Mick, I was surprised to get exactly what I asked for so immediately. It is greatly appreciated! I've been swamped with work and haven't had a chance for fun programming lately. I'll definitely dig into this as soon as possible. Many thanks.

We have the option to set the toolpath group and the .nci file = (machine name + delimiter + increment) or (filename + delimiter + increment) via the config settings. What about when we import a load of operations from a similar part and then manually rename the toolpath group and then the nci file for several toolpath groups, couldn't the computer do this for us? The functionality is nearly built in already. It would be awesome if we could overwrite the toolpath group names (name + delimiter + increment) and make the nci (and nc) filenames follow suite. Is the ability already there and I'm missing it? Has anyone written a hook for this? If not, how would a fella begin with this C-Hook stuff?

Awesome! I didn't expect such a generous response. I'm honored. Thanks a lot. Edit: In another comment, you had asked me to cite an example. One thing I did manually was to alter the number of flutes (change 2 to 1) for all drills. That's done now, but still a good example of desired capability. One thing I *almost* did was append the diameter to the end of the tool name (tool ID?). I decided against doing that and made a post mod in the ptoolcomment postblock to do that, so that the actual programmed diameter is appended to the tool comment at post time, to prevent any accidental lies in my comments. Something I may want to do in the future is use the tool's step and peck values when programming. I would *definitely* want to set that programmatically to avoid pecking a calculator for each tool. Thanks again.

This will be a learning experience. I have done some work with VB.NET and am comfortable with Visual Studio. Some google searching has led me to believe that ADO.NET may be the way to go here, and I am really ignorant in that department. If anyone here is familiar with ADO.NET, could you tell me if I will be able to access the file directly, or will I need to set up a virtual machine to serve the database? Edit: Upon further reflection, I have decided that learning a new language is a lot more work than editing some tools one by one. I think the simplest solution for me is to wipe out most of the tool library and edit the tools that are left, one by one. hakunamatata.gif Edit2: It sucks to edit 150+ drills one by one, doing something that the computer could do with a click of a button. I'd like to set all of them to 1 flute so that IPR is displayed when programming. I'll get it done manually in this case, but ... If anyone comes across this thread and cares to explain like I'm five how to edit the tool database programmatically for Mastercam 2017 that would be great. If I ever figure it out I will post an update.

The text I was initially referring to would be generated from a right-click menu in the Tool Manager. In the older versions of Mastercam, you could highlight tools in the Tool Manager, right-click, and export to a text file. The first part of the text file would be a key explaining the output, and below that would be a table of codes for each tool. All tool attributes would be available: name, type, diameter, corner radius, stepover, speed, feed, etc. It made it really easy to make changes to multiple tools, e.g., coolant on for all drills, stepover a certain percent of diameter for end mills, etc. Then the text file could be converted back into a tool library by importing the text file in Tool Manager. It seems that it is now a relic of days gone by.

In previous versions we had the option to export tools to a text file via Tool Manager, manipulate the text compumatically with our own programs, then import the text back into a tool library via Tool Manager. It seems that the option to convert to text is no longer available. Editing the tools one at a time is too tedious. I would really like to let a script do the work for me. How can we do this with Mastercam 2017? thanksinadvancesmartpeople.gif

That's a handy bit of info. Thank you.

Digging up this old thread because I had the same problem in Mastercam 2017. Switching to coolant "from tool" is not a solution. What is desired is to have a default for Before, With, or After when using coolant from operation defaults. Fortunately, it is possible. The solution seems basic enough that I expect it would work on much older versions of Mastercam as well. When you are setting operation parameters for a toolpath, if it is a newer-style toolpath then there will be a save button in the upper left corner. Clicking that button will save your Before, With, After settings for any coolant that is set to On or Off. If it is ignored, the Before, With, After won't be saved. If it is an old-style toolpath that doesn't have the save button, just right-click anywhere on the "Toolpath parameters" page and choose "Save parameters to defaults file". So the capability to save that setting is there, and leaving that capability out of the control definition manager was apparently an oversight, and it has been that way for at least seven years now so there is not much hope that it will ever be fixed. It is a pain to work around, but it's easier than making your own Mastercam from scratch. Just work with what you've got, and remember that if you ever change the default operation from the control definition, you will probably have to save it this way again to regain your coolant setting. Here is the method I used for setting the same coolant default for several operations: Open a new file in Mastercam Select a machine Skip the following steps if you are sure of your default operations filename: <begin steps to skip> Open the Control Definition Manager Choose "Operation Defaults" in the tree on the left Make note of the exact file name for your defaults file. (It will be shown above the toolpath manager in the control definition.) Close the control definition manager <end steps to skip> Right-click in toolpath manager Click "Import..." Under "Source library" click the open folder button In the file name box, type * and press enter Be sure to choose the file that is specified as the default operations file in the control definition. (The changes will not necessarily be saved to the file that you choose now.) (They will be saved to the file specified in the control definition.) Click "Open" Hold down the control key and click all of the operations you want to edit. Click the + button. It will import the operations and give you a success message. Click the X button Now hold control and select all the operations that you want to have the same coolant setting. Then right-click and choose "Edit selected operations" then "Edit common parameters..." Hit the checkbox next to coolant and make your settings (Look, the Before With After options are there!) Then close the dialogs. Now to save your changes, open the parameters window for each toolpath and save it to the defaults file using either the save button or the right-click menu, as mentioned in the second paragraph in this text.