We recently made a slow transition to solid tool models (tool + holder .asm), spurred on by getting a new 5-axis machine and wanting full simulation. This was not as helpful as one might think, as there is no usable translation from Creo to NCSimul tools. Additionally, the in-Creo ModuleWorks verification took a back seat during the implementation, with no VERICUT_TYPE parameters being entered for any of the tools. As it is now, ModuleWorks shows just the holder for 90% of the tools I've tried it with.
The solid tools & holders were set up with family tables, including one multi-level table for all the holders. This makes it easy for me to add the VERICUT_TYPE Holder parameter in a single place, but this results in ModuleWorks just showing the tool for 90% of the tools.
As far as I can tell, ModuleWorks pulls a revolved representation from Creo for the tool, but loads the .prt file for the holder. So just the holders showed up originally becuase that was all Creo was sending if the holder had a center hole or wasn't touching the tool. And now ModuleWorks can't go far enough up the family table to find the actual filename to load and look in. (ie we have a CNC_TOOL_HOLDERS family table, with a CAT50_COLLET_HOLDER table containing the specific referenced size such as ER20x4 - ModuleWorks realizes this is a family table, but looks for a CAT50_COLLET_HOLDER.prt instead of CNC_TOOL_HOLDERS.prt)
Is there a way to just pass a revolve for both the tool & holder?
And, while you're here, is there a way to pass tools to NCSimul, instead of recreating them completely?
