Creating and editting tool assemblies in Tool manager

[Doug Overkill]

Hi All,

I have been using this work from home time to learn MasterCam 2020 and optimize several things within our setup up for our new 5 axis machining center. With 60 tools available in the carousel I am creating some (about 45) main tools that will live in the machine. Then use the other dozen for part specific tooling and leave the probe and such alone. I created a new machine specific tool library and have populated it with the 45 tools. As this machine was our first with HSK holders it was easy to import the dxf for each of what we bought into the tool manager as holders. Next up was to create assemblies of what is the combination of holder and tool and decided I would do this for some tools twice labelled ALUM & STEEL. Most of what we do fits those and will work for a baseline.

So 1st issue:

I now have an assembly (for example) that is T42 -  letter H (0.266) cobalt jobbers drill mounted in an ER16 x100mm holder. Each with different speeds and feeds that I like for my 2 default materials. I was at the machine to measure projection and noticed that LOC that came up when I selected the 'ltr H Heavy Duty Jobber' wasn't exactly right for the brand drills i use. I went to the tool and changed the LOC but this value did not change in the assembly. For comparison I tried to change a segment length in a holder and this also did not change in the assembly. My hope was that the tools and holders are bidirectional for features and such. Obviously if they were for speeds and feeds my system wouldn't work. In the end I had to change the LOC in 3 places: Alum assy, Steel assy, and tool. ANY BETTER WAY?

2nd issue:

My machine (Siemens control) uses H1 for all tools. Whenever I change a tool number whether in the stand alone Tool Manager or within an operation, the D & H parameters automatically change to match the new assigned tool number. IS THERE A WAY TO LOCK THE H & D TO BE 1?

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

Doug

 

 

[Colin Gilchrist]

On 4/3/2020 at 11:52 AM, Doug Overkill said:

Hi All,

I have been using this work from home time to learn MasterCam 2020 and optimize several things within our setup up for our new 5 axis machining center. With 60 tools available in the carousel I am creating some (about 45) main tools that will live in the machine. Then use the other dozen for part specific tooling and leave the probe and such alone. I created a new machine specific tool library and have populated it with the 45 tools. As this machine was our first with HSK holders it was easy to import the dxf for each of what we bought into the tool manager as holders. Next up was to create assemblies of what is the combination of holder and tool and decided I would do this for some tools twice labelled ALUM & STEEL. Most of what we do fits those and will work for a baseline.

So 1st issue:

I now have an assembly (for example) that is T42 -  letter H (0.266) cobalt jobbers drill mounted in an ER16 x100mm holder. Each with different speeds and feeds that I like for my 2 default materials. I was at the machine to measure projection and noticed that LOC that came up when I selected the 'ltr H Heavy Duty Jobber' wasn't exactly right for the brand drills i use. I went to the tool and changed the LOC but this value did not change in the assembly. For comparison I tried to change a segment length in a holder and this also did not change in the assembly. My hope was that the tools and holders are bidirectional for features and such. Obviously if they were for speeds and feeds my system wouldn't work. In the end I had to change the LOC in 3 places: Alum assy, Steel assy, and tool. ANY BETTER WAY?

2nd issue:

My machine (Siemens control) uses H1 for all tools. Whenever I change a tool number whether in the stand alone Tool Manager or within an operation, the D & H parameters automatically change to match the new assigned tool number. IS THERE A WAY TO LOCK THE H & D TO BE 1?

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

Doug

 

 

Hi Doug,

Unfortunately, I believe that a Tool Assembly is a static object. Once built, it does not have any connection to the individual components that were used to build the assembly.

For the H1/D1 output, don't worry about it at the Operation level. Just fix it in the Post Processor.

Open your Post in a Text Editor. (Make sure you have made a backup copy first!)

Near the top of the Post, find the section where the variables are first defined. Add the following code, and make sure it starts in the 1st column of the Text Editor.

tlngno$ = 1
tloffno$ = 1

Those Global Formulas will force all D and H values to be output as D1 H1.