stock material bizzarro world

[MitchPflederer]

I'm currently overhauling our tool data base and I noticed that if I have a stock material selected while importing a tool from the database my feeds and speeds attached to the tool come in no problem. BUT! if I change the stock material after importing the tool the feeds and speeds do not get updated. ive messed around with the tool family and that updates it but then it messes up import. it's almost like pmill isn't going and reimporting the tool data when you switch the stock material. has anyone ran into this? if so, what was your solution?

[Sean571 · Accepted solution]

So yes, PowerMill does not switch the stock material feeds/speeds once the tool has already been created, unless it has a tool family. Tool families are annoying and so I wouldn't use them by the way. The only solution is just to re-import the tool with a different stock material selected in the tool database. Not ideal, but that's how PowerMill was developed.

[evo80]

@MitchPflederer 

What I can't understand is why there's an option to change the tool stock material in the Tools folder drop down menu when this doesn't actually change the feeds and speeds of previously loaded tools, bizarre!