Now I'm having a new issue... and it makes no sense to me.
For some reason, random Z-rapid movements won't work.
But it's random every time I run the program. (random as in they happen at certain spots in the program but not consistently... sometimes they work other times they don't work at the exact same line of the part program)
I block skip the Feed rates, so I can run the program faster (because the Run from here command doesn't work in Mach 3 and it always tries to run it from the the first line of my first subroutine no matter what I do... )
I fixed one of them by putting G0 on it's on line then the Rapid Z movement on the following line. But other lines that have the G0 and z-rapid movement on one line work perfectly fine, but others, written the same way, skip the Z-rapid movement. It makes no sense.
The tool path that is generated shows the proper movement on the screen, however when I run it... it doesn't make the movements.
It's always during a Z-rapid (+ and/or -) movement that follows a subroutine (first line immediately after a subroutine).
I would make the general assumption that there is some kind of issue when writing such a movement after a subroutine, however, it works in some places but not in others. After putting the G0 and the Z movement on two separate lines at one of the troublesome area's it fixed the issue. However, I don't understand why I should have to do that, when it works perfectly fine in other lines.
Also. Why can't I utilize the "Run from Here" command on the tool path screen, no matter what I do or what line I put it on, it always jumps to the First line of my first subroutine. Never does it attempt to run from the line I have select. Even if I am in Comp Run and manually enter the Line number then try to "Run from here" It ALWAYS resorts to the same line.
Another issue I was having... I tried using a G52 Offset later on in the code to simply profiling a shape, and after I did this... all of the Rapid Movements prior to the offset post really funny and combine Z and XY motions in areas where the motions are completely on separate lines and should not be moving at the same time. It also generates Random ZXY rapid movements I never even programed on weird areas connecting coordinate points from random lines that otherwise would have no direct connection to one another.
This is becoming extremely irritating. Especially considering that I then deleted the G52 lines and everything I wrote past them, and even after regenerating the tool path, it showed these lines. I had to close down Mach and reopen a copy of the G-code file that was prior to me making any changes...
EDIT: I realized these odd "white" rapid movement lines that have strange orientations that connect points, go away when I delete a G41 P.125 radius offset command in the program (I thought they had to do with the addition of the G52 offset... pardon me). What's strange though, is that when included on the program it makes those lines in area's that are not even related to the offset too path... area's where the tool won't be anywhere near? When I test run it, the program never moves in any of these lines... but
why do they appear at all?
Note: I am not talking about the Radius Offset lines that follow the designated tool path I have specified, just the Dotted/Rapid Movement lines that are all over the place making connections to coordinate points in what appears like random order, just zig-zagging all over the places in linear XYZ movements.
I know the general conclusions would be that somewhere in there these are faults of my own (being that I am a beginner) but no matter how much I reference my Manuals and go over my lines of code, I can't help but think Mach 3 is buggy as hell... Everyone says it runs flawlessly, so why do lines of code written the exact same operate differently at different parts of my part program?
I have mach 3 on 3 different PC's and I get these issues with all 3 (which further leads one to believe it's operator error
... or the alternative that my Copy of Mach 3 or the way I installed it is flawed) but I can't figure out what I am doing wrong or why things are not working the way my Machine manual says they will or the way the CNC programmers Hand Book says they will.
This is really frustrating to me...
I would really appreciate any insight into my issues.
Sorry to ask so much, I just can't seem to figure out the source of my many issues I am having. (most likely Operator error)