Remote Accessory Management in a Programming Environment for a Progammable Metrology System

A method for operating a programming environment of a programmable metrology system comprising a workpiece sensing portion;

• a stage for holding a workpiece;
• a control portion;
• a display;
• and a user interface comprising a programming environment that is operable during a learn mode of the programmable metrology system, the programming environment comprising an editable part program representation of part program instructions in an editing window, the part program representation comprising instruction representations,
• the method comprising:
• providing a remote accessory managing portion of the programming environment, comprising an accessory communication portion, an accessory authorization portion, and an accessory data management portion;
• operating the accessory authorization portion to authorize a remote device for connection to the programming environment;
• indicating a current part program instruction representation in at least one of the programming environment and a user interface of the remote device;
• operating the authorized remote device to send a set of reference information data to the accessory data management portion, the set of reference information data intended to be associated with the current part program instruction representation;
• operating the accessory data management portion to receive and store the set of reference information data sent from the authorized remote device;
• and
• operating the accessory managing portion to automatically associate the received and stored set of reference information data with the current part program instruction representation indicated in at least one of the program editing environment and the user interface of the remote device.