Getting started

Five minutes from download to checking your own program. Windows 10 and 11.

1. Install

Download the installer from toolpathviewer.com/download and run it. Until the code-signing certificate arrives, Windows SmartScreen may say the publisher is unknown: choose More info, then Run anyway. The installer is per-user, so it needs no administrator password, and it lets you choose the folder.

The download includes 30 days of Pro with no card and no account. After that it becomes Core, which stays free forever.

2. Open a program

Three ways, all equivalent:

• Drag a file onto the window.
• Open… in the toolbar, or Ctrl+O.
• File ▸ Open Sample if you would rather try it on a bundled program first.

The badge next to the file name tells you what the program was recognised as: ROUTER, HOTWIRE, ROBOT or PRINTER. That decision comes from reading the program, not the file extension, so a KUKA program saved as .txt still opens as a robot program. If the badge is wrong, the file is unusual and worth sending to [email protected].

3. Read the view

• Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, right-drag to pan. Fit frames the whole path; ISO, Top, Front and Right snap to standard views.
• Colour switches between rapid-versus-feed, Z height, feed rate and, for prints, layer. Colour by feed is the fastest way to find a block running at the wrong speed.
• Rapids hides the rapid moves so only cutting is left.
• Z slice in the bottom left shows a band of heights, which is how you check a single pass depth.

4. Read the figures

The strip along the bottom holds the numbers worth checking before a job runs: move count, bounding box, cut and rapid distance, the feed range and an estimated cut time. The estimate follows every feed change in the program, including KUKA $VEL.CP blocks, but it ignores acceleration and dwell, so treat it as a floor rather than a promise.

5. Play it through

The transport bar steps, scrubs or plays the path at up to eight times speed, with the code panel following the moving tip. Click any line of code to jump the path to that move; hover a move in 3D to read its line number, position and feed.

6. Check it against your machine (Pro)

Pick a machine from Envelope in the toolbar, or type your own numbers into the panel that appears. The working volume is drawn around the path, and the viewer counts every move that falls outside it, naming the first offending line and the worst excursion. The box turns red the moment anything is outside.

7. Save a job report (Pro)

Report writes a single HTML file containing the figures above, the envelope result and a picture of the current view. It opens on any PC with no software and prints cleanly, so it suits a job folder or a note to whoever runs the machine.

8. Edit and save

Double-click a line in the code panel to edit it. The 3D view re-parses as you type, so you see the effect immediately. Ctrl+S saves back to the same file, keeping its encoding and line endings exactly as they were, which matters on controllers that reject anything but the original format. Ctrl+Shift+S saves a copy elsewhere. Editing and saving KUKA and hotwire programs needs Pro.

Keyboard

• Ctrl+O open · Ctrl+S save · Ctrl+Shift+S save as
• Ctrl+F find · Ctrl+H replace · Ctrl+G go to line · Esc close the find bar

Next: which files it opens and how licensing works.