Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: rockyrude on December 28, 2018, 12:21:53 PM
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I have scoured the manual and cannot find what the max work area for mach 3 is. If my part is less than 12" x 16" all data imports into mach 3, if larger only part of it imports. Any thoughts?
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Do you have a valid license for your mach3
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Yes
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Hi,
you can cause the machine boundaries to be displayed on the toolpath screen if the setting is made in Config/Toolpath per the attached.
The boundaries are the soft limits in Config/Homing-Limits page.
If a Gcode file is loaded which is larger than the boundaries it should still be displayed but the job could not run without going out-of-bounds.
Unless mach3 is licenced (check Help/About to confirm licence status) it will load only 500 lines.
Craig
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Thanks, I seem to be well within the machine boundaries. I know mach 3 is supposed to accept 100,000 line of gcode but this seems to be stopping at 2500.
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Hi,
I have regularly loaded PCB etch files over 100,000 lines in both Mach3 and Mach4.
Regrettably I managed to lose my Mach3 licence file a few months back and as I use Mach4 now I haven't
been bothered to replace it....ergo I can't load a big file in Mach3 to demonstrate....but certainly when I was still using
Mach3 two years ago I was running files of 100,000 lines.
Craig
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Thanks, I seem to be well within the machine boundaries. I know mach 3 is supposed to accept 100,000 line of gcode but this seems to be stopping at 2500.
Hi Rockyrude,
Try turning off the Toolpath Display (Diagnostics screen). If your Gcode now runs without issue then it indicates that you need to fit a higher spec (more memory) Graphics card or possibly just update the drivers for your existing card.
Tweakie.
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The are no physical size limits, and Mach3 can run up to 10,000,000 lines of code. Typically, the lack of a license file, or an error in the g-code would be the only thing keeping the toolpath from being displayed.
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As noted I have a legal license file. I probably need to get better at gcode. Using notepad to look at the gcode file, I am not seeing anything wrong at the line mach 3 stops. Also I am running a 2mb graphics card, seems like should be good enough.
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Is Mach3 giving you a message?
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I am not seeing any messages in the history file. I am aware Lazy Cam randomly inserts junk in the file but I am not even seeing that.
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Making headway, got this message in the history file- R i j k words all missing for arc , Block = N2505 Z0.0000
Line 500
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Hi,
Block = N2505 Z0.0000
Line 500
I am suspicious, that message suggests that you have line number increment of five. Thus the line N2505 is the 501'st line in the file.
Double check the licence status of your installation. The Help/About Mach3 CNC Controller tab will tell you to whom the installation is licenced.
I suspect its in Demo mode......maybe your licence file is missing or corrupt. But that error message all but determines that you are in Demo mode.
Craig
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Checked and the license IS licensed to me as it should be. I could agree with the numbering if the first line in the file weren't number 5
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Hi,
there is something wrong, the machine is bailing out after 500 lines, its behaving as if its in demo irrespective of your licence.
Time to contact NFS.
Craig