'Horizontal' routing of contour cutouts (UCCNC)

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm using Fusion 360 with UCCNC and a Stepcraft S600. I need to route contour cutouts in some plastic enclosures so that I can fit various connectors. This particular enclosure is too large to be placed on the machine bed and routed 'vertically' along the Z-axis in the usual manner. Instead, I have a right-angle bracket that allows me to fit the spindle at 90 degrees - i.e. horizontal.

When it comes to Fusion 360, I have defined a setup normally, with the machine coordinate system having the Z-axis vertical. Then, for the 2D contour operation, I define a new coordinate system in the tool orientation options with the X-axis remaining the same, and the Y-axis and Z-axis swapped:

Horizontal routing

It all looks OK, and the simulation runs fine. But when I come to generating the g-code with the UCCNC postprocessor, I get an error. Here is the output:

Information: Configuration: STEPCRAFT UCCNC
Information: Vendor: UCCNC
Information: Posting intermediate data to '\\desktop-4d5vfvn\Users\Eva\Desktop\CNC\1001.nc'
Information: Total number of warnings: 4
Error: Failed to post process. See below for details.
...
Code page changed to '1252  (ANSI - Latin I)'
Start time: Monday, November 18, 2019 3:37:21 AM
Warning: function getProgramNameAsInt does not always return a value
Warning: function getProgramNameAsInt does not always return a value
Warning: function getProgramNameAsString does not always return a value
Code page changed to '20127 (US-ASCII)'
Post processor engine: 4.53.0 9
Configuration path: C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Fusion 360 CAM\Posts\stepcraft uccnc.cps
Include paths: C:\Users\Anthony\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Fusion 360 CAM\Posts
Configuration modification date: Thursday, May 23, 2019 10:53:08 AM
Output path: \\desktop-4d5vfvn\Users\Eva\Desktop\CNC\1001.nc
Checksum of intermediate NC data: 6a17f4a0ff0b618b216e36039ccf2bf7
Checksum of configuration: 78b7a8ad1915626fc7bf1f0bd2b15104
Vendor url: http://www.cncdrive.com/
Legal: Copyright (C) 2012-2018 by Autodesk, Inc.
Generated by: Fusion 360 CAM 2.0.6670
...
Warning: Work offset has not been specified. Using G54 as WCS.

###############################################################################
Error: Tool orientation is not supported.
Error at line: 721
Error in operation: '2D Contour2'
Failed while processing onSection() for record 433.
###############################################################################

Error: Failed to invoke function 'onSection'.
Error: Failed to invoke 'onSection' in the post configuration.
Error: Failed to execute configuration.
Stop time: Monday, November 18, 2019 3:37:21 AM
Post processing failed.

The error appears to be 'Tool orientation is not supported'. Am I asking too much of UCCNC? What can/should I do?

Many thanks.

[daniel_lyall]

If the Z-axis is Horizontal you need to define it like that in the setup.

It is how Horizontal machines do it left-right X, up down Y, in out Z (can be other letters as well) and in your case, Z and Y are swapped, it might pay to ask on the UCCNC forum as well to see what those guys have to say.

[Anonymous]

That would surely render the Tool Orientation section of the 2D Contour dialog (under Geometry) pointless?

[johnswetz1982]

Tool orientation was not intended for what your trying to do so it shouldn't even be considered "pointfull".

[daniel_lyall]

Is the Z-axis on a B axis or a C axis and do you have a link to this angle thing?