I am the instructor at a vocational education school.  A couple of years ago the school purchased a Tormach PCNC 1100 that has plagued me since we set it up.  Before becoming an instructor, I was a CNC machinist and programmer for a large global manufacturer.  I have been certified in CNC programming from multiple schools and did programming daily on the job (Matsuura, Mazak, Haas, and Jones & Shipman).  Until today, I have felt utterly stupid trying to use this machine.  I have encountered REPEATED frustration and problems with the G41/G42 cutter comp codes.  I was informed today by a representative of the Tormach company that the aforementioned codes DO NOT WORK and hand written programs must be written without them and any tool wear will necessitate a rewrite of the program. 

How many others have encounter this problem?  The rep also informed me that Art Soft is aware of the problem and has no intention of correcting it!  IS THIS TRUE!

Can anyone offer a solution to this problem (besides telling me off).  Any constructive help would be appreciated.

Additionally,  I have tried the Mach3 download and have encountered repeated losses of position in all three axes when rewinding the program.  It somehow slams a fixture offset into things and all attemps to clear the G54 have been unsuccessful.  I finally had to go back to the Mach2 so I would not have to reset the XYZ coordinates each time. ?

Can you post some code that gives you trouble, and what version of mach3 you're currently running. While Mach's comp code was a little buggy in the past, with care it could be worked around at times.

The current development version of mach3 has updated cutter comp code that appears to work much better. Although as it's a development version, it may have other issues.

I don't have a Tormach, but from what I've read, they like to use a much older version of mach3 than is usually available, to alleviate support problems in their end.