what is the right command(sequence) for adding new tool?

Hi Andy,

It probably is.

Well, you're right

As I don't know much about lathe, I asked a friend, who recently became teamleader of multi-axis machines, to show me toolmanagement at a multi-axis machine.
Surprise!
He just established the tool-management I had in mind
He shares my opinion, that uses should not have to bother with slots or slot types.

The multiaxis machine has a carussel with static mounted tools and one or more milling spindle(s) with connection to atc.
The machine offers a separate tool-management editor for each spindle/carussel.

And my friend established the "standard", that the machine knows every tool, that is mounted in an adapter/tool holder - no matter wether the tool is inside the machine or outside.
This way the "operator" just cares about tool number - and the machine knows all values related to the tool number. Each tool keeps its tool-number, even outside of the machine.
The places for the toolholders are numbered according the tool numbers.

Yeah - I love it

And the tool is identifyable by comment and picture
Very nice.

So I try to go for it ...

Ah - by the way:
Even in the multiaxis machine, each tool is identified by the known parameters from basic machines, which means: length, radius and head radius for turning tools and X-, Z- and Orientation for static lathe tools.
No tool has parameters for UVWABC axis.
May be, linuxcnc did too much on that area.

I fully agree with you here Reinhard.
I come from using commersial systems at work, and a tool list with all necesary data that is easily shared with the CAM is a must.

So as Fusion 360 is used by a large portion of us as it is available at no cost it should be supported.
Also, Autodesk are open on their formats.

The question is if this is much work to be implemented. And also, who can do it. I can say I don't have the skills to do that.

Then there is the freecam world, which is another good initiative. I haven't looked to deeply in to that yet, but I assume they also have some form of tool management system?

Either way any CAM software needs more data than what you describe here. Geometry of the tool and holder is probably the most importent part. This is needed for colision testing, and is as such essential. This is already freely available in Fusion 360, so there is no reasons not to use it. And I strongly recommend using it!
The question is whether this is part of the library that LinuxCNC is seeing or not.

So as Fusion 360 is used by a large portion of us as it is available at no cost it should be supported.
Also, Autodesk are open on their formats.

Sorry, but I will never ever use or even try Fusion 360 or any other software from Autodesk.
I don't support companies, that have robbery as base of their comercial doing ...
Autodesk: you can use our software, but your work belongs to us. FUCK NO!

If you send me a tool table from fusion, I will have a quick look - but I definitively won't spend much time on it.
.

Then there is the freecam world ...

Do you have some links?

The only good solution I know, that runs on linux systems is CamBam - and that is shareware. Not expensive and worth every dime, but not free.
But it runs on linux and there is support for linux ...

My first choice!

Deskproto is another affordable CAM - not free too and it does not run on linux.
But it runs standalone without network access, so yes, it would be a choice.

If you know any CAM system, that runs on linux and has support for linux, I would be happy to hear about it.
.

... with Fusion replaced by FreeCAD.

Sorry Andy - but here I disagree completely.
FreeCAD is bullshit and is not usable if you want to do CAD in serious.
The developer don't have a leader - any one codes on its own nose, which leads to fully incompatible worksheets. I followed freecad for some years, but then I gave up - for me, its crap only and not worth to spend the time in learning how to work withit.

cheers Reinhard

Why are you so harsh on FreeCAD? I've only played with it a little bit in the past year, but I thought it made pretty nice tool paths once I figured it out. I really don't have much experience with other CAD programs though, but working with FreeCAD was very different from the one CAD/CAM I do know. (Enroute)

Hi Todd,

as long as you only play withit, things seem to be acceptable.
Just try to realize a "real" nontrivial Model and apply changes that happen during time being.
... and then tell me, that freecad did not waste your time, broke your model without recovery-possibility ...

I think the CAM features (Path workbench) are relatively new to FreeCAD. Especially the adaptive tool pathing (HSM) only were added with v0.18.

I'm no expert on FreeCAD, but it seems like some people are able to do some real and non-trivial work in it to me!

Sure! FreeCAD has several magnific developer, that realize fantastic things.
But when you have to apply changes, which are natural in long term projects, than freecad will corrupt your model and/or model history, without any chance of rollback ...
When you have a problem with freecad, its very likely, that you get the answer: thats not the problem of freecad, but of library xyz ...

But hey - that's my experience. May be you made others ...
.

At that time i was not aware there is a CAM for it so i moved on to BlenderCAM, and this is a beast!

Well - blender is my workbench for fast shots as well for complex things.
I startet to learn blender at the same time as freecad. FreeCad could not convince me at all, but blender did it. FreeCAD developer blame blender for not being precise, nor CAD nor parametric ...
But the point for me is: blender never destroyed a model and I could modify anything after years - it allows own libraries and for so linking between different files and the layer system of blender is outstanding. Never saw something similar elsewhere

cheers Reinhard