Recent Posts

21

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Edit G Code

« Last post by JohnHaine on November 15, 2025, 10:54:34 AM »

If you select config/general config on the menu bar, there is a control near the top centre where the text editor is selected.  Mine is set to Notepad - what is yours?  Notepad (a windows app) doesn't have an autonumber option but there are others that do.  Notepad++ might do it.  Google is your friend.

Why do you want to number lines?

22

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Edit G Code

« Last post by cowpoke on November 15, 2025, 09:32:12 AM »

Windows 11

23

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 Edit G Code

« Last post by JohnHaine on November 14, 2025, 10:17:17 PM »

Nothing has changed kin M3 for over 10 years. The gcode editor isn't part of mach, it just calls up a Winows text editor which is where your problem may be. What win version are you using?

24

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 Hobby using extraordinary amounts of CPU

« Last post by Lucid_moments on November 14, 2025, 09:02:44 PM »

Greetings all.
Running Mach4 4612 build with ESS plugin 278.1

So I had this popup for the first time ever warning FIFO issues with reference to ESS, and possible loss of steps if unresolved. The system had been in standby for a few days to look for trouble areas after an extensive modification. I had already finished the lions share of files on the first side of this part. had no problem till after flipping it for 2nd side features, some simple pocket and contour work, when all these alerts happened. There was no other software running. Task Manager indicated Mach4 using 65% CPU. So I finished up and rebooted the ESS and then Mach4. Once again CPU usage was above 60%. I have run the same machine with much more modest desktop PC as many do. But due to recent push by Microsoft and some other software I license, I bought a recent model, one of those Mini PC's (should have done it sooner) running an Intel 3.6Ghz 16GB Ram with Win11.
Not to brag, but that much older PC could manage to run Mach4, be online with several Chrome browser tabs, YouTube music playing in my BT earbuds, have Fusion 360 on another screen. Not so much as a hiccup. Sure that was devil may care attitude. But when you are making wood chips it's not such a big loss if you lose integrity or steps.
On the other hand, Aluminum bar stock is quite expensive and I don't practice that behaviour anymore.
I am writing this post from a PC that has two different 3DP Slicer software running, 3D modelling software, 30 tabs in Google Chrome browser and yet only using 8% CPU at idle and peaks at 40% once I swap over to the design app.
Thoughts?
Have yet to reboot the Win11 PC

25

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Bad News?

« Last post by cd_edwards on November 14, 2025, 05:49:49 PM »

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. It was kinda concerning especially with how little is being posted in the groups.im not just talking about machsupport forums. Warp9td cnczone are the same

26

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Bad News?

« Last post by smurph on November 14, 2025, 05:17:38 PM »

MachPro is VERY much in super duper uber beta phase.  VERY experimental, if you can even call it that.  In the end, MachPro will look nothing like what you have downloaded.  We have gone away from putting a numeral in the name and it will simply be called Mach or MachPro.  What you downloaded was the result of taking the 4 out of all of the exe names and source code with absolutely ZERO testing on my end.  The initial side effects of removing said "4" are;  Mach 4 licenses do not work.  I took the 4 out of Mach4Lic.dat filename and the core isn't even looking for it.  Plus any references to "Mach 4" in the license itself have been removed.  So even if you renamed a Mach4Lic.dat file, the checksums will fail.  All of the code is now signed with a Microsoft code signing certificate which caused all of the checksums on the plugins to change so a Mach 4 plugin will fail checking the checksum and it will not load or register. 

I setup the MachPro directory for the future and just filled it with the last few builds I made while making the naming changes.  I put those installers in there JUST to test the code signing.  Had I known it would cause any consternation, I would not have put that directory up there, much less anything in it.  So I'm taking it down in order to not cause anymore confusion. 

As it sits now, MachPro is a long way off.  I'm sure there will be product rollout information when it gets a LOT closer to reality.  But that is not my department so it won't be coming from me.  As for how things sit at the moment, I'm still the Mach 4 (and future MachPro) programmer.  And I work on Mach 4 every day. 

Steve

27

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Bad News?

« Last post by Steve Stallings on November 14, 2025, 03:06:17 PM »

If you are downloading stuff from the FTP area for DevelopmentVersions you should not expect these to be software that is in ready to run condition. This is an area for experimental stuff. It could be almost usable, or just chunks of code along the evolutionary path.

Artsoft, the associated Mach3, Mach4, and the MachSupport web site etc. were purchased by the folks at MachMotion. They have worked behind the scenes to help develop Mach4 and test it for many years. For now the MachSupport.com web site continues to be the presence for interacting with Mach software sales and support. I would not jump to conclusions about their plans going forward. Development does continue and Stephen is still involved. Brian has a new separate life doing integration of automation systems, often employing Mach software as the engine.

Steve Stallings (not the Stephen who writes Mach4 software)
PMDX

28

Mach4 General Discussion / Bad News?

« Last post by cd_edwards on November 14, 2025, 07:41:31 AM »

I was hunting around on the ftp server and found a MachPro directory in the mix. I downloaded and installed the program. Attempted to start it with some errors's. No Motion and a missing wxmach.set file. I renamed an old mcIndustrial.set to wxmach.set and restarted. This time it worked and I was in machpro.  Tried the same thing with my ESS plugin and MachPro will not recognize it at all. As well, my license file is considered invalid..  I wonder if this is how ArtSoft will roll now. New program, same problems with features that should work but give error's and that'll be another $200 for a license.

Frankly for me, this would be the end of Mach and I'd look at some other option. I purchased Mach3 originally and upgraded to Mach4 as an early adopter. So early that Industrial was a carrot given at the time. I have ALOT of hardware for mach3/4. In fact I just recieved another C25xp from CNC4PC with ESS yesterday in the mail.  Recently I recieved an "offer" to upgrade to some companies hardware for relatively cheap since they had purchased ArtSoft and wanted to provide me with an opportunity to "upgrade". There's very little information about what is going on and no clear statement. How about it Steve or Brian(does he still work there?) can we have some information about what is going on, what the options are.

29

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: mach4 feed rate bouncing ( changing rate)

« Last post by cncmagic on November 12, 2025, 11:11:30 PM »

just a guess but I expect its blending one move to the next... if you program a straight move with a single feedrate I think you'll find its not changing in the move itself. 

30

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 probing script

« Last post by cd_edwards on November 12, 2025, 03:28:57 PM »

If I add the proper setup to the button's for help which involves loading the script since it's a separate instance, I  can see the help for about a millisecond. As the OK button is not respected.

McTouchOff provides some error messages as well. For some reason the file is not found in the modules directory. Once I moved it to a directory it was looking at, all is good.