[Ron2d]

I am in the process of converting my G0704 to CNC, and in the market for control software. Would you purchase Mach 3 or 4? I am new to control software, so wondering if it makes more sense to buy/learn the newest version. Thanks.

[ger21]

Honestly, at this time, it's tough to recommend either one if you've never used any control software.

Mach3 has thousands of users (myself included), but has many bugs that will never be fixed. Most people never encounter these bugs, or work around them.

If you buy Mach3, and want to upgrade to Mach4 at some point, you'll still pay full price for Mach4. There is a current discounted package price if you buy both, though.

Mach4, is unfinished, beta software that may not be finished for another year or more? It currently has a very steep learning curve. It shows a lot of promise, but is taking way too long.

There are a few other controls that are supposed to work "Better" than Mach3, like Planet CNC and Eding CNC. Not nearly as many users, but I've heard good things from those that use them.

[donmarkey]

I am in the process of converting my G0704 to CNC, and in the market for control software. Would you purchase Mach 3 or 4? I am new to control software, so wondering if it makes more sense to buy/learn the newest version. Thanks.

They did have a special with 3 and 4 for $300. Basically buy one get one half off. You can run both on the same machine. I don't know if the special is still going on.
Don

[G59]

Did you purchase the hardware to run with mach?
if not, the EdingCNC comes as a package. You buy the controller and the software comes with it. The system is much simpler and few problems reported.
Support is also provided.

[mcphill]

Flashcut it another one worth looking in to, but may be outside the price point you are looking at. And there is LinuxCNC of course at the complete OTHER end of the price spectrum (it is free).

[G59]

Flashcut it another one worth looking in to, but may be outside the price point you are looking at. And there is LinuxCNC of course at the complete OTHER end of the price spectrum (it is free).

Nothing is ever 'free'. You still need the hardware to run with LinuxCNC, but I know what you meant.

[mactec54]

Ron2d

You can download both & try for free, Mach3 you can run your machine with up to 500 lines of code,all the basics you need to get going all work, Mach4 you can also download & play with it, I don't think it will run a machine though, until you license it, I would go with Mach4 & the Smooth Stepper

Eding is good ( which I have ) but costs a little more than Mach4 & the Smooth Stepper, I have been playing with Mach4, it seems to be good, I have not run a machine or licensed it yet though

[OlfCNC]

You will run a G0704, so you will probably do metal work most of the time.
Mach4 has no deviation settings at all, it rounds corners badly if your machine can't accelerate fast and if you will keep the dovetails then your machine will likely can't accelearate fast.
And I did not even go into details of the lots of bugs I encountered when trying Mach4 out.
I found Mach4 totally useless for my HMB45 (similar to your machine, European version).
Mach3 did a much better job.

[samco]

Yes linuxcnc hardware isn't free. (you need at least a computer with a printer port)

If you go with external step generation/ servos. The hardware is very inexpensive. If you have existing bobs - you could just start with a mesa 5i25 pci card. It is like 2 printer ports on steroids. (high speed step generation, pwm, encoder counting and i/o)

5i25 is $89 and is very expandable. (lots of daughter boards for expansion)

Linuxcnc does have tolerance settings. You can tell the gcode how close you want it to follow programmed path.

If you like to be on the cutting edge - the next version of linuxcnc (2.7) will have Ethernet support. something like the mesa 7i92 is similar to the ESS with a ton more flexibility. think of it as a Ethernet version of the 5i25.

2.7 also has a new trajectory planner that performs very well. (with the same tolerance settings)
G Codes

sam

[OlfCNC]

I suggest to first try to setup Linuxcnc before buying any hardware, if you can get through the settings then there is a chance you can also setup it with hardware.
I myself could not get through even the basic settings, it's not very userfriendly.

[mactec54]

You will run a G0704, so you will probably do metal work most of the time.
Mach4 has no deviation settings at all, it rounds corners badly if your machine can't accelerate fast and if you will keep the dovetails then your machine will likely can't accelearate fast.
And I did not even go into details of the lots of bugs I encountered when trying Mach4 out.
I found Mach4 totally useless for my HMB45 (similar to your machine, European version).
Mach3 did a much better job.

Good to know about the problems you have had with Mach4, what hardware were you using with Mach4

[KW4U]

Is Mach 3 the only software out there that will run a CNC machine? I have just purchased a smaller unit, CNC 6040Z that has a USB port connection. My thoughts are that this is 2015 and surely at sometime, this process has to step up to the new technology of today. I have no problem purchasing the Mach 3 or 4 software, but before I do, I really would like to know if it can be run from the laptop and USB.
Any thoughts?

[datac]

Shocking to hear that after this amount of time, Mach doesn't have things squared away. Yikes......

Linux is a solid performer, but things that we have all been pretty accustomed to having available can often be non-existant or very well hidden. For example, just a few months back, I opened up some of the job files I created with some older Cam programs, and when LCnc finally got to that queue of lines, stopped dead complaining about the start and end points being off. While Flashcut has always had a readily available "setting" to enter a tolerance and as such allowed my files to run, LCnc had this HARDCODED into the program and no such adjustment available to an end user.

Now if your looking for LCnc help, it is readily available via forums and they have some really good participants. When I first brought this problem to light, I got the typical responses that I should get a better Cam program.... sure, but that does NOT help with the thousands of files I have already. The great news and almost unbelievable news was that the issue quickly caught the attention of someone higher up in the Lcnc food chain, and there was suddenly a quick developers review of the issue. They first carefully reviewed what they currently had defined, reviewed whether it was good or bad, and finally concluded to add the ability for adjustment of this tolerance in an .INI file. All within 2 weeks of time !

What I find confusing though is while they do have some GUI dialog windows to make adjustments we are familiar with, not all of them... like this one is included in those dialogs. Another such issue is simple input line Debounce settings. Nothing.... anywhere ! So, you go into the forum and the first thing they tell you is you have noise in your lines. Well, I already run the same machine with Flashcut successfully, so I KNOW noise is not exactly the problem, and I also know IF I had debounce adjustments, I could FIND OUT Quickly !

After much wrestling, I found out that you can ADD debounce settings to the HAL file for any input line you require it on. The problem I had was getting enough of the correct strings to add. Eventually with the forums help, I figured it out, and the machine ran just fine.

Another thing no one tells you is that if you use the fairly decent GUI to get a machine set up, and then manually add lines to the HAL or INI files like in the debounce case above, if you go back and run that setup GUI again, you LOSE everything you manually typed in !

There are no GUI options for a large amount of things, I guess because the Linux world loves their command line so much. You can not even switch between screen sets without editing one of the set up files, which by the way, gmoccapy was one of my favorite screen options. Some, like the default I could not figure out because it obviously was 90% key command operated.

Am I using it now ? No. A couple of deal breakers for me were the fact that the program did not load and pre-proccess the entire job to check for issues or errors but would rather run to the middle of the job and just stop complaining. No Jog after feed hold and no return to feed hold another, but perhaps just the failure to offer a comprehensive visual method of changing ALL settings without jumping between the two main settings files and usually having to shut the program down and restart it for any setting changes to take effect. In Flashcut, I can change quite a few settings MID job,,, accelerations, corner dwells, rapids, jogging rates... all things that help you quickly dial in a job to perfection.

But, it is FREE... and that is something that many people have to take advantage of. I'll stick with Flashcut.... but I certainly would like it if I could afford to do a side by side comparison of Flashcut and Eding CNC.

[ger21]

Is Mach 3 the only software out there that will run a CNC machine?

No, there are several alternatives out there.

I have no problem purchasing the Mach 3 or 4 software, but before I do, I really would like to know if it can be run from the laptop and USB.

Yes, but you'll need to purchase a USB hardware motion controller.
A few of them are:
USB Smoothstepper
UC100
UC300
Kflop.

None of them will work with Mach4 (No plugins), but they'll all work with Mach3.
There are also numerous chinese motion controllers on Ebay.

[KW4U]

Going back over the purchase of the CNC unit, it shows that this USB motion control card is already installed in the unit and that it was specifically designed for MACH 3. So im taking that as it is ready to go. Just looking and reading up on Mach 3, I find it to be something I would be able to do after many many hours of reading and understanding, but wanted to know if anyone had been using a different program that may not be so involved. New to the CNC world, and can see that there are a lot of extremely knowledgeable people out here like yourself that I would like to learn from.
Attachment 283384

[G59]

Ron2d, my advice, just download the trial version of mach and others, and go with what you feel comfortable with.
They all carry a steep learning curve for any newbie.

[ger21]

Just looking and reading up on Mach 3, I find it to be something I would be able to do after many many hours of reading and understanding

Basically, you open your g-code file, jog the machine over to where the 0,0 position should be, zero the axis, and hit cycle start. It's far easier than you think once you know how the process works.

And the process is the same for any control you use. The biggest difference is where the buttons are.

[KW4U]

Thank you!!! Looking forward to this whole process, Thank you for your help!!

[daniellyall]

You will run a G0704, so you will probably do metal work most of the time.
Mach4 has no deviation settings at all, it rounds corners badly if your machine can't accelerate fast and if you will keep the dovetails then your machine will likely can't accelearate fast.
And I did not even go into details of the lots of bugs I encountered when trying Mach4 out.
I found Mach4 totally useless for my HMB45 (similar to your machine, European version).
Mach3 did a much better job.

I have used M4 on two machine a big and small router I have never had a problem with going around corners I use Fusion 360 so it has the same stuff in it as HSM when using adaptive clearing it goes in loops and circles it runs good as you cant see where the cutter enter`s or exit`s the cuts

[PCW_MESA]

but perhaps just the failure to offer a comprehensive visual method of changing ALL settings without jumping between the two main settings files and usually having to shut the program down and restart it for any setting changes to take effect. In Flashcut, I can change quite a few settings MID job,,, accelerations, corner dwells, rapids, jogging rates... all things that help you quickly dial in a job to perfection.

Simply not true, almost all settings can be changed live in linuxcnc...