PRIME MOTIONThe tool library in Manufacturing
Operations take their cutters from the same library you manage on the Tools tab (see The tool library): the five vendor libraries and your own. There is one library for the whole app, not one per design.
Picking a tool
In an operation's drawer, open Tool Library › Selection. A new operation reads Select a tool — Prime Motion never picks one for you.
| Control | Use |
|---|---|
| Search (number, name, Ø)… | Type part of a tool number, a name, or a diameter such as 6 |
| All | Every tool in every library |
| Favorites | The tools you starred. Empty until you star one: No favorites yet. Tap a tool's star in any vendor tab to add it here. |
| Vendor tabs | One library each |
| ☆ / ★ | Star or unstar a tool. Favourites are kept for every design |
Each card shows the tool's silhouette, name and a line such as Ø6 mm · 2 flute · ‹vendor›. Tap one to pick it; the list closes and the header shows the tool, with Change to open the list again.
A Drill operation lists only drills.
What a pick copies
Picking a tool copies its diameter, flutes, type, tip angle, shank and its feeds and speeds into the operation. Values that scale with the diameter, such as stepover and stepdown, are worked out again from the new diameter, except those you have typed yourself.
The operation keeps its own copy. Changing the tool in the library later does not change operations that already use it; the operation says Library tool changed since this was picked — the op keeps its own numbers. Pick the tool again to take the library's new numbers.
Presets
Where a tool has cutting presets for more than one material, preset chips appear under it. A preset changes feeds and speeds only, never the tool's shape.