How to Import a Tool Holder Library into Mastercam

A click-by-click guide for customers who just bought a tool holder library from Ignite Engineering Concepts. Written for Mastercam 2022–2025; menu wording shifts slightly release to release, but every step below has a same-named or near-identical equivalent in each.

What's in your download

Every Ignite Engineering Concepts library ships as a .zip containing two files:

• [PRODUCT NAME]_INCH.tooldb

• [PRODUCT NAME]_MM.tooldb

Unzip the file first. You only need one of the two .tooldb files — pick the one that matches the unit system your Mastercam machine definition is set to. If you're not sure which that is, it's shown in the bottom-right corner of the Mastercam window (IN or MM) while any file is open. Importing the wrong one won't break anything, but every dimension will display 25.4x off, so it's worth the ten seconds to check first.

Method 1: Merge it into your existing tool library (recommended)

This adds every holder in the file to a library you already use, so it shows up alongside your current tools instead of living in its own separate database.

1. Open Mastercam, then open Tool Manager. You can get there two ways — from the Windows Start menu (Start → Mastercam [your version] → Tool Manager) as a standalone application, or from inside an open Mastercam session via the Toolpaths tab → Tool Manager button. Either one opens the same window.

2. In Tool Manager, find the Library panel on the left side of the window. Click the small arrow to expand it if it's collapsed — this shows every library file Mastercam currently knows about.

3. Right-click on the library you want to add these holders into (this is usually your main working library — the one your machine's toolpaths already pull tools from).

4. Select Import from the right-click menu.

5. A file browser opens. Navigate to wherever you unzipped the download, and select the .tooldb file matching your unit system (INCH or MM — see above).

6. Click Open.

7. Mastercam imports every holder from that file into your chosen library and lists them in the Tool Manager window. Scroll down — new entries land at the bottom of the list by default.

8. Close Tool Manager. The holders are now available the next time you pull a tool into a toolpath, the same as any tool you built yourself.

Method 2: Open it as its own standalone library

Use this if you'd rather keep the purchased holders separate from your working library — for example, to review what's in the set before merging it into anything.

1. Open Tool Manager the same way as step 1 above.

2. Go to File → Open.

3. Browse to your unzipped download and select the .tooldb file for your unit system.

4. Click Open. Mastercam opens it as its own library, shown in its own tab/window inside Tool Manager, without touching your existing library at all.

5. From here you can inspect the holders individually, or right-click any one of them and choose Copy to move just that holder into another library instead of merging the whole set.

Before you start cutting: confirm two things

These are the two mistakes that show up most often in the Mastercam forums when people build or import holders by hand — worth double-checking even on a pre-built library, since it takes thirty seconds:

• Origin/gauge line. Open one of the imported holders in Tool Manager and check that its origin sits at the spindle flange (gauge line), not at the tool tip or some other reference point. If a holder's origin is wrong, every collision check built on it will be wrong too, silently. Every Ignite holder is placed at the gauge line before it ships — this step is about confirming it landed correctly in your library, not fixing anything.

• Units. If your simulation shows a holder that's 25x too big or too small, you imported the wrong .tooldb (see "What's in your download" above). Delete it from the library and re-import the correct one — there's no unit-conversion toggle that fixes this after the fact.

If Mastercam doesn't recognize the file

• Confirm the file extension is exactly .tooldb — some browsers rename downloads with a .zip.tooldb double extension or similar if the unzip step didn't fully complete. Re-extract the original .zip if so.

• Very old Mastercam releases (2021 and earlier) used a different library format. If you're on one of those versions, contact us before assuming the file is bad — this is a version compatibility question, not a file corruption one, and it's a quick fix.

Still stuck?

Reply to your order confirmation email or use the contact form on the site with your Mastercam version number and a screenshot of whatever error you're seeing. Version number first, always — most import issues trace back to a version mismatch, and it's the first thing we'll ask for anyway.