What are Practical Applications of the Tool Orientation Origin?

[Anonymous]

I am having difficulty understanding what the actual purpose of this function is in a rotary setup as the tooltip doesn't really explain what this is intended to be used for, nor does the manufacture parameter reference.

Can anyone better explain how the WCS origin in the Tool Orientation section of the Geometry Tab works, or point me to a more detailed explanation?

[johnswetz1982]

You would only use Tool orientation if you are doing multi axis work, mostly 3+2. You would have your initial setup orientation that you can use and perform operations without having to use tool orientation, then you would turn orientation on to index you work piece to perform operations rotated in regards to your initial setup. Look in the cam samples folder for examples.   

[Anonymous]

perhaps I wasn't clear enough with my question.

I get how tool orientation works for multi axis setups; I have programmed several, but I don't get why there is an option to select a new origin point if you already did so when creating the setup. It seems redundant.

[seth.madore]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

...I don't get why there is an option to select a new origin point if you already did so when creating the setup. It seems redundant.

---

Far from it!

Not every machine has DWO or TCP controls. In my shop, I use "Selected Point" in my multi-axis work. My post processor has been configured to treat that as a new location and all my XYZ values come from that point. Using multiple work offsets, I'm able to achieve excellent control over the part as I deal with temp changes, material and tool deflection and what not.

[vworpi]

Yep, it's super useful to have a second datum coming from a different origin.

Main one for me is that it gives a readable program that can be dimensioned from the drawing datum, a much readable program for the setter/operator.

If it's something you're interested in, you probably need to set mapWorkOrigin to false, in your post, as detailed in this thread. (Note the knowledge page it initially points to has incorrect information).

Fusion does become a bit cumbersome when you have a lot of tool cycles involving tool orientation, orientation and datums have to be re-set on a a per CAM cycle basis.

My (excellent :)) idea goes a long way to improving it. It just needs a few more votes

[seth.madore]

@vworpi under my commercial LibertyMachine account, I too posted a similar idea to the HSM IdeaStation a couple years ago. It was "archived".

This is a significant pain point for Fusion and one that I hope to see some attention paid to over time. There are so many workflows out there that do not have access to DWO or TCCP control, it's a significant handicap to not have EASY  multiple WCS control. NC Programs does help out some, but that only goes so far...

[vworpi]

I've proven a job out today with 83 operations, at least two thirds of them have tool orientation, new origins and four separate work offsets.

This is my bread and butter kind of work and it's a real PITA to have to set 50+ datums when programming up the job.

That little change to my workflow would make me significantly more efficient and remove any possibility of me mis-setting one of those 50+ additional datums.