The problems with Tool Comp and SUBS are well known in Mach3 AND there is to be NO fix in MACH3.
Mach4 appears to have fixed that problem so far as it CAN run things that make you scratch your head in disbelief.
Thanks for your reply which made things clear. It seems that I had misremembered using rad comp with subs before - I hadn’t. I had used length comp with subs but, as I said, length comp seems pretty bulletproof.
I’ve now made it into one long, simple program and it runs OK.
However, I must tell you that I found your characterisation of the problems with radcomp in Mach3 being “well known” rather surprising. I’m not sure who it’s “well known” to but certainly not to me. I’ve had to work it out myself - and still am by the look of it.
If you read the documentation, which is what you do when you start off, there is no mention of the fact that radcomp is virtually unusable in any reasonable programming way. Quite the opposite. There’s a whole section devoted to how it works with only a couple of vague warnings that it’s not fully implemented.
Again, I’ve spent many hours reading the forums and I’ve never found anyone who was able to state the limitations of radcomp in any kind of authoritive way. I it’s “well known” to anyone, they’ve kept very quiet about it.
Probably the most frustrating thing is that there has been no guidance from the authors of the code themselves. Presumably it’s well known to them but they haven’t bothered to tell the users which would have saved many wasted hours - and no doubt scrapped parts too.
It’s lovely that Mach4 will fix all these problems but its not much use to someone with a problem right now. I’m still using the free demo version and so have no real right to complain but Mach3 is still being offered for sale with no warnings as to its limitations. I find this a bit concerning as I’d be very, very, annoyed if I’d rushed in and paid for a full copy without being warned that a major CNC machining function was virtually unusable.
Imagine buying a car advertised as having a six speed auto only to find later on that it stayed in one gear except on wet days.
This is no question that Mach3 is a unique piece of software at an incredibly low price - and the business model of releasing it in demo mode is fantastic - but for me the experience has been let down by poor documentation and the lack of any kind of factory support. The real worry about all this is that; will the lines of communication from Artsoft be any better with Mach4? I certainly hope they are.
Anyway, until Mach4 is available I’ll just have to program without using subroutines where I need radius compensation but at least now I know that.