Added A axis to XYZ mill, what can be done in AXIS?

I was just returning here to to ask if master-rt was compatible with Weezy RTAI and the question was already answered!

Installed master branch on a test machine that is identical to my shop machine but missing stepper motors and the cast irom of the actual mill.
At first Axis start I got an offer to convert my old setup to this new version. I accepted the offer.

This is the screen after start and load of the test program "ring"


Screen after "home all", This is different from 2.7.12 in that axises are shown in manual mode


Here I tried to move the tool tip to the perimeter of the workpiece and touch off Z to 0. Seems to be a bad idea.
Funny that the diameter of the work piece changes.



Then I tried to move the tool to the perimeter and touch off W. Now this seems promising. I will try it on the real machine and see how it works. Trying to test touch off without a real machine is very confusing to me.

You can turn off the offset display in the "View" menu.

Axis doesn't actually know where the centre of rotation is, so the preview just assumes that it is at X=0, Y=0, Z=0.
We have discussed ways that the preview could "know" where the rotation axis was, but nothing came of it.

I am a user of Axis on sevaral machines since Ubuntu 8.04 or so.
I have never clicked on the menu list "view" before.
Thanks for the pointer!

andypugh wrote:
Axis doesn't actually know where the centre of rotation is, so the preview just assumes that it is at X=0, Y=0, Z=0.
We have discussed ways that the preview could "know" where the rotation axis was, but nothing came of it.

Did I got you right, that in 2.7.x version AXIS assumes that center of rotation is at home point and there is no way to tell AXIS any other rotation point for the now?

l2-max wrote: Did I got you right, that in 2.7.x version AXIS assumes that center of rotation is at home point and there is no way to tell AXIS any other rotation point for the now?

Yes, that is correct.

Out if interest, if there was a way to tell Axis where the rotation axis was, what method would you expect to use?