Mass editing tool library in excel

[?Mark]

Is it possible?

Has anyone figured out how to export tools (from converted tool library to text) to excel, mass edit them there (coolant, speeds ...) and import them back to library?

I need to do that with drills only.

Any help appreciated.

[Thad]

Mark,

 

Is there a particular reason why you have to do it in Excel rather than editing the text file?

 

Thad teh mass edits could be dangerous

[?Mark]

Not really, Thad.

I got some time on my hands and I'm trying to set everything up to get my speeds and feeds from tools and not materials.

I used both ways but decided to switch to tools only to hopefully keep things a little simpler.

I got majority of my end mills done and now I'd like to copy all drills with certain sfm and ipm feedrate (which will be constant for all of those drills) into the same library for a particular material...

I hope it makes sense...

Would be really nice to be able to edit groups of tools inside of mastercam without going the "materials" way.

[?Mark]

Let me rephrase the question.

Is there a better way to edit a bunch of similar tools instead of doing it one by one?

I could've swore I'd seen something like that being done in excel some years ago and imported back to library...

[New Job]

1 => Save tool library to text file

 

2 => Rename to "whatever.CSV" (the csv is the important part)

 

3 => Open in excel

 

I don't think you will find this route any easier though.

[?Mark]

That's the general idea.

The problem is that the info doesn't fall into the separate fields in excel, and the question is can I get it to go into cells in some kind of order and back into library when I'm done with it...?

[New Job]

Not easily. Would require some kind of intermediate step.

[?Mark]

Setting up tools in library takes a lot of time now. Some people have been on it for years and it's still a work in progress.

If it could be done in excel where you can set it up to automatically calculate some fields and to be able to freely copy and paste between similar tools it would be a big plus in my book.

 

jm2c

Mark

[New Job]

It will take me a little time, but I will work on a script to try and automate the conversion to .csv, drop me an email every couple of days and I will let you know how it is going.

 

cncprgr at aim.com

[Zoober]

Mark, what are you not able to do?

Mine comes in seperate fields fine.

The key is to not open the file, but to start a new spreadsheet and then IMPORT the info, delimited, by spaces.

HTH

[New Job]

That will get the data into a group of cells, but not logical rows.

 

Is this way easy to keep the data straight?

[Zoober]

It will put in logical rows and columns if you remove all the commented info (#'s) at the top of the file. Then when you are finished, you can put back if you need.

 

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean dcapps, the problem here is that the info is in a 3D array, not rows and columns. Excel does not handle 3d info too well. That's why I use a DB

/EDIT

 

 

Truely, tho, Access or other DB is far better to take care of this than a spreadsheet.

I am in the process of using Cribmaster to create tool libraries real time on the fly as our inventory and tool locations change. So far looks like it will work..........

[Roger Martin from CNC Software]

Robert,

 

What file type(s) do you export data from CribMaster?

XML, and others?

[Zoober]

Roger,

I (we) are just starting, but it's a sql based system, that can be fairly wide open. I would guess that I can pluck and format into any of the sql supported file formats.

 

Our vendor is working with Winware to facilitate the backend things, but I am aiming at the simplest - a custom sql query to create a dataset by record in a CSV format.

 

We have many custom fields available that I am using to store MC formatted info 'specially to create the appropriate fileds in the MC tool file, based on the (nicely) commented info in the tool library files.

 

We will be running the custom queries every (TBD) minutes or hours to poll part usage and locations, then, based on location and type, export into the appropriately named network based tool libraries available to all our MC seats.

 

This will be a bit challenging and will take some time, but imagine being able to have on-the-fly tool libraries based on what machine, type, location, availability, ad-infinitum....

 

Hope it all comes together.

[Glenn Bouman]

I would like to see a utility that allows the user to fill in the feeds and speeds for 4 different tool sizes, for example .02", .5", 1" and 2" diameter. The utility would then fill in the feeds and speeds and the percentage of matl values for the rest of the tools in the library.

[?Mark]

+1000

Simple, easy, quick and accurate...

Once you nail down speeds and feeds for a few different sizes of the same tool this formula works great.

 

[ 02-01-2007, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: Mark Banaszak ]

[hot_chip]

Has there been any progress on this idea?

[?Mark]

Old topic, who dug it out...

 

quote:

---

Has there been any progress on this idea?

---

For a while it looked very promising and Roger put a lot of time into it. For unknown reason it was abandoned after a year or so

[frostfritt]

I have my Toolsfile producing system up and working.

Input is Tooldata table and toolsgeometry and outcome is toolsfile.txt with individually counted data and right geometry.

 

Outcome can also be a DB if I can get hold of your table look so you can run cribmaster, make querys or something.

 

Let’s say you have 1mm to 20mm drill in 0.1 step, that is 200 tools and then you have 10 materials. That is 2000 tools with individually counted data for just that type of drill.

It produces materialvalues too so if you press “calc feed and speed” you will get close to orginal values.

 

For every mill I get three different tools with different data depending on ap/ae. This is good for use of dynamic mill. I also get actual removed material in cm3/min for all mills. It’s used when choosing most effective mill, ap/ae and dia for the job.

 

This is nice to have toolslibrary right when use of FBM. Predrill dia comes out right for reamers and taps.

For example, if the drill is too short MC will get you noticed.

 

Feel good to know that my men always can easily use toolmanufactures tooldata. No tool is better than they data.

Works fine with mm but I’ll try inch if someone ask.

 

Email me your needs and tooldatatable at [email protected] and paypal me what it’s worth for you.

 

/frostfritt