Trajectory

You can create spot trajectories based on the selection of General Operation or Point Fastening Operation (in a process planning scenario), or a Manufacturing cell or Robot (in a non-process planning scenario).

This task shows you how to:

Creating a Spot Trajectory in a Process Planning Scenario

You can create a spot trajectory from a point fastening or general operation, and assign/unassign resources if there is no need to perform analysis via Auto Gun Search and Analyze Weld. You can also connect spot tags to point fastening operations when necessary.

  1. From the Point Fastening section of the action bar, click Create Spot Trajectory .

    You are prompted to select a general operation, point fastening operation, manufacturing cell, or robot.

  2. Select one of the following:
    • A general operation from the Behavior side tab.
    • A robot in the work area.
    • A manufacturing cell in the work area.



    A process trajectory is created under the parent manufacturing cell of the robot assigned to the general operation, and also appears in the Behavior side tab.

    Note: If a robot is not assigned to the selected general operation, a process trajectory is created under the manufacturing cell that has scope link with the parent system of the selected general operation, provided that general operation is either a To plan or a Rejected bucket operation.

    A spot tag is created in the process trajectory for each point fastening operation under the general operation, and appears at each fastener location on the part.

    The Trajectory Editor panel appears, and is populated with the spot tags of the new trajectory.

    Fasteners are highligted in the work area as you select them in the Trajectory Editor:

  3. From the Trajectory Editor, click Add Spot Tags to create spot weld tags that are associated to a point fastening operation.
    You are prompted to select a general operation or point fastening operation.

    Upon selecting a general operation, design fasteners implemented by the point fastening operations are accessed by traversing through the implement links. A process trajectory is created with manufacturing welds (spot tags) at the design fastener locations. The number of resulting tags equals the number of point fastening operations that successfully access the design fasteners.

    Upon selecting a point fastening operation, the design fastener implemented by the point fastening operation is accessed by traversing through the implement link. A manufacturing weld (spot tag) is created at the design fastener location under the active process trajectory.

  4. To assign or unassign resources for the trajectory, click Assign/Unassign Resources .

    The Resource Assignment dialog box appears.

    Click Unassign Resource to unassign a selected resource in the list.

    If there are no resources in the list, you are prompted to select a resource in the tree or work area.

    The selected resource appears in the list upon selection.

  5. Click Reconnect Tag to Point Fastening Operation to reconnect a selected spot tag to a point fastening operation.

    Spot tags can require reconnection when a trajectory is uploaded from Robot Programming, or when analyzing the results of Compare and Transform .

    You are prompted to select a point fastening operation to connect.
  6. Click Update Spot Trajectory to update the trajectory when changes have occurred in the design position of fasteners.
    When the update is complete, a message appears that provides a report of updated elements.

Creating a Spot Trajectory in a Resource Programming Scenario

You can create spot trajectories with spot weld tags for non-process planning, non-fastener scenarios.

  1. In the Point Fastening section of the action bar, click Create Spot Trajectory .

    You are prompted to select a manufacturing cell or robot, or an existing spot trajectory.

    Upon selecting a manufacturing cell or robot, the Trajectory Editor dialog box appears with a new, empty spot weld trajectory.

  2. In the Trajectory Editor dialog box, click New Tag .
    You are prompted to select a location on geometry in the work area to place the first spot weld tag in the new spot trajectory.
  3. Click a location where the first tag will be created.
    The Define Plane context toolbar appears, and provides multiple methods for defining the plane and location where the tag will be created.

  4. In the context toolbar, click to confirm the spot weld location. Repeat for each spot weld location required for the trajectory.
    Spot welds are added to the list in the Trajectory Editor each time is clicked.

  5. When all spot welds have been defined for the trajectory, click New Tag again to close the command.

    The new spot weld trajectory appears in the Behavior side tab.