Tool Life

To open the Tool Life dialog, select the tool you want to manage in the table in the Tool Mapping dialog and click the Tool Life button.

The Tool Life dialog has different options depending on if the tool is a drill or a milling tool.

Drills

The Tool Life dialog for drilling tools has these options:

• Use a single tool. (Turn off tool life for this tool) — Select this option to disable tool life management for this tool. A single tool performs all operations that are scheduled for this tool slot.
• Divide the number of holes equally between a specified number of tools — This option divides the work of the tool, in terms of number of holes, equally among the Number of tools you specify.
• Limit each tool to a specified number of holes. Create as many tools as needed. — For this option you specify a limit in Number of holes and additional tools are assigned when the limit is reached. No tool cuts more than the Number of holes you specify. Additional tool slots are then assigned to the same tool and the work is divided among those slots. When the NC code is created, a tool change is inserted when the limit is reached.

The Tool Life dialog for milling tools has these options:

• Use a single tool. (Turn off tool life for this tool) — Select this option to disable tool life management for this tool. A single tool performs all operations that are scheduled for this tool slot.
• Divide the cutting time equally between a specified number of tools — This option divides the work of the tool, in terms of cutting time, equally among the Number of tools you specify.
• Limit each tool to a specified number of minutes. Create as many tools as needed. — For this option you specify a limit in Number of minutes and additional tools are assigned when the limit is reached. No tool cuts more than the Number of minutes you specify. Additional tool slots are then assigned to the same tool and the work is divided among those slots. When the NC code is created, a tool change is inserted when the limit is reached.
  Note: Time measurements only consider cutting times. Time spent in rapid moves is ignored.
• Divide the cut distance equally between a specified number of tools — This option divides the work of the tool, in terms of cut distance, equally among the Number of tools you specify.
• Limit each tool to a specified distance. Create as many tools as needed. — For this option you specify a limit in Distance and additional tools are assigned when the limit is reached. No tool cuts more than the Distance you specify. Additional tool slots are then assigned to the same tool and the work is divided among those slots. When the NC code is created, a tool change is inserted when the limit is reached.

Restrictions for Tool Life management

• Tool life management is active for milled parts, multiple fixture parts, and tombstone parts.
• It is not active for turning, turn/mill, or wire EDM parts.
• You must generate toolpaths to activate tool life management.
• For milled parts, tool life management is only active for the creation of a single program. Therefore it is active for single-Setup parts, or 4-axis or 5-axis indexed parts. For 4-axis and 5-axis parts, if Setup dominant is selected, you must also select Generate single program to enable tool life management. See the Indexing tab of the Stock Properties dialog for more information on indexing. If you have a multiple-Setup milling part without indexing, you must deselect all but one setup in the Part View to enable tool life management for this setup.
• Tool life applies only to the use of a tool during the running of a single program. Tool life information is not stored permanently in the tooling databases.