Greetings everyone:

It will be a few more months before I own my first CNC Mill. In the mean time I thought it would be wise to try to come up to speed on my G-Code writing and reading by downloading and using the Mach3 program as a Simulator for testing my improvement. (or lack thereof)

After trying out the other freebie CNC Simulator program available on the web, I found out in short order that it would only function for about three months at best, then it would need to be reset/refilled or re-downloaded. After multiple attempts to do just that, I have had no success with any of these options so I went with the Mach3 program instead.

Since this is the Controller Program that I intended to use with any new CNC Mill I acquire anyway, I thought it logical to learn how it works as I'm using it as a Simulator to check my progress.

I have a couple of questions that I believe alot of you more experienced Mach3 users will be able to answer for me.

(1.)--If possible, I want to optimize the use of this Mach3 program strictly as a Simulator for now. As a Simulator only setup, is there any real need for me to go through this program and configure it to the CNC Mill I'm eventually going to purchase?

(2.)--If the "Soft-Limits" setting refer to the dimensions of the work table of a CNC Mill itself, are there configuration settings to specify the dimensions of the parts to be worked on? (example; if milling a 3x4x3 block of aluminum, where in the configuration settings of Mach-3 do I make those settings?

I've watched several of the tutorials available for the Mach-3 program but, I haven't come across the answers to these questions yet. If these tutorials did contain the info I was looking for, that information must have just sailed right over the top of my male-patterned-baldness because I just didn't see it.

Also; I scrolled through all the past posts on the Mach-3 pages on this forum looking at any post that even faintly looked as though they may contain the answers I'm looking for. No luck there either.

For those of you who may be wondering; I'm still up in the air as to which CNC Mill I will eventually purchase. I can tell you that out of necessity it will be one of the smaller BenchTop models.

If any of you have a suggestion as to which BenchTop CNC Mill might be more benefitial for a newbie over another, I'm open to hearing your input on that as well.

Thanks in advance for any insight or help you can give me.

MetalShavings