Intelligent analysis and reporting
The ‘Tool use’ table is populated as a result of the selections you make within the General section of CAM Assist’s Tool use tab, as follows:
Tool library - this is the Fusion library that CAM Assist will analyze.
Stock material - this tells CAM Assist to look for cutting data presets that could be used on the ‘Stock material’.
Once the selections have been made, CAM Assist quickly performs the following analysis on every tool in the selected ‘Tool library’:
Are there any existing cutting data presets for the tool that match the preset naming format used by CAM Assist?
For details of the preset naming format, see How to Name Cutting Data Presets.
For each tool Is there a matching preset for each operation that can be performed by the tool?
After the analysis, CAM Assist reports the status of the tool using the ‘Tool Use’ table’s features (see below).
‘Tool use’ table Features
CAM Assist reports its analysis by populating the ‘Tool use’ table’s columns with a list of all tools in the selected ‘Tool library’:
Tool Summary - a summary of the tool’s parameters to enable easy identification.
Allowed Materials - uses a 4-state button for the ‘Stock material’ (see 'Allowed Materials' column, below)
Allowed Operations - uses a 4-state button for each relevant operation (see 'Allowed Operations' column, below).
Status - reports any identified Fusion configuration issues (see ‘Status’ column, below).
‘Allowed Materials’ column
Each 4-state button contains the following:
Abbreviation - for the material (see Supported materials).
Blue border - if CAM Assist has identified any Fusion cutting data presets for the tool that match the Preset Naming Format (see How to Name Cutting Data Presets) then the button is given a blue border.
Color:
Green - if the button is green, it indicates that you have ‘allowed’ CAM Assist to compute toolpath strategies using this tool on the ‘Stock material’.
Grey - if the button is grey, it indicates that you have ‘Not allowed’ CAM Assist to compute toolpath strategies using this tool on the ‘Stock material’.
Tooltip - shows one of the following:
Green button ('allowed') - the tooltip contains a list of the names of all Fusion cutting data presets identified by CAM Assist for this tool.
Grey button ('not allowed')- the tooltip states “The tool will not be used for ['Stock material']” .
For more details of the coloring of the 4-state buttons, see below.
‘Allowed Operations’ column
Each 4-state button contains the following:
Abbreviation - for the operation (see Supported operations).
Blue border - if CAM Assist has identified a Fusion cutting data preset, whose name contains the same operation (see How to Name Cutting Data Presets), then the button is given a blue border.
Color:
Green - if the button is green, it indicates that you have ‘allowed’ CAM Assist to compute toolpath strategies using this tool for the specific operation.
Grey - if the button is grey, it indicates that you have ‘Not allowed’ CAM Assist to compute toolpath strategies using this tool for the specific operation.
Tooltip - shows one of the following:
Green button ('allowed') - the tooltip contains the name of the Fusion cutting data preset identified by CAM Assist for this operation.
Grey button ('not allowed')- the tooltip states “The tool will not be used for ['Operation']” .
‘Status’ column
If CAM Assist has identified a Fusion configuration issue for the tool, an orange exclamation icon is displayed.
Hovering over that icon displays details of the configuration issue.
An alert in the Status column is for your information only: CAM Assist will overcome related issues with an ‘intelligent’ action.
4-State button coloring
The following table shows the coloring of each of the four possible states and what they indicate.
State | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
 |
| CAM Assist will use the tool’s matching cutting data preset's parameters, as defined in Fusion, for the specific material/usage. |
 |
| CAM Assist will use the tool but will generate its cutting data parameters for the specific material/usage. |
 |
| CAM Assist will not use the tool for the specific selected material/usage. |
 |
| CAM Assist will not use the tool for the specific material/usage. |
For detailed instructions on how to use the Tool use table effectively, see How to Get the Most from the Tool Use Tab.
Filtering the ‘Tool use’ table
The tools that are displayed in the Tool use table can be filtered using the ‘Filter’ textbox (just above the ‘Tool Summary’ column).
The list of tools is filtered as you type into the filter’s textbox.
Filter options
Any of the following options can be used for the ‘Filter’.
Tool number examples:
In the Filter, enter ‘22112’ and only that tool will be displayed.
Enter ‘221’ and all tool numbers that contain ‘221’ will be displayed.
Tool type example:
Enter ‘Bull nose end mill’ and only that tool of that type will be displayed.
Tool diameter
Example: enter ‘0.24’ and only tools with that diameter will be displayed.
