Better Tool Library (BTL)

Better Tool Library (BTL) is a FreeCAD addon (plugin) that replaces the built-in tool library for the Path workbench. It also provides a standalone tool if you want to use your library outside of FreeCAD.

Warning If you decide to switch back from BTL to the FreeCAD internal tool library, you may lose any extra information that was entered using Better Tool Library, like tool notes and hardness.

Warning I advise you make a backup of your tool library. I guarantee for nothing, there may be bugs.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Better Tool Library	FreeCAD internal library
Modern UI
Provides a shape browser
Tool search
Tool dimension sketch for built-in tools
Can be used standalone outside of FreeCAD
Provides built-in common shapes
Store tool notes and additional info
Auto-generates tool icons
Can be used with no document open
Provides CLI tool for import/export
Read BTL files
Write BTL files		Deletes BTL extra data!
Import from Camotics
Export to Camotics
Export to LinuxCNC

Screenshots

Installation

Prerequisites

Better Tool Library (BTL) is compatible with FreeCAD 0.19 and 0.21.

Installation via the FreeCAD addon manager

• Open FreeCAD
• Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Addon Manager
• Click "+"
• Enter the following Repository URL: https://github.com/knipknap/better-tool-library
• Enter the branch name main
• Click confirm
• Open the Addon Manager via Tools -> Addon manager
• Search for Better Tool Library
• Click it
• Click Install

To run it, just open the Path workbench and there should be a new icon at the end of the toolbar:

Installation in standalone mode

To use via standalone, you will have to install BTL via setuptools.

pip install btl

Alternative installation for the development version:

git clone https://github.com/knipknap/better-tool-library.git

To run the UI, you need to point qbtl to your FreeCAD directories:

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/share/freecad/Ext/:/usr/lib/freecad/lib/
qbtl path/to/your/toollibrary/

CLI tool

Better Tool Library also comes with a CLI tool. After installation via setuptools (see above), you can use it as shown below.

Show the command line syntax

btl --help
btl -f camotics create --help

Print the whole library

btl fctooldir/ show all

(default for -f is freecad, so it can be omitted in that case)

Adding a tool to an existing library

btl fctooldir/ create tool endmill

Converting from FreeCAD to Camotics tool table

btl fctooldir/ export -f camotics camoticstooldir/

Converting from FreeCAD to LinuxCNC tool table

btl fctooldir/ export -f linuxcnc linuxcnc.tbl

Converting from Camotics to FreeCAD tool table

btl -f camotics camtest/ export -f freecad fctooldir/

Links

FreeCAD discussions