Using Your Own Templates and Tool Library

Your own operation templates and tool library, used together, are what make RockCAM produce programs that look like the ones you would write. This page is the end-to-end version: what to prepare, and how to run it.

Prepare the templates #

1. Create a CAM template file, or a default template on your part template, so that a template is available when you enter the machining environment.

1. Tidy up the operation template names. RockCAM matches on the name, so names that differ only in a trailing space or a stray character will not match.

Prepare the tools #

1. Give the tools a consistent naming scheme.

1. If you use template tools rather than the Excel library, make the names match the patterns you enter in RockCAM. The patterns are prefix*suffix, described in Tool Library and Cutting Parameters.

1. Give the tools you use routinely a tool number. RockCAM prefers numbered tools. If a program does need an unnumbered tool, RockCAM assigns a fresh number.

1. Where a tool is genuinely rarely used, leave its tool number at 0. That marks it as a fallback rather than a default choice.

Run it and check the result #

Run the part, then look at the operations.

• If you are happy with the parameters, you are done.
• If a parameter is wrong, change it on the operation.
• If the template itself is wrong, change the template. Editing the template fixes it for every part from then on.