X7 Tool Manager

[Aaron Eberhard]

Dowlinzg - I haven't seen it, but I think you'll need to provide a few more details to really find out if others are experiencing it.

 

Are you inside of the tool manager when you try to create a new tool, or are you doing it from inside of Mastercam (right click in the tool selection area and choosing "create new tool")?

 

If the problem happens when creating a new tool inside of Mastercam: Have you tried just opening the tool manager and creating a new tool inside of it? When you close the tool manager task, does the traditional tool creation window come up or is the new (prettier icons/shaded rendering/etc) interface?

 

If the problem happens when creating a tool in the Manager: Have you tried creating a different type of tool (launch into a shell mill instead of a bull nose, etc?)

[baldhead]

I think it would be great if you could build your assembely inside mastercam and have it work on every type of toolpath. Now its too much wasted time and so I just ignore and cross my fingers the holders don't rub. I load holders in for high speed operations but then have to choose again next time. I tried the new toolmanger but then I got annoyed. I see why verify needs a seperate program and I like the new version. I just don't see why its not easier to make holders in mastercam. I don't even care if they gouge check as long as I can visually see the correct holder in verify. I was hoping it would become easier but seems like its getting more complicated.

[Tony35]

i just got the warning tool database locked

closed it and re-opened it still tells me its locked

any ideas on this one

[specv]

I get these errors when I try to click new tool database>save database>then click on a toolholder i get this series of errors and the tool manager closes. I get them whether i have mc open or not.

This is a brand new win 7 64bit install and brand new x7 install. I did not merge and settings or files, Im starting from scratch.

This is very frustrating, and these are the same errors that I got from the initial release of x7.

[Aaron Eberhard]

I think it would be great if you could build your assembely inside mastercam and have it work on every type of toolpath. Now its too much wasted time and so I just ignore and cross my fingers the holders don't rub. I load holders in for high speed operations but then have to choose again next time. I tried the new toolmanger but then I got annoyed. I see why verify needs a seperate program and I like the new version. I just don't see why its not easier to make holders in mastercam. I don't even care if they gouge check as long as I can visually see the correct holder in verify. I was hoping it would become easier but seems like its getting more complicated.

 

Baldhead - There's quite a few logistical/interface reasons for not wanting to have an assembly builder inside of Mastercam, but one of the biggest reasons is that if it were inside of Mastercam, you'd not be able to have easy access to your tool database without having a valid sim plugged in. Right now, your tool crib guy can build the assemblies, set the proper stick out length, etc. The machinists on the floor can load the tool manager and verify that the tools they're loading are the right ones, etc.

 

It also would have been much more cumbersome to try to integrate cut parameters & material data if it were all integrated, which is another of the big goals of the tool manager project.

 

I'm not sure what direction you're going with "I just don't see why its not easier to make holders in mastercam"? Are you saying it's easier to make a holder in Mastercam than it is in the tool manager? They both use the same interface... And you can now save holders & tools to the same .tooldb file right from Mastercam, so if you'd prefer not to use the tool manager, you never have to open it and things will work exactly like they did before.

 

Tony35 - Sounds like a file permissions issue? Right click on the tooldb file and make sure it's not set to "read only". Next, try to create a new .txt file wherever that tooldb is saved, to make sure you have write access to that directory?

 

Pete - Does it give you those errors if you try to add a holder to an existing database? I'd follow up with your dealer or Tech Support to see if they've seen anything like that?

[specv]

 

Pete - Does it give you those errors if you try to add a holder to an existing database? I'd follow up with your dealer or Tech Support to see if they've seen anything like that?

 

I don't have an existing database to use, like I said this is a fresh install and I am starting from scratch.

[baldhead]

I don't have a tool crib guy. I don't think the new assembly will work with a simple flowline toolpath? I only have about 10 different toolholder styles that I use regularly. I guess I was thinking for years why there is only one default holder file and you have to copy over to get it to work on every toolpath. For a small 1 man shop like mine it would be nice if you could have 10 default holders and you could just link them to your tools and have them work for every toolpath. I can visually see in backplot or verify if the tool is going to rub. Yes I can create a holder but it does not work for flowline or many toolpaths?. I'm sure I'm doing many things wrong but I am a small shop and have to do everything myself so I have not had enough time to learn the new tool crib program. If there is a simple way to link tools to holders and have them work on every toolpath please let me know...

[Tyler Robertson]

I haven't had crashed but I've had it just not create the tool once I hit finish? really frustrating because sometimes the values were painstakingly measured from an actual tool, only to have it not save them.

 

That said, once it works it's great. just set up a new system and for someone using a CAM program for the first time it was really easy to get through

[Tony35]

i checked if it was in read only didnt see anything

closed MC and could open it

[peon]

Tyler, the only time I have seen the new toolmanager NOT SAVE a new tool is when you take too long to create the tool. You must have all your data in front of you on paper. Open the new tool manager and enter your data as fast as you can. Do NOT fart around. You may only have a couple minutes to enter all that data. If it takes you longer to enter that data, the tool manager will NOT save the tool or may crash.

[dowlinzg]

Hey Aaron, all the errors that Pete got are the ones I saw. It didn't matter weather the tool was created in MC or in the tool manager, also didn't matter if I tried a different type of tool. When closed in the task manager it would revert back to the old style of tool creation. I saw this on 2 peoples computers and both of those computers had norton antivirus. We disabled it and it still crashed and in one case we uninstalled it but not sure if the norton blocks things really deep.

[Aaron Eberhard]

Pete - I meant whether you were opening any of the supplied tooldb files (that ship with Mastercam).

 

dowlinzg - I have no direct experience with Norton vs. tool manager, but I can tell you from my years of being an IT guy for a couple of companies, whenever I had a weird issue with any software (I mean, ANY.. Accounting, CAD, CAM, graphics, etc), my first step was to remove Norton. Then start swearing when it turns out that you can't really "remove" Norton, and had to reformat & reinstall. Then I would find the Norton CD and physically destroy it so it couldn't infect my systems again. But that's just me Luckily, I haven't personally ran into Norton in about 5 years, and it's been wonderful!

 

baldhead - That's actually a limitation of the old toolpaths. There is an ongoing project to go over every toolpath and bring them into the modern interface & workflow, and they'll all support holders (just like anything under "surface high speed" does). The team involved in updating them is using this as a great opportunity to go over each of them and apply modern processing techniques and overhaul where necessary, like what happened to peel & blend for X7.

 

Tony35 - Was that a one-time thing, or is it any time Mastercam is open, you get that error?

[specv]

Yes Aaron,

It does the same whether its existing or not. whether Mastercam is open or not. The tool manager is completely un-usable for me and Im sticking to x6 for now.

[Aaron Eberhard]

Pete - wow, odd... Have you talked to Tech Support about it?

[specv]

no, i have talked to my reseller about it.

[specv]

i have 2 computers with roughly the same specs and one runs fine and the other (mine) does not work at all. I uninstalled mc and re-installed and no change.

[Aaron Eberhard]

The only thing I can think of is to get ahold of tech support, who will probably pull in a developer to try to figure out why it's not working..

[arnoldpeter]

i had simlar problem with tool manage crashing i updated my nvidia graphic card driver and problem went away my original drivers were microsoft driver when installing new windows 7 x64

[FROZEN]

I have been trying my best, but seems like a lot of bugs. The finish step over and rough down say hard number in tool manger but when I pull it in to MC it must be %.

[MPf]

Did somebody find a solution for the ToolManager-Shell error? We also run into Problems a couple of times.

I also send in the ToolManager.debug.log and the ToolManager.Exception.log a couple of weeks ago but I still get no response.

Maybe one of you had an idea.

[dowlinzg]

As far as the shell error I have not found a solution but as for the "External component has thrown an exception" I used this method on a windows 7 system.

 

Go to the Control Panel => Region and Language =>Click on "Additional settings" button on the Formats tab =>Go to the Time & Date tab and click on the "Reset" button & click OK.