Quote Originally Posted by Kitwn View Post
Quite right, but one thing to consider is the common layout for drawing packages on computers is with X horizontal and Y vertical on the screen. This makes the visible drawing area 'landscape' rather than 'portrait' and it makes sense to match this to your machine for those times when you are drawing layouts that are the full size of the machine bed.
Interesting point. If I'm using something like Vectric Vcarve (which I do from time to time - great for text/signboard type applications) then it makes sense to align the landscape screen and the landscape machine orientation. However, using Fusion 360 (which I do a lot these days) then I'm often building up an assembly as part of the 3D model on screen, but picking out individual components for CAM/toolpath generation. It might well be that the alignment of an individual component is not naturally laid out appropriately. For example, the base of the component which would sit on the bed of the machine might not even be in the XY plane in the model. F360 allows you to easily select axes for CAM independently of the original model axes so you can just, in effect, rotate the component in 3D to best fit the machine.

If I knew then what I know now, I might well have configured my own machine to have X running left to right in front of me - the conventional XY layout - even though the machine would then be portrait rather than landscape. Main thing is to understand what you are doing!