TopSolid ANSI Tooling Library Installation and Use

Follow the link or scan the QR code to begin the registration and download process.

REGISTRATION LINK

If you have already registered and received your download link, you may skip ahead to the Download section.

Register

Fill out your company’s name, your name and email address and click Submit.  The download link will be emailed to the provided email address.

You will receive an email with subject line ‘Download Instructions for new Tool Library’. 

Once received, open the email, inside you find two download links.  First will be a link to download the library data and the second link to download installation and use instructions.

The link will re-direct you to a Microsoft OneDrive folder.  The download is a .zip file containing 3 items, 1 .msi installer file and 2 .cab data files.  Click the Download button to start download.

After downloading the .zip file, you will need to extract the compressed files. 

•  Open the Downloads folder on your C Drive

• Right click the file named TopSolid USA ANSI Tooling.zip, choose the Extract All option

• Select a destination folder for the extracted files. Browse to the desired save location and click Extract. 

Organize

It is recommended to save auxiliary TopSolid information in a separate folder, such as libraries, post processor and license files.  Create this folder on a D drive location (preferred) or in the Documents folder on your C drive if no secondary drive exists.  [ex.  D:\TopSolid Information]   

Before installing the libraries using the Windows Installer Package (.msi), it is very important to first shut down TopSolid. 

Don’t forget to save your work!

To begin installation, open the folder where you extracted the files.  If you chose the ‘Show extracted files when complete’ option, this destination folder will automatically open.  You will find the 3 files ready to install, it is important these files are saved together in the same folder.

• Double click the TopSolid USA ANSI Tooling windows installer package
• If you receive a Windows security warning, select More info, then Run anyway

• Click Next in the Setup window

• Accept the terms of the License Agreement, click Next

• Click Install

• Another Windows security may pop up to confirm you want the installer to make changes to your computer, click Yes.

• A progress bar will monitor the installation.

• When the install is complete, click Finish

The new libraries have been saved to your TopSolid PDM, however they require a complete Check-in to finish the installation.  To finalize, simply launch TopSolid, a Libraries Import window will prompt you to select libraries to install.  Make sure all libraries are checked and click the green check to continue.  

A progress bar will monitor the check-in process.

Note:  If this step is skipped, the libraries will not be available for use.

In order to use these libraries in any Projects, you will need to first reference the libraries.  To reference a library in a project:

• Open a TopSolid Project
• Right click on References, select Reference Library….

• Browse through the list and select the new library(s)
• Green check

Note:  You can select multiple libraries using CTRL+ or Shift+ when browsing the list.

Note:  The Library Manager organization may look different on your computer, if you cannot find the libraries you installed use the Search button at the top of the window.

Note:  Don’t forget to reference these libraries in any Project templates you may use.

The ANSI Milling and Tooling library ship with a total of 4 libraries.  Following is a description of each library and what the intended purpose of the library is.

TopSolid USA ANSI Milling Tools

This library contains all of the individual milling “stick” tools.  You only need to reference this library in your project (or your own library) if you need to access the tools within the library in this form.

For example, if you are going to create your own tooling library using HSK holders, then you will add a reference to this library (TopSolid USA ANSI Milling Tools) and your Holder library. This will allow you to create your own tooling assemblies for use in TopSolid Cam.

Another reason to reference this library in a project would be if you are working on a mill/turn machine and are using machine components for your turret holders. In this case, you will want to reference this library so you can add the specific “stick” tool to your holder in a cam file.

TopSolid USA CAT Tool Holders

This library contains the individual CAT Holders. You only need to reference this library if you are going to build new tooling assemblies based on these holders.

TopSolid USA CAT Tooling Assemblies

This library contains the assembled library of all milling “stick” tools using the CAT holders.  This library is provided as a sample assembly Tooling library.  If you wish to use it as is, just add only this library to your project references.

TopSolid USA Turning Tools 

This library contains the library of turning stick tools. It should be referenced in your project to be usable. It is intented to work with machine components as turning holders for turrets. 

You can also build complete assemblies for the turning tools that include your machine holder. To do so, you will need to create your own library of machine holders and then build your assemblies.

Once references have been created and the libraries have been used, is not recommended to uninstall these libraries.  There is not an automatic procedure to remove references and delete libraries. 

Warning:  DO NOT use the Remove function of the Windows Installer Package, this will delete more data than needed and possibly destroy your PDM Database.  This is a non-recoverable modification and data loss will occur.