How to: Using Vendor Supplied Tool Holder Model to Automatically Define Holder Steps

Having an accurate representation of your tool holder is critical to creating a collision-free program. However, defining a tool holder can be a tedious process, manually interrogating the model for the holder steps. A new tool release in NX1980, Holder Source – Solid Body, can make short work of this process by using a vendor’s solid model to automatically extract the holder steps. Once the holder steps have been extracted from the model, the holder can be saved to the library and reused on other tool assemblies. The blog will cover using Holder Source – Solid Body, Exporting, and Retrieving tool holders from the library. Keep reading for the full tutorial on “using vendor supplied tool holder model to automatically define holder steps.

Another Method | How to Use a Vendor Supplied Tool Holder Model to Automatically Define Holder Steps

ii. Method 2 – Drag and drop the model file from Windows File Explorer into the workspace.

1. 1. When dragging and dropping the step file into the workspace, the model is brought in as an assembly component. A component cannot be selected with the Holder Source Solid Body tool
   2. Create a link body of the imported component
      a. Geometry > WAVE Geometry Linker > Select the imported solid model

1. Create Tool
   a. Home > Create Tool
   i. The tooling Type and Tool Subtype are unimportant since we are only creating holder geometry. Type = mill_planar and Tool Subtype = MILL will be used in the example.
   b.  Switch to the Holder tab
   c.  Change Holder Source from Specify to Solid Body
   d.  Select the imported solid body
   e.  Specify the Mounting point.
   f.   Select the center point of the tool where the holder interfaces with the spindle
   i.  Depending on how the solid model is imported into NX the CYSY may need to be modified.
   1.  The ZC axis of the CYSY will point towards the spindle.
   g.   With the Mounting point selected and the CYSY in the correct orientation select Extract Step Parameters
   i.  The holder steps will automatically be extracted from the model.

3. The holder can now be saved to the library and reused in other tool assemblies.
a.  Add a Description and Holder Library Reference
b.  Export Holder to Library
i.  With the holder saved to the library the tool creation is no longer needed,    the dialog can be OKed or canceled.

Using the Holder Source – Solid Body to extract the holder steps and saving the tool to the library, you can quickly create an accurate tool assembly.

4. Retrieve the holder from the library
a.  Home > Create Tool
i.  Switch to the holder tab, select Retrieve Holder from Library
ii.  Define Tool parameters
iii.  Switch to the holder tab > Retrieve tool from library > Select the tool that was created using the steps above

The End | How to Use a Vendor Supplied Tool Holder Model to Automatically Define Holder Steps Tutorial

That’s a wrap for our latest NX CAM tutorial! I hope you learned something new and if you still have questions or would like to suggest another blog topic, do not hesitate to leave a comment below this blog post.

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