Commissioning segment punching
Segment references resolve to real positions using the machine's tooling dimensions. Those dimensions are formed values — the finished profile's web width and leg heights — but holes are punched in the flat, before the bends are made. Every bend shifts material between the flat and the formed part, and how much depends on the tooling, the bend direction, and the material. On top of that, the numbers a design system computes embody its model of the profile, which is not always what the machine actually forms — operators often already know the "real" positions from adjusting parts at the machine.
Commissioning closes that gap once per machine and tooling. Eclipse gives you three tools:
- Previews — see exactly how a pattern resolves before punching anything.
- Geometry corrections — small measured values that shift the resolved geometry to match reality.
- The commissioning worksheet — enter positions you already know are good, and Eclipse fits the corrections for you.
Before you start
- The machine's shape table is set up and current (see Shape tables & tooling).
- The tooling dimensions are populated for each tooling code you'll run: Fin Width, Leg Height, and — for unequal-flange profiles — Leg Height 2.
- The Segment Aliases table (on the Segments tab of the machine's Shape Table editor) has entries for your design system's segment names (see the alias table).
- The machine's orientation (flow direction and which side is machine +) is set, so the previews are drawn the way you actually see the machine. This is a one-time setting, adjustable from the preview toolbars, shared by everyone.
Step 1 — verify the mappings
Import or author one known pattern per profile family (ideally one with holes in the web and both flanges, at asymmetric positions) and check the resolution in the flat view:
- Each hole's tooltip shows the full chain — the vendor's segment name, the alias entry it matched, the anchor applied, and the resolved position — and the view draws the geometry it used (web boundaries, web center, strip edges).
- If your import feed also carries the legacy machine-computed positions for the same holes, compare: with the vendor's own dimensions in the tooling entry, the resolved values should reproduce the vendor's numbers essentially exactly. Differences at this stage mean a mapping problem — a wrong alias entry, anchor, or leg-height column — not a geometry problem.
An asymmetric part is the discriminator: if a flange binding is backwards, asymmetric holes land visibly wrong, while a symmetric part would hide the error.
Step 2 — make it true
With the mappings verified, put the real formed dimensions in the tooling entry and compare resolved positions against positions that are known good on the floor — the values operators actually run after their manual tweaks, or measurements from a punched flat. Remaining differences are genuine geometry effects, and they are what geometry corrections and the worksheet (below) are for.
The flat view
On the pattern's Solutions tab, each row has a view icon ("Flat view — the blank exactly as the solver receives it") that opens the Flat View: a true-scale drawing of the punched flat exactly as this machine runs it — every hole, plus guide lines for the strip center and edges, the web center, and the web/flange boundaries.
- The picture is produced by the same computation that feeds the solver, so it cannot disagree with what would be punched.
- Holes are drawn at their true outline — round, slot, square, or triangle — using the shape geometry library. A shape code with no entry there draws as a fixed-size dashed marker instead, so an unsized hole is obvious rather than misleading. (Very small holes are drawn slightly enlarged so they stay visible; the tooltip carries the real dimensions.)
- Hole tooltips show the full resolution chain: vendor segment name → canonical segment → anchor → resolved position, plus the hole's kind and size.
- The Flow and + side toolbar toggles match the drawing to your machine: which way the part travels, and whether machine + is away from or toward the operator. These set the shared machine orientation, so every user sees the same picture.
- If the tooling code carries a strip shift, the header annotates it ("Strip offset …") and a machine-center guide shows where the shifted strip sits — the shift is visible, not silent.
- It works for failed solutions too — punches that resolved are drawn, the failure is described, and that makes it the quickest way to diagnose a segment alert.
From the flat view's toolbar, Formed part (3D) opens the same part folded up, for mentally matching against the physical part on the runout. Holes are cut as the same true outlines the flat view draws, so a slot or a triangle reads correctly on the formed profile. The formed view is honest about what it knows — it carries a standing note: "Bend angle, radius, and lip shape are assumed for display; hole positions are exact." Which way each flange folds comes from the direction rules, so a ZEE renders with its legs opposite ways; until a rule is configured the view shows legs up and says so.
Geometry corrections
The Segment Geometry Corrections block sits on the same Segments tab as the alias table, and holds two tables that work together: Direction Rules say which way each flange bends, and Bend Corrections carry the numbers commissioning measures.
Direction rules
Which way a flange folds out of the strip is a property of the tooling, not of the material. The Direction Rules table records it per Tooling Code pattern:
| Column | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tooling Code | Wildcard pattern matched against the job's tooling code — an exact code, Z8*, or * for a machine-wide default. |
| Flange + Direction / Flange − Direction | Which way that flange bends as the part exits the machine, Up or Down. A CEE folds both legs the same way (some lines run legs down, others legs up); a ZEE is one of each. |
| Web Center Offset | Rare override for where the web center sits relative to the strip center. Normally derived from the leg heights — leave it blank unless a measurement says otherwise. |
Rules cascade field by field: the most specific pattern that fills a value wins, so a *
rule carrying just the two directions acts as the machine default, and a Z* rule can flip one
flange while inheriting the other from it. Directions apply to every gauge.
Direction rules are not just for the pictures. They select which bend correction applies to each side, so a wrong direction puts holes in the wrong place. (They also drive the 3D formed view.)
Bend corrections
A correction is the signed formed-to-flat difference for one web boundary: that boundary — and
with it the adjacent flange's inner bend — sits at Fin Width / 2 + correction. Keep the
tooling's Fin Width nominal and let the correction carry the bend behavior. They are small
numbers, fractions of an inch.
Corrections are machine-wide — no tooling code appears on them. Each cell is keyed by:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gauge | The material gauge the cell was commissioned at (exact match). Blank applies to any gauge — see Gauge matters. |
| Side | Which web boundary it moves: FlangePlus or FlangeMinus. |
| Direction | The bend direction it was commissioned against: Up or Down. |
| Bend Correction | The signed value, in inches. |
The direction rules are the join: for each job, a side reads the cell matching its resolved direction. That is what keeps the table small — how much a bend consumes depends on the gauge, the side, and which way the metal folds, not on which profile happens to be running.
Three cells per gauge is usually the whole job. One side of the machine never reverses, so it contributes a single side/direction combination; the other side has two, because it folds one way for CEEs and the other for ZEEs. Commission one CEE and one ZEE at a gauge and every other tooling code at that gauge inherits those cells with no further work.
Every edit re-solves the machine's affected solutions automatically, same as editing the shape table.
When a correction can't be resolved
Because corrections now move holes through the direction rules, Eclipse refuses to guess:
- Nothing commissioned for that side and gauge — no candidate cells at all — is treated as correction zero, silently. Machines and gauges you haven't commissioned keep working exactly as they did before.
- Cells exist but no direction rule covers the tooling code — the solve fails with a correction alert. Add the flange directions for that tooling.
- The direction resolves but its cell is missing — for example the first ZEE on a machine commissioned only for CEEs — the solve also fails. Commission that combination rather than running it at zero.
The commissioning worksheet
Usually you already have ground truth: a shop adjustment record, or the controller positions an operator has proven on the machine. The Commissioning Worksheet — a collapsed panel below the corrections tables on the Segments tab — turns those directly into corrections. No pattern is involved; the rows come straight off the record or drawing.
- Pick the Tooling Code (and Gauge, if you commission per gauge), then Add rows of: Segment (vendor names are fine — the alias table applies), Segment Offset, and XL Position — the known-good value as shown on the XL controller.
- Compute fits the geometry values that make the resolution reproduce your numbers, and fills in each row's Predicted (current) and Corrected positions. The fitted values are summarized underneath, each annotated with the bend direction it will be filed under.
- Apply Suggestion writes those values into the correction cells and re-solves.
Because the fitted numbers are filed by direction, the tooling needs its direction rules first. If a fitted side has no direction, Apply is blocked and the worksheet says so rather than guessing which cell to write. A side the rows can't determine is left alone.
Tips for a good fit:
- Include a web-centered row if you possibly can. A web row pins the web-center offset independently, which is what lets the fit tell a genuine per-side bend difference apart from a web that simply sits off-center. Without one, the worksheet falls back to a single symmetric correction and says so.
- Rows from both flanges give each side's bend its own evidence.
- The worksheet accounts for the tooling code's configured strip shift and flips — enter positions exactly as the controller shows them.
- A web-center override is only written when the fitted value actually differs from what the solve already uses; otherwise the worksheet notes it is already in effect and writes nothing.
Gauge matters
Bend behavior depends on material thickness, so a correction commissioned on one gauge is only proven for that gauge. The correction cells handle this explicitly:
- A cell with a gauge applies only to jobs running that gauge.
- A cell with no gauge applies to any gauge — fine for a plant that runs one gauge per tooling, and the natural starting point.
- A job whose gauge has no gauge-specific cell falls back to the gauge-agnostic cell — never to a different gauge's cell.
Direction rules carry no gauge: which way the metal folds is a property of the tooling, so one set of rules serves every gauge.
Solutions are likewise kept per gauge: changing an order's material to a different gauge re-solves; swapping between materials of the same gauge does not.
Backing up segment configuration
The machine configuration backup has a dedicated Segment Rules option covering the alias table, the geometry corrections, and the machine orientation — independent of the Shape Table option, so you can copy segment rules onto a machine whose shape table already exists. Restoring segment rules re-solves affected solutions automatically.