[jrmach]

I suppose I could be missing something. But I don't see it. It seems that you want to change something about a tool and have it remain listed and selected as the same tool that it was before.... But it's not the same tool as it was before. Hence the tool has changed. It's just how system tools work.

Even when you set manual tools. If the tool doesn't exist in the library, the system will create the tool to set the new parameters on. The only way around that is to create the tools you want beforehand and use those. If you need to change some parameter of the tool, you need to create a new tool with the new parameters.

I don't see that as broken.

come on over soon,,we can swap spit and trade lady's

It's al good

[jrmach]

Duh,,,I agree,,,but it is totally screwed unless you play the silly game of clicks in the correct order..Fact is,,it is an amateur way to go,,I get thatI accept that
Also it is a part of the snazzy simulation...
Real World simulation means jack squat.Over 90 percent parts that are doable with 2 1/2 axis simulation not needed

WTF,,,,for everyone that knows this is a problem,,,which BoB has never thoroughly answered after all these years,,,however with circumstances are right,,that they will show and tell you with the video how simple you can change on the fly ?On one hand according to BoB it is simple and it works,,,for anyone questioning at this point,,,including Al or Burr do you really want to embarrass the software ???I can,,I will,,,,plain and simple,i understand why,,,but,it has flaws,,,btw,,,as advertised,,,I have been over it for years,,,I know how to make it work,,,but make no mistake,,,it has flaws that ar dangerous if not aware of the tool number changing,,,,,it is a bug so to speak,,,,and if BoB wants to defend that,they better start correcting video's.
Very simple,do not advertise that on the fly works,,it is risky business/pay attention Damn I like BoB BUT , I can guarantee you will not see a representative of BoB DEFEND THIS.I am not stupid as so many others are with me,,on the fly,,be extremely careful,,,,yeah go to the tool crib,,,yada,yada and change it there,,guess what,that right there supports the notion that on the fly is prone to failure. not a do or die situation,,,but do not insult the intelligence of the people that actually have used it hundreds r a thousands a time.As earlier,I said I believe why the behavior is such,,,,I can deal with it,but it is a bug of some sort.Stand over my shoulder in the real World and I would gladly show anybody the problem..............not the end of the world,,IT is not a factor for crashig,I have steps and checks to make sure,,,but,it adds time and offers the luxury of insecurity make no mistake,has been #1 complaint for many years.I actually deal with it and really be low key,,,,bottom line,,don't believe bull waste..Again,I cam and do never git bit anymore,,,but is flawed and I would challenge anyone...End of Rant,,,,who took my eye shadow dammitt

[MikeC8]

For feeds and speeds, you will not have to tweak your numbers much if you take the time to setup your materials library with specs that fit in line with your tooling and machines ability's. For most features I only adjust the RPM, to a nicer round number. And I have certain tools, that work best with different values then the default settings provide. If you are manually changing every features RPM and feedrate, then you are doing it wrong in my opinion. Bobcads material library can be very powerful if you take the time to set it up to fit your shop. Out of the box, for the most part it was useless to me.

But that is going off topic, maybe we need a thread on setting up materials properly?

[LeeWay]

I don't seem to have any trouble with Bobcad.

[Idiod]

I don't know if anybody else has encountered this, but sometimes I like to run a Zero cut on the profile of my parts with a finishing end mill. So when I program that feature I only use one profile rough and one profile finish, then I copy the finish tool and paste it as a finish 1. Sometimes this causes the tool number to change on the finish 1 only. As stated, after I post I ALWAYS check the tools. Someone also said that you can save your standard tool crib as a template, I was wondering can you set this template to open automatically when you open bobcad? If so how.

[Beansdiesel]

I don't know if anybody else has encountered this, but sometimes I like to run a Zero cut on the profile of my parts with a finishing end mill. So when I program that feature I only use one profile rough and one profile finish, then I copy the finish tool and paste it as a finish 1. Sometimes this causes the tool number to change on the finish 1 only. As stated, after I post I ALWAYS check the tools. Someone also said that you can save your standard tool crib as a template, I was wondering can you set this template to open automatically when you open bobcad? If so how.

I get this too, copy and paste features or individual tool paths it will always change the number on me.

I get what you are saying Burr, I really should take the time to set up my crib and delete all the stock HSS stuff that came in there from BCC and then it might work better for me. But what I would love to have as an option is just a check box in settings that will turn off all of the tool numbering. I find it much quicker to just throw some quick tool size inputs in instead of doing a few clicks and searching through the crib for the tool I want.

Then besides the tool changing because I "tweaked" the size, the thing that has really been driving me crazy lately is changing the tool number after changing the Feature Depth. I know it might be because it wants to pick out a tool with longer flutes or stick out, but I recently had a .200 deep profile that I went back in and changed to .230 deep and it changed the tool number. So needing a longer tool for that just doesn't make sense to me.

I have only been using BCC for a year now so I know there are things that I could be doing better to help my work flow and efficiency.

[SBC Cycle]

It sounds to me like the trouble the OP is experiencing is not from the automatic tool numbering, it is the fact that "System Tool" is automatically checked every time a feature is created, loaded, or copy/pasted. This is what irritates me to no end. If you uncheck "System Tool" it will not change tools on you if you change something like the depth of cut. At least that is my experience. When "System Tool" IS checked, unexpected things happen. Doesn't seem worth it to me particularly when it doesn't save any "clicks"; it NEVER picks the right tool and I have to re-select the correct one anyway. Then once you have started using "Manual Tools", you can't mix them so now you must always select your tool, even in the off chance it does pick the correct one. :drowning:

Maybe this has already been mentioned, the thread got a little mixed up with posts not appearing. Summary: the tool crib in BCC is the clunkiest part of the software IMO.

[SBC Cycle]

Oh, and since we are all here, can someone point me to the section of the help file that tells us the "correct" workflow? I hear a lot of "misuse" of the tool crib but I can't seem to find the correct usage. I just know what works for me and it's a lot of clicking, re-selecting, double checking, re-numbering.

[jrmach]

I am still looking for my Eye Shadow

[mmoe]

It sounds to me like the trouble the OP is experiencing is not from the automatic tool numbering, it is the fact that "System Tool" is automatically checked every time a feature is created, loaded, or copy/pasted. This is what irritates me to no end. If you uncheck "System Tool" it will not change tools on you if you change something like the depth of cut. At least that is my experience. When "System Tool" IS checked, unexpected things happen. Doesn't seem worth it to me particularly when it doesn't save any "clicks"; it NEVER picks the right tool and I have to re-select the correct one anyway. Then once you have started using "Manual Tools", you can't mix them so now you must always select your tool, even in the off chance it does pick the correct one. :drowning:

Maybe this has already been mentioned, the thread got a little mixed up with posts not appearing. Summary: the tool crib in BCC is the clunkiest part of the software IMO.

I have several different CAM systems and the tool crib is the weakest link in every last one of them.

I would really like the toolpath wizard to remember the last tool you used every time, with the number you assigned it when it was created, since half the time that's a better guess than anything the tool crib will come up with on it's own anyways. I would also like it to remember the settings you last used for each strategy, even when you close the software and open it again. The thing is, you are going to have to change them no matter what if they put the system values in, but if it always remembered your last settings, there is an excellent chance you will do it the same way again and could just click right through the wizard without touching anything. If I do a profile cut, I use the same tangent circular entry every single time, and I never use the values that automatically appear. I would love for those things to already be set when I get to that page of the wizard, with the option of changing them if I need to. The developers obviously don't spend all day creating toolpaths, or they'd see how inefficient some of these things are.

On the other hand, when I think of what we had to do to program in even the best software 10-15 years ago, the difference from then to now is so amazing that I also feel like I'm complaining about something that in the end has made life easier 10 fold compared to then. I just know it could be that much better though. When you click through the same toolpath menus for the 100th time that day, and the same stupid default numbers that I change to the same numbers every time are there AGAIN, it really gets old.......

[Idiod]

I have several different CAM systems and the tool crib is the weakest link in every last one of them.

I would really like the toolpath wizard to remember the last tool you used every time, with the number you assigned it when it was created, since half the time that's a better guess than anything the tool crib will come up with on it's own anyways. I would also like it to remember the settings you last used for each strategy, even when you close the software and open it again. The thing is, you are going to have to change them no matter what if they put the system values in, but if it always remembered your last settings, there is an excellent chance you will do it the same way again and could just click right through the wizard without touching anything. If I do a profile cut, I use the same tangent circular entry every single time, and I never use the values that automatically appear. I would love for those things to already be set when I get to that page of the wizard, with the option of changing them if I need to. The developers obviously don't spend all day creating toolpaths, or they'd see how inefficient some of these things are.

On the other hand, when I think of what we had to do to program in even the best software 10-15 years ago, the difference from then to now is so amazing that I also feel like I'm complaining about something that in the end has made life easier 10 fold compared to then. I just know it could be that much better though. When you click through the same toolpath menus for the 100th time that day, and the same stupid default numbers that I change to the same numbers every time are there AGAIN, it really gets old.......

Bobcad should hire mmoe as a consultant. I would pay for another upgrade just for the changes listed in his post. I do think Bobcad is a good product, and IMO just needs a little to be a great product.

[Beansdiesel]

I have several different CAM systems and the tool crib is the weakest link in every last one of them.

I would really like the toolpath wizard to remember the last tool you used every time, with the number you assigned it when it was created, since half the time that's a better guess than anything the tool crib will come up with on it's own anyways. I would also like it to remember the settings you last used for each strategy, even when you close the software and open it again. The thing is, you are going to have to change them no matter what if they put the system values in, but if it always remembered your last settings, there is an excellent chance you will do it the same way again and could just click right through the wizard without touching anything. If I do a profile cut, I use the same tangent circular entry every single time, and I never use the values that automatically appear. I would love for those things to already be set when I get to that page of the wizard, with the option of changing them if I need to. The developers obviously don't spend all day creating toolpaths, or they'd see how inefficient some of these things are.

On the other hand, when I think of what we had to do to program in even the best software 10-15 years ago, the difference from then to now is so amazing that I also feel like I'm complaining about something that in the end has made life easier 10 fold compared to then. I just know it could be that much better though. When you click through the same toolpath menus for the 100th time that day, and the same stupid default numbers that I change to the same numbers every time are there AGAIN, it really gets old.......

This, all of this....

[SBC Cycle]

I have several different CAM systems and the tool crib is the weakest link in every last one of them.

I would really like the toolpath wizard to remember the last tool you used every time, with the number you assigned it when it was created, since half the time that's a better guess than anything the tool crib will come up with on it's own anyways. I would also like it to remember the settings you last used for each strategy, even when you close the software and open it again. The thing is, you are going to have to change them no matter what if they put the system values in, but if it always remembered your last settings, there is an excellent chance you will do it the same way again and could just click right through the wizard without touching anything. If I do a profile cut, I use the same tangent circular entry every single time, and I never use the values that automatically appear. I would love for those things to already be set when I get to that page of the wizard, with the option of changing them if I need to. The developers obviously don't spend all day creating toolpaths, or they'd see how inefficient some of these things are.

On the other hand, when I think of what we had to do to program in even the best software 10-15 years ago, the difference from then to now is so amazing that I also feel like I'm complaining about something that in the end has made life easier 10 fold compared to then. I just know it could be that much better though. When you click through the same toolpath menus for the 100th time that day, and the same stupid default numbers that I change to the same numbers every time are there AGAIN, it really gets old.......

This is exactly how I would like the tool crib to behave, and I couldn't agree more about keeping the last used value as a default in numerous areas of input.

I also feel a little bit like I'm nit-picking but really I'm just contributing my thoughts on the tool crib. Obviously I'm more than Ok with the software in general, that's what makes the tool crib stand out as a weak point.

[Hood]

Agree totally with mmoe in what he says.
I have kind of got round these niggles by doing as was suggested a while back by someone here, sorry can't recall who

Anyway what I have done is set up two default files, one for Lathe and the other Mill. In these files I have the stock, tool crib etc set up as I would normally like. I then simply open them and the use the Merge option to import my 3d model. You then have to remember to Save As so that the default files are not overwritten with the model included.

For the actual operations I have just saved a load of default ones and import them into the file, for example I will have Lathe facing, OD Turning, ID turning etc all saved with the tools, feeds and speeds I would normally use, all that remains once imported is to select the geometry and calculate.

Obviously it would be much nicer if you did not have to set all this up but thought I would just mention it as it saves me a lot of time and unnecessary changing of values .

Hood

[Superman]

Anyway what I have done is set up two default files, one for Lathe and the other Mill. In these files I have the stock, tool crib etc set up as I would normally like. I then simply open them and the use the Merge option to import my 3d model. You then have to remember to Save As so that the default files are not overwritten with the model included.

A suggestion for this ....would to be to mark the "template" file as READ ONLY ( file properties )
---- so it errors on a SAVE, which forces you to "save as" with a different filename.

[Beansdiesel]

Agree totally with mmoe in what he says.
I have kind of got round these niggles by doing as was suggested a while back by someone here, sorry can't recall who

Anyway what I have done is set up two default files, one for Lathe and the other Mill. In these files I have the stock, tool crib etc set up as I would normally like. I then simply open them and the use the Merge option to import my 3d model. You then have to remember to Save As so that the default files are not overwritten with the model included.

For the actual operations I have just saved a load of default ones and import them into the file, for example I will have Lathe facing, OD Turning, ID turning etc all saved with the tools, feeds and speeds I would normally use, all that remains once imported is to select the geometry and calculate.

Obviously it would be much nicer if you did not have to set all this up but thought I would just mention it as it saves me a lot of time and unnecessary changing of values .

Hood

Thats a dang good idea, I am going to try and start doing some templates like that.

[Hood]

A suggestion for this ....would to be to mark the "template" file as READ ONLY ( file properties )
---- so it errors on a SAVE, which forces you to "save as" with a different filename.

Excellent idea, just tried and it works great
I am now in the habit of doing a Save As but one day I will likely forget and this will stop me in my tracks

Hood