Quote Originally Posted by mountaindew View Post
How Sprutcam used tool numbers has always been annoying to me! In the past Tool ID and number # were the same or maybe not when stored in database but could be completely different with different parameters in a part program or in different operations even. "willy nilly data management" and time consuming to compare all the fields. Looks like now there are different text highlights to warn you of some differences. And a few options for data management and how to keep it better aligned and updated.
I have used a 2 crib strategy for a while, with a very large master tool crib file. Then I pull from it to build and maintain tools in USE file with numbers that align with PP. Might be a little more straight forward to manage these files now.


File import with WCS from Ironcad has always been one way. I did have to uninstall and reinstall plugin to get it working right. If I use a export file like iges then it will warn me of changes and allow update but no WCS on import.
I send direct to cam from cad and there is no link back. Either way it does not retain or I cant trust it to retain links to features. So I end up repeating the job setup step for every operation.

Ya its true for many CAD software, I think the more expensive packages have smart identification and classification of features so it does not matter that much to them and they work probably far better and with more accuracy, with retaining the same stuff more often.

with SC it seems that with my CAD if I do not add new features that create new faces or edges all that stuff, then it will work fine. For example when I draw in CAD and use a parameter file to change the dimensions of the part then SC will about 80% of the time retain all my stuff the same, but if I do regenerate full model I think it does something internally in the CAD and different internal faces, edges are assigned and then SC screws things up, and I have to reselect all the faces edges per operation.