[adt2]

Hey, folks -

Just a question here. I'm wondering what is the "market breakdown" of the various machine control packages out there? Just spitballing here, but based on my (admittedly limited) time around here the past few months, it seems like there's Mach, then EMC, then there's everybody else.

Not looking for specific numbers or anything, just curious about what the veterans around here think the market share percentages are.

Talk amongst yourselves.

[gridley51]

Should it not be,there`s Fanuc,Siemens,Heidenhain and then all the rest?

[ger21]

I guess you need to define what market you're talking about.

[txcncman]

Yeah. Which market? I assume you mean DYI, but you did not say that. So, we have to consider you mean all CNC.

And just because something is most popular does not mean it is the best for the situation.

[adt2]

Yeah, sorry about that - I meant the DIY market. I don't know a lot about the big commercial machines, but I kind of assumed they run mostly on proprietary software. I was thinking more along the lines of hobbyist/DIY/small shop machines.

[txcncman]

I would think it is all proprietary. I doubt you can unplug your computer running Mach3 and plug it a computer running EMC and have it run. Opposite of you, I do not know the DIY market that well. I am betting the pinouts are different, so takes a different hardware connection also.

[adt2]

I doubt you can unplug your computer running Mach3 and plug it a computer running EMC and have it run.

Why not? If I configure one PC running Mach to run my machine, then swap in a new machine running EMC and configure it to run my machine, I would be able to switch between them at will with no ill effects (other than to my sanity). The machine doesn't care where it gets its signal, as long as it gets a signal it understands.

I meant proprietary in the sense that the software is written by the manufacturer of the hardware. Think "OS X+Mac" versus "Windows+every Tom Dick and Harry hardware maker on earth"; OS X is proprietary, Windows is not (or maybe the Mac is proprietary, and TDH computers are not; whichever). The point I'm getting at is, I'm curious about software you can purchase and download (or download free, as in EMC's case) for use on your own machine. Sorry if I didn't make that clear above.

[ger21]

Just my guess:

Mach3 - 85+%
EMC - 5-10%
A few years ago I was under the impression that Mach3 had over 50,000 registered users, and if that was true, I'd guess there's at least 3 times that now.
Who knows about the others, as only a few users of the others post here.

Eding CNC (formerly USB CNC)
Planet CNC
DeskCNC
KCAM
TurboCNC
CNC Zeus
CNC Pro
Indexer LPT

Do you include FlashCut? WinCNC? Both of these are closer to the $1000 mark

[underthetire]

Also MDSI

[Bubba]

"Who knows about the others, as only a few users of the others post here."
As for myself, I don't post to much about which control program I use as I feel that I will be "shot down" because it is not a GUI interface one.
My program is DOS based and it does what I want so I could care less. I also have the source code so I can modify as I desire.

[ger21]

You're the only one I know here that still uses it.

[Bubba]

Gerry,
As a moderator on the Turbocnc group, I can also relate to the number of people who "raised" a stink when it was suggested that it be ported to windows!.
As I said, I think there are a lot more out there that remain silent rather than start a "stink" cause we like the program we have.

I personally have made several changes to the program to do things as "I" want it to and to fix some "features" that have been there for a period of time!

In addition, I can run the controller on "throw away" computers instead of state of the art units. Also, my "hard drive" is a CF card and as a result is solid state. Don't think I could do that with a windows/linux based system

[ger21]

Don't think I could do that with a windows/linux based system

Sure you can. I've seen people running Mach3 from CF cards. I run it from a $20 PIII with an 8Gig HD.

[Bubba]

OK, I'm wrong. Isn't the first or last time.

[adt2]

Just my guess:

Mach3 - 85+%
EMC - 5-10%
A few years ago I was under the impression that Mach3 had over 50,000 registered users, and if that was true, I'd guess there's at least 3 times that now.

Thanks - that's about what I figured. FWIW, according to ArtSoft USA, they have 30,000+ registered users and that number grows about 10% annually.