NO MORE 4TH AXIS ??

[gttjeff]

We are running a 4th axis job and we come in this morning go to make some adjustments and 4th axis is no longer in standard fusion 360.

All our other 4th axis jobs wont post either. Did every one else know 4th axis was going away and only going to be available in ultimate ?

[balsmen · Accepted solution]

Hi @gttjeff,

Sorry things weren't what you expected this morning. The use of "Tool Orientation" in CAM was in a preview state prior to the November 9th update of Fusion. By enabling the preview, you acknowledged the messaging saying:

"CAM - Tool Orientation - Allows for 4 and 5 axis positional programming. Additional costs may be associated with this feature when released."

OR:

"Tool Orientation is a preview parameter that we've made public to gather feedback. Additional costs may be associated with this feature when released. Would you like to enable the Tool Orientation preview?"

That preview was removed with this update, given the release of Fusion Ultimate.

That being said, your operations using the Tool Orientation should still work, as long as you haven't edited them or attempted to regenerate them. If you had saved the document, you could go back to an older version and protect those toolpaths so that you don't lose them. As long as the red exclamation point isn't next to your toolpaths that were using Tool Orientation before, you should be able to still post them like you were able to before.

Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion.

Thanks,

Noah

[Anonymous]

So when will this feature be released either via an additional cost for add-in or Fusion Ultimate???  We use a lot of 4th positioning and are in a bad spot now as we have just swapped over to Fusion exclusively.  Also, was there a warning we missed that this preview feature was going to be removed on the Nov 9th update??

[LibertyMachine]

You can buy Fusion Ultimate right now, actually. It's not cheap, but it is cheap considering what it gets you; Advance Simulation, Advanced HSM which includes 4/5 axis toolpaths as well as probing.

AVAILABLE HERE

I don't believe there was any warning when it would go away, as the developers have been hesitant about putting dates on specific features rolling out.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, did not realize Ultimate was available currently.  Guess we'll be upgrading...

[HughesTooling]

Here's the preview page from before the update. It isn't clear whether Tool Orientation is going to be an addon for standard or exclusive to Ultimate. Might be worth finding out if it's all you need rather than upgrading to Ultimate.

@brianrepp any ideas on this?

Mark

[brianrepp]

Thx for tagging me, @HughesTooling.  There are currently no plans to make this an add-on option for the standard subscription to Fusion 360, so Ultimate is your best option if it's required.  Over time, we'll also be continuing to add more and more to Ultimate, which should make the already fairly high-value package even moreso.

[daniel_lyall]

@brianrepp does fusion standard have any 4th axis in it like 4th axis indexing useing the old way of setting the 4th axis useing z and x or z and y. If so I will need to rename some of my vids

[al.whatmough]

@daniel_lyall You are correct, tool Orientation (that was turned on with the preview mode) has been released as part of Ultimate.

[daniel_lyall]

@al.whatmough a,

I know that part has gone that's not what I was meaning.

Is there any 4th axis at all in standard this is what I need to know, so I can rename some videos before I get more flack.

[al.whatmough]

No 4X in standard.

Other than creating multiple setups for each orientation and then having multiple Work Offsets on the machine.

[daniel_lyall]

Thanks Al