Turning ON Tool Change and Safe Z Positions

[CanAm1]

Hello All,

I have noticed on the settings screen there is an area to input Tool Change Position.
How does one turn this feature on? It would be handy to have the machine move to an easy to reach spot to change tools.
Also, how does one get Safe Z to function too.
I have search through the documentation, videos and within Mach3 itself and have not been able to spot these..
Thanks in advance

Mark

[Hood]

Tool change position if I recall was used with a button on the screen but its been a long time since I used it, probably Mach 2 days

Safe Z is set from Config menu the Safe Z

Hood

[Hood]

Here is the VB that was in the button on Mach2 screen so you could add a button with it in or could add to your M6 macro or make a custom m code up to call a move to the toolchange position you have set.

REM Context 10003
x = GetUserDRO( 1200 )
y = GetUserDRO( 1201 )
z = GetUserDRO( 1202 )

code "G0"  ' to switch things to G0 mode if not there already
code "G53Z" & z
code "G53X" & x & "Y" & y

Hood

[BR549]

Be aware before you crash the machine(;-) that those coordinates need to be in MACHINE corrds not users coord. The machine needs to be refhome at startup to insure the correct positions BEFORE that function is used.

To get Machine coords jog to where you want it to be then from the main screen select machine coords and use those values. that way the machine MOVES to the correct spot regardless of the user offset and tool fixtures being used.

Just a thought, (;-) TP

[CanAm1]

Thanks all for the inputs.
I tried my hand for the first time at tinkering around with a screen set.
I added a hot key to one of screen one buttons that did not have a hot key and somehow lost my positive X drive.
Wound up having to reinstall the entire program. One sure needs to be careful.....
Everything is back to normal now and I think I'll do a lot more reading up on what the heck I'm doing.

Mark

[BR549]

It is ALL very easy to do (;-) ONCE you have figured out all the HARD parts.

Don't give up you will figure it out.

(;-) TP

[budman68]

Thanks all for the inputs.
I tried my hand for the first time at tinkering around with a screen set.
I added a hot key to one of screen one buttons that did not have a hot key and somehow lost my positive X drive.
Wound up having to reinstall the entire program. One sure needs to be careful.....
Everything is back to normal now and I think I'll do a lot more reading up on what the heck I'm doing.

Mark

Mark,

Just a tip for working with screensets, think of it like modifying any windows file. Always make a quick backup of the screenset you want to alter so that you don't have to jump through hoops to get back into production. Ask me how I know 

Dave

[CanAm1]

Thanks Guys.
Backups are one of those areas where we know we need to do it, but so often put it off until it's too late.
One other issue I had was having 2 versions of Mach on the computer, different folders, but it sure seemed to confuse the loader and other things.
Now I am back to one version period.
What started my troubles is I have just put a pendant together and 98% of it works. There is still a couple of functions that have issues so I went ahead and prematurely tried dabbling into the Mach inner workings.

Mark