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MachPro General Discussion / Re: Perfect DRO block.
« Last post by joeaverage on September 29, 2026, 02:08:15 PM »Hi Paul,
you may think its easiest to have a widget button......I do not!
I've had twelve years operational experience, six of those years daily, with a DRO block with a <Zero Axis> button alongside and be able to edit the DRO numeric content
thereby imposing what amounts to a coordinate shift. It works in Mach4, and at least in the Tools tab of MachPro it works as well. What I want is THAT DRO block
to be instantiated on the main Gcode tab of MachPro.
Over the last few days I've been working my machine hard and I've been taking particular note of those functions and features that I use often, and those that I seldom if ever use.
Top of that list is the DRO block I have described. I want and need it top-dead center all the time.
Next on that list is <GoTo Work Zero>, I use it a lot for touching off and am frustrated that it is unreliable at best in MachPro.
Another thing that I use a lot is Speed edit. If I am doing any manual or MDI type machining I routinely type into the Spindle speed DRO and hit <Enter> This has always worked
in Mach4, but not so in MachPro. You type in a number and sometimes it might stick and the spindle respond accordingly, but mostly MachPro repopulates the speed DRO with what
'it thinks' it should be. Hugely frustrating. You might say use the spindle speed slider.....but I don't want or need the spindle speed slider, I can and do determine the spindle speed
to effect the operation I'm attempting, I type it in and hit<enter>........thats it. Pretty damned simple. I want and need the MachPro spindle speed DRO to replicate that edit authority
that I have in Mach4.
My machine in standard tune is capable of 15m/min in all axes. That is itself de-tuned from the 25m/min that its capable of. In 95% of my operating I find even 15m/min too aggressive,
so in normal operating condition I select the RRO (Rapid Rate Override) to 50%, thus bring the g0 rapids down to a manageable 7.5m/min. Only when I have long tool paths especially if it entails
many g0 moves do I up the ante to 15m/min. Thus my preference for MachPro is jus simply two buttons, or maybe just one toggling button, i.e. 50% or 100%. Is it possible to
edit the functionality of the RRO?
Last thing (gripe/wish) is that on the right hand widgets panel I have a manual jog block, and until I get my wired pendant running properly I'll have to rely on it heavily, but the good news is that
it works perfectly. What dies rather concern end even frighten me on several ocassions is when I first fire up MachPro the jog speed is autmatically 100%. To jog at that speed is to break things.
If you use the slider then you can reduce the jog speed to say 5% (comfortable) or 10% (fast but without being frightening), and thereafter everything is fine. Is it possible to set the defualt setting
of the jog speed slider to 10% say?
Craig
you may think its easiest to have a widget button......I do not!
I've had twelve years operational experience, six of those years daily, with a DRO block with a <Zero Axis> button alongside and be able to edit the DRO numeric content
thereby imposing what amounts to a coordinate shift. It works in Mach4, and at least in the Tools tab of MachPro it works as well. What I want is THAT DRO block
to be instantiated on the main Gcode tab of MachPro.
Over the last few days I've been working my machine hard and I've been taking particular note of those functions and features that I use often, and those that I seldom if ever use.
Top of that list is the DRO block I have described. I want and need it top-dead center all the time.
Next on that list is <GoTo Work Zero>, I use it a lot for touching off and am frustrated that it is unreliable at best in MachPro.
Another thing that I use a lot is Speed edit. If I am doing any manual or MDI type machining I routinely type into the Spindle speed DRO and hit <Enter> This has always worked
in Mach4, but not so in MachPro. You type in a number and sometimes it might stick and the spindle respond accordingly, but mostly MachPro repopulates the speed DRO with what
'it thinks' it should be. Hugely frustrating. You might say use the spindle speed slider.....but I don't want or need the spindle speed slider, I can and do determine the spindle speed
to effect the operation I'm attempting, I type it in and hit<enter>........thats it. Pretty damned simple. I want and need the MachPro spindle speed DRO to replicate that edit authority
that I have in Mach4.
My machine in standard tune is capable of 15m/min in all axes. That is itself de-tuned from the 25m/min that its capable of. In 95% of my operating I find even 15m/min too aggressive,
so in normal operating condition I select the RRO (Rapid Rate Override) to 50%, thus bring the g0 rapids down to a manageable 7.5m/min. Only when I have long tool paths especially if it entails
many g0 moves do I up the ante to 15m/min. Thus my preference for MachPro is jus simply two buttons, or maybe just one toggling button, i.e. 50% or 100%. Is it possible to
edit the functionality of the RRO?
Last thing (gripe/wish) is that on the right hand widgets panel I have a manual jog block, and until I get my wired pendant running properly I'll have to rely on it heavily, but the good news is that
it works perfectly. What dies rather concern end even frighten me on several ocassions is when I first fire up MachPro the jog speed is autmatically 100%. To jog at that speed is to break things.
If you use the slider then you can reduce the jog speed to say 5% (comfortable) or 10% (fast but without being frightening), and thereafter everything is fine. Is it possible to set the defualt setting
of the jog speed slider to 10% say?
Craig