A process that has an associated tool shop also has a set of associated tool materials. By using the VPE Manager, you can add and remove tool materials, and view and modify tool material attributes (see the VPE Administration Guide). Each of a tool shop’s associated materials is an instance of the tool shop type’s associated tool material type, which specifies tool material metadata. It specifies what kind of information is stored for the tool materials, including material attribute names and default values. You manage tool material metadata with the CMWB.

CSL modules can access the collection of a process’s associated tool materials with the toolMaterials field of the CSL standard input toolshop. Here is an example from the Injection Molding process in the Plastic Molding process group. It accesses the tool shop’s associated material (there is only one in this case), and assigns it to moldMaterialStandardMoldBase:

Each element of the value of toolshop.toolMaterials has one field for each attribute defined by the tool material type. Here is another example from the Injection Molding process in the Plastic Molding process group. It accesses the tool material attributes heightMultiplier, coeffA, coeffB, and coeffC. Note that, as in the example above, the tool material has been assigned to moldMaterialStandardMoldBase.

See CSL Language Overview for more information on CSL.

CSL field names, such as heightMultiplier, are specified in the Field Name field of the tool material type table (see Viewing and Modifying Tool Material Types). The corresponding attribute name displayed in the VPE Manager is controlled by the CMWB column properties dialog. This dialog also controls the formatting, column grouping, and column properties displayed to the end user—see Working with Column Groups and Column Properties.

This section covers the following tasks: