Saving tools and tool assemblies in Mastercam

[daryl_y]

I am using X9 and I currently keep separate tool libraries for tools and tool holders in Mastercam.  I find this to be an easier way to do things since it keeps my libraries of "tools" clean since I can keep only hand full of .750 endmills for example in my library and put them in whatever holder I need too.  Our shop also has several different kinds of spindles (HSK, 40 and 50 taper) so I have multiple holder libraries in Ops manager if I selected a tool that I have already placed in a holder and select "save tool" it will save that tool as an assembly which is not what I want,  I only want the tool saved.   Is there a way to save only the tool in X9?  Or to break apart the assembly after it has already been made?

[crazy^millman]

Not that I am aware of. It has been asked for and talked about, but I am not aware of anything or anyone coming up with a solution. We have recommend to all of our customers to abandon the standard libraries that come from Mastercam if they are going to be using holders. Why someone thought sticking all the holders they having in the mill_inch library was a good idea is beyond me, but they did. We tell our customers to do it the reverse way. Open up 2 instances of the tool manager and copy the tools from the mill_inch or the big_inch into the holders. Now work from the holder libraries verses the tool libraries and build your holder and tool libraries from there. Yes nice to have one tool library for all the different machines, but then you are always jumping back and forth between the holder library and the tool library. I like the KISS method and taking every possible holder for any type of spindle and dumping it into the tools library is not working IMHO. I can see where someone thought it was a good idea if they never had to sit down and program a bunch of different machines, but when you do that day in and day out you can see that is not a good method or process why you posted this topic in the first place.

[hydranamics]

I had a similar issue with the tools created being saved as assemblies only. So I contacted my Mastercam reseller and they contacted Mastercam.

Here is the solution they came up with and it works well.

 

For integrated tool assemblies that have already been created in Mastercam, we found a way for you to extract them. In Mastercam, open the tool manager and then open the tool library that contains assemblies only. Right-click in the lower portion of the tool manager an choose Convert a library to text. Name the file and save it to a place you can find it again. This creates a text file that can be viewed in Notepad. This process strips the holder and leaves only tool information. You can then right-click in the lower portion of the tool manager again and choose Convert a library from text. Complete this process and save the file under a new name.

 

All the steps above were done in Mastercam.

 

Now open this tool library in the stand alone tool manager, it will only show the tools.

The only thing that changes on the tool is the overall length gets cutoff at whatever the tool projection was when the tool was an assembly with the holder

[barneske47]

Where and how can I download the Big_inch tool database/library?

[Guest]

Where and how can I download the Big_inch tool database/library?

 

Just update your X9 library....had to do that for someone here already

[crazy^millman]

Just update your X9 library....had to do that for someone here already

 

Sarcasm on/

 

Never no one finds that library useful. :ermm:

 

Sarcasm off/