Building Your Tool Library in CamDRAW
The tool library holds every cutter, graver, drill, laser and jet you work with, together with its dimensions and cutting data. Setting it up once means every operation afterwards inherits the right numbers instead of you typing them each time.
Opening it
In the Toolpaths section of the CamDRAW docker, the tool list icon sits at the right-hand end of the row above the operation list, next to the two arrows that move operations up and down.
It can also be opened from inside any operation window, using the icon beside the Tool dropdown.
The library opens in its own window: the list of tools on the left, six tabs across the top on the right.
Two tool lists, not one
CamDRAW installs two libraries, one holding tools with parameters in inches and one in millimetres. They are separate files in your settings folder, Tools_INCH.tdb and Tools_MM.tdb.
Which one opens depends on the current CorelDRAW document unit. A millimetre document opens the millimetre list, an inch document the inch list, and any other unit opens the inch list.
If your tools appear to have vanished, check the document unit first. You are almost certainly looking at the other list.
As a rule, work in one unit throughout: document, machine and tools the same.
The buttons at the bottom
Below the tool list on the left is a row of icons.
The first adds a new tool. The second deletes the selected one. The third duplicates it, which is the fastest way to create a variant of an existing tool.
Two further icons move the selected tool up or down in the list.
At the bottom right, two more import a tool list from a file and export the current one. Exporting is how you move a library to another computer or share it with a colleague.
The six tabs
General holds the tool name, the tool number used for tool changes, and the tool shape, either cylindrical or conical. The name is what appears in the dropdown, so it is worth naming tools after what they are rather than leaving a default.
Dimensions holds the diameter and, for conical tools, the tool angle. For a laser, plasma or waterjet tool the diameter is the beam or jet width, and it drives the kerf compensation.
Cutting data holds path spacing, cutting depth, the normal, finishing, roughing and plunge feed rates, and the spindle speed.
Leads holds default lead-in and lead-out values for this tool: tangential or linear, radius, sweeping angle and distance.
Tabs holds the default width of material bridges for this tool.
Other holds the raw material description, the pierce time for laser, plasma and waterjet work, and three free information fields. All of these are available as placeholders in the G-code output.
Saving changes
Changes are only kept when you click Save at the bottom left of the window. Clicking Cancel or closing the window discards everything you have edited.
This catches people out regularly, particularly after a long session adjusting feed rates.
How tools reach an operation
When you select a tool in an operation, its settings are applied automatically: cutting data, feed rates, diameter and depths.
That means correcting a feed rate in the library fixes it for every future operation using that tool, while operations already created keep the values they were given. To update an existing one, open it with a right-click and Edit, reselect the tool, and confirm.
A practical way to set it up
Start with the tools you actually use rather than filling in everything at once. Seven default tools are installed to work from, and duplicating the closest match is faster than creating one from scratch.
Name them so you can identify them in a dropdown under time pressure: diameter and purpose beat a catalogue number.
Export the finished library once it is worth keeping. It lives in your settings folder and survives updates and uninstallation, but an exported copy survives a failed hard drive as well.