Tool Management for CAM Assist for Mastercam

Mastercam Tool Manager

The Mastercam Tool Manager is a stand-alone application; you’ll find it in the Start Bar, in the ‘Mastercam 2025' folder.

As you’ll probably need to use the Tool Manager frequently, for easy access, it’s recommended that you pin it to Windows Start/Task Bar, or create a shortcut on the Desktop

Tool Management in CAM Assist

Tool management in CAM Assist makes use of Mastercam’s Tool Manager in conjunction with CAM Assist’s Tool Use tab.

Pro tips

When onboarding tool databases for use with CAM Assist, be sure to check both the Tool Manager application and the Tool Use tab in CAM Assist to ensure that the intended tools and usages are configured appropriately.
Be aware of the working units of the tool in the Mastercam Tool Manager, and of your configuration in Mastercam. When working in different units it can be somewhat challenging to align the speed and feed values between the views.

CAM Assist uses Tool Assemblies
- If there are no valid Tool Assemblies in the selected Tool Database, CAM Assist cannot run
  - See here for a Quick Shortcut to Creating Tool Assemblies in Mastercam
- You can see the number of tools assemblies associated with a Tool library in the Tool Use tab

For a guide to getting your tools into assemblies, watch the YouTube video Quick shortcut to create tool assemblies in CAM Assist for Mastercam.

CAM Assist creates feeds and speeds by default by using an internal Cutting Parameters engine
- Visually, Cutting Parameters-generated Tool Uses are shown without a blue border
- If you want to keep CAM Assist from using a specific Usage, click it. When it is grey, it will not be selected by CAM Assist.
To add user defined feeds and speeds, use the Cut Parameters in the Mastercam Tool Manager Application
CAM Assist applies the cut data defined in Mastercam's standalone Tool Manager application to users tool set.
CAM Assist to use a combination of the pre-set name and the part material assigned to each pre-set to assign its applicability.
The Cut Parameter name needs to contain the tool number and operation type (such as roughing, wall finishing, and helical boring) only.
CAM Assist uses the feed per tooth, tool diameter and surface speed defined in the tool manager to calculate a unique spindle speed per scenario.
CAM Assist DOES NOT use the single value for spindle speed assigned in the tool geometry.