I have been reading my manual on how to load Dxf files. It says to select the file/load file dxf etc. My software has an "Entib" option. What's this? I,m a newbie, and I'm still having trouble loading Gcode files. The only codes I can load are from lazycam. I would like to use deskengrave. I open the gcode in notepad, save it as a txt file, open it in mach3 and it has several issues with it so it doesn't run it. It seems the only files are the files created with the tap extension. Does the gcode from deskengrave need to be converted or altered to run with mach? So many questions, too few answers. I am planning on buying Mach3 if I know I am smart enough to operate it. It seems great, but I'm cheap, and I just want to be sure I can get past these hurdles first. Thank you.

Mach will not really care what the file extension is, NC, TAP, TXT should all open fine. Your problem is likely that the code in your files are not compatible with Mach.
 When you try to open them do you get error messages in the ticker window in Mach?
Hood

Nevermind, I misunderstood-

Yes, I do get an error."Cannot do g1 with feed rate 0 at line 3"

Well that is meaning there is no F word set for the G1 move. On line 3 you will see a G1 and also a X or Y or Z or possibly all three or a combination of them, you also need a feed command such as  F10, that would be 10 inch or mm per min feedrate depending on your native units.

Hood

I tried to make a simple "A" with deskengrave, changed all feedrates to 10, ran it and all it did were two triangles at the same depth. Looking at the gcode, I understand why. Here is the gcode that loaded.
G90 T0 F0.0
N0 G00 Z0
N1 G00 X0 Y0
N3 G01 Z-1 F10.0
N4 F10.0
N5 X1 Y1
N6 X1 Y1
N7 X1 Y0
N8 X1 Y0
N9 X1 Y0
N10 X0 Y0
N11 X0 Y0
N12 X0 Y0
N13 G00 Z0
N14 G00 X0 Y0
N16 G01 Z-1 F10.0
N17 F10.0
N18 X1 Y1
N19 X1 Y1
N20 X1 Y1
N21 X1 Y1
N22 X1 Y1
N23 X1 Y1
N24 X1 Y1
N25 X1 Y1
N26 X1 Y1
N27 X1 Y1
N28 X1 Y1
N29 X1 Y1
N30 X1 Y1
N31 X1 Y1
N32 X1 Y1
N33 X1 Y1
N34 X1 Y1
N35 X1 Y1
N36 X1 Y1
N37 X1 Y1
N38 X1 Y1
N39 X1 Y1
N40 X1 Y1
N41 X1 Y1
N42 X1 Y0
N43 X1 Y0
N44 X0 Y0
N45 G00 Z0
 Why did it do this?

Nevermind...Brain fart. Didn't set any parameters with it. Sorry

That code is not good, lots of lines have no movement as they are telling the machine to go to where it is already, ecxample line 18 to line 41 have all the same move.
The lines such as N4 and  N17 are not needed because you have added the F10 in the lines before but really the programme you are using to produce the code should have had lines 3 and 4 the opposite way round and same for 16 and 17.

Looks like your deskengrave is putting out bad code and you will have to mess around with the settings in it, afraid I know nothing of deskengrave so cant be much help
It might be easier for you to look at the text wizard in Mach for simple single line letter engraving.

Nevermind...Brain fart. Didn't set any parameters with it. Sorry

LOL no problem, we all have these and with me it is quite a regular occurrence.

sparkey....,
I haven't used Deskengrave for quite a long time so don't remember specifics on it's code generation.
One thing is that for letters, there are no arc's and so you get a bunch of straight lines. DeskCNC will output threading code uisng  G33 which won't work in Mach.  I am not bad mouthing the software, but rather, like Hood said, it may post code  that is not acceptable for Mach .
Like any CAM program, it has a post processor meant for it's associated recieving software. Thus, what the "magic wand" does for one program is unacceptable for another. For arc's, you may want to have a read of the ARC Motion Tutorial in Memebers Docs. Figure 9 gives a flavor of just one Gcode.  

RICH