Thoughts on tool management

[Metallic]

Heyo,

 

I have some down time and need to rework my tooling libraries in Mastercam. I like to have said information on the shop floor as a list/Excel spreadsheet that I can print out. What I don't want to have to do is build a tool library in Mastercam and then build the exact same thing in Excel. Any easy way around this?

Without getting into full fledged tool management software, how do you do tooling? Do you just use default Mastercam libraries? I personally have found that I do not like those and have created a ton of tools that match our applications and tooling on hand. This eliminates alot of sifting through tools we never use, but inevitable I have to use tools from the main mastercam library to supplement that. I would like to create a master list that kinda has it all, and do the least amount of work possible.

 

Thanks

[JB7280]

14 hours ago, Metallic said:

Heyo,

 

I have some down time and need to rework my tooling libraries in Mastercam. I like to have said information on the shop floor as a list/Excel spreadsheet that I can print out. What I don't want to have to do is build a tool library in Mastercam and then build the exact same thing in Excel. Any easy way around this?

Without getting into full fledged tool management software, how do you do tooling? Do you just use default Mastercam libraries? I personally have found that I do not like those and have created a ton of tools that match our applications and tooling on hand. This eliminates alot of sifting through tools we never use, but inevitable I have to use tools from the main mastercam library to supplement that. I would like to create a master list that kinda has it all, and do the least amount of work possible.

 

Thanks

I don't have a whole lot to add to this, but I'm replying because I'm interested to see what others have to say.  I find that I spend more time in Mastercam building tools and holders, than I do creating toolpath.  (that may be an exaggeration, but it's definitely more time than I'd like)  One thing I don't like, that could very well be operator error, is the fact that when I build a cutting tool, I have to attach a tool number to it.  I have no need for a tool number until I have an assembly.  Having more/better separation between holder/tools/assemblies would be great, IMO.

[Metallic]

Yea I agree with you. My main thing is, I just want to do as little work as possible. If I could export the tooling data as a CSV that I can edit and add some data to, that would be great.

 

Similarly if there is a way to batch renumber tools, that would be great. Im currently working on renumbering drills to suit our list, and thats like 130 tools to manually go in and number.

People smarter than me have probably figured this out, and all of the things my research has turned up are threads from the X7 days

[Tim Johnson]

I have created my tools as I used or purchased them pretty much since V9. The alum cutters gets added to the alum castings, coppers, and plastics groups along with the aluminum, The same with the steel cutters and their type groups. Holders these days is a non issue since models are very easy to acquire. All of my stored tools have a tool number of 0. They will renumber and offset themselves as they get loaded into the part program. I also keep a database of all of our tooling that includes size, description, tool notes, Mastercam level if needed, (I also keep a Mastercam level list), tool group, manufacturer, List number (if available) and EDP number.