Recommended test
Use one contour and one pocket so cutter-dependent geometry is easy to compare.
- Open CAM → Setup → Tool → Open tool library, or click Tool library on the CAM rail.
- Search the built-in list and select a cutter. Confirm its exact diameter and measured illustration appear on the right.
- Choose Add tool, select Flat end mill, Ball nose, or V-bit, and enter its measured construction data.
- Change flute count and cutting style. Compression cutters should also request the transition height; V-bits should request included angle and tip diameter.
- Save the tool. Close and reopen the library to confirm it remains under My tools.
- For a flat end mill, choose Use for new operations, then create a contour or pocket and verify the stored operation uses that cutter.
- Save and reopen the project. Its embedded cutter record and operation assignment should remain exact.
01 · REUSABLE RECORDS
Keep built-in tools separate from personal and project tools
Built-in cutters are stable read-only references. Duplicate one when it is a useful starting point. My tools are saved locally for reuse in future Cadivari projects, while From this project exposes custom records embedded in an opened file but not yet stored in the personal library.
Calculations and project data remain millimetre-first. Inch names are recognition labels only; 1/4 inch is stored exactly as 6.350 mm and 1/8 inch as 3.175 mm.
02 · EXPLICIT OWNERSHIP
Default cutter and operation cutter are separate
The Default cutter in Setup is used for operations created next. Its question-mark tooltip makes this scope explicit. Every stored contour or pocket keeps its own tool ID, so changing the default cutter does not silently rewrite existing machining.
Each expanded operation has a Cutter row. Reassignment immediately rebuilds cutter compensation, pocket stepover distance, stock containment, motion, 2D/3D preview, animation, G-code, and preflight from the selected diameter.
Cutter diameters use three-decimal millimetre precision throughout the CAM interface. A 3.175 mm cutter is therefore always identified as 3.175 mm, never rounded to 3.2 mm in a shorter label.
03 · PHYSICAL CUTTER DATA
The form describes the cutter rather than a machining recipe
Every custom record stores tool type, cutting diameter, shank diameter, cutting and overall length, flute count, cutting style, and centre-cutting capability. Compression bits add their transition height. V-bits add their included angle, tip diameter, and maximum cutting diameter. Manufacturer, part number, and notes are optional searchable identifiers.
The measured SVG diagram updates while values are edited, making diameter and length mistakes easier to see before saving.
The library describes physical cutter geometry and construction. Feed, plunge, stepdown, stepover, spindle speed, stick-out, material suitability, and measured runout remain operation- and machine-specific decisions.
04 · OPERATION-SPECIFIC CUTTERS
Each operation exposes only compatible geometry
Flat end mills drive general contours, pockets, and stock Facing, as well as specialist operations such as fret slots. V-bits remain dedicated to V-groove and V-carve engraving. Ball-nose tools currently drive the specialist Fretboard Surfacing workflow, where rounded-tip compensation follows the stored flat, constant-radius, or compound-radius physical surface while the machine keeps the cutter vertical.
05 · EXPLICIT TOOL STAGES
One Carbide Motion file or separated GRBL files
Enabled operations remain in their safe numbered order and are divided into contiguous cutter stages. Shapeoko / Carbide Motion mode writes an initial and subsequent M6 T… prompt with an exact-diameter tool list and comments around every change. Separate-files mode writes one numbered, M6-free file per stage.
Known 3.175 mm and 6.350 mm presets use Carbide tool numbers T102 and T201. Carbide Motion may display only the T number for an unknown custom cutter, so the exact diameter remains prominent in Cadivari and in the exported comments. See the tool-change export guide.
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