Hi

I bought a DIY CNC machine about 6 months ago and got it all working great, with a full licence of Mach 3 and Vetric Cut2d.

Since then, I changed my pc to  slightly newer one, also running XP. However, although both softwares are installed and I can control the machine fine with Mach 3 and also open Vcarve Cut 2d with Mach 3, I get an error 'Failed to find data on installed version of Mach' and 'failed to find running version of Mach'.

I posted in the Vetric forum and some one gave me some suggestions of what might be wrong, I tried that and it still happens. I've asked for further assistance but it has all gone quiet. I'm not too sure where to go now.

This is the link to what I tried in the Vetric forum -- http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9368

I wonder if any one here has got any ideas? I've done some browsing and there seems little info on it, so it doesn't seem too common, only with Win7 there are a few instances, but I am running XP.

Many thanks

Phatjap.

I'm a bit confused. You mention VCarve on the Vectric site but you start out by mentioning Cut2D on this forum. Which are you actually using?

From what Mark said over there, it sounds like it would be the issue, but your answers say otherwise, so I honestly do not know but I'm sure someone will be along to help on either site as they're both top notch for answers.

Are you able to load a Gcode in Mach 3 manually without sending it directly from VCarve/Cut2D? In other words, have Mach running, and load a GCode from within Mach 3?

Dave

Hi
Thanks for the reply, I've not tried loading a g-code striaght into Mach 3 yet.

As for the Vetric and Vcarve etc, it's cut2d I have, but to open it, the option is Vcarve Pro, from file, in Mach 3 program.

Regards.

I would imagine you should  be able to open Cut2D without having Mach started, you could then do your code and save it to your drive then open Mach and load code from that saved location.
Hood

Phatjap,

Are you sure you're able to use the VCarve link in Mach 3 to open the file? You may want to rephrase your question over on the Vectric forum because you said :

I purchased Vcarve and Mach 3 Licences about 5 months ago and got them both working on an old XP machine nicely, recently ( a week ago) I reinstalled on a slightly newer machine, also with XP, however, Vcarve does not seen to post to Mach 3. I'm stuck as to how to resolve it.

The error I get is 'failed to find data on installed version of Mach' and then if I ok that, I get 'Failed to find instance of Mach'.

Can anyone advise what might be the trouble?

Kind regards.

That would lead Mark, the administrator, to think that you have VCarve, not Cut2d. Maybe it's not possible anymore due to some sort of upgrade and he(Mark) would have been able to answer your question more intelligently. That would be my next move as I'm a member there as well and they are "on the ball" all the time over there..... when they have the correct information.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

Yes, Ill try that and see what happens.

Regards.

I think I understood OP's concern. I'll try to explain since I'm having a problem with Vectric Cut2D and Mach3.

I suppose you're aware that there is a feature in Cut2D by which you can send the G-Code directly to Mach3 (without manual g-code load) and G-Code immediately appeares in code window at Mach3. This features saves a few mouse click and brilliantly works under XP but not in Win7! I know this problem because I have Cut2D under both the win versions.

After asking support to Vectric, they replied that it is known to them and they have a workaround where you have to mod some registry entry for Mach3. But, since it is related to Mach3 and they don't want to distribute, it may mess in other areas. Also noted that, just wait for an official fix from Mach3.
I then just back to XP without asking further. 

Regards

I've been using Cut2D with Mach3 for about a year now. I've always wondered what the 'output direct to machine' check box was for but never investigated as Cut2D is on my desktop computer and Mach3 is in the shop with the Taig. I drag .dxf's to the Cut2D icon to open up the drawing for processing. Then I copy the g code files off to the mill computer for machining. The Cut2D/Mach3 combination has worked out well for me for the past year or so.

After asking support to Vectric, they replied that it is known to them and they have a workaround where you have to mod some registry entry for Mach3.

It is understandable that Vectric would not distribute a software patch for another company's product.  

Also Artsoft is in the middle of a new version development phase and I would not expect a fix from them any time soon.  Especially since this particular problem is not something that directly affects Mach3.

This issue is relevant to both Cut2D and Vcarve Pro. (in fact all Vectric programs)  All programs will output gcode directly to a running instance of Mach3.

However a large proportion of users will not have a Vectric CAM program running on their machine control computer at the same time as Mach3.  Although I do most of the time.

Also this has nothing to do with what program is listed in the Mach file menu.  That is a completely separate issue.  Not related at all.

If you know your way around the registry then do a search for entries containing "Mach4.Document".  If they are absent then this feature will not work.

It is my experience that Mach3 will make these registry entries on installation to XP, but for some reason, it does not when installing to Win7.  Others seem to be reporting that they can be missing on XP as well.

What I did was extract the entries from an XP installation and patch them to my Win7 installation.  This is all working perfectly for me.

I have declined to openly share this patch because even though it works for me, it is possible that there may be unintended consequences that I do not understand.  I am no programmer.

My advise is, if you know what you are doing with registry edits, then you can easily reproduce what I have done.

And if you do not, then playing around in the registry can have consequences.  Wait for an official fix.

Greg

It is understandable that Vectric would not distribute a software patch for another company's product. 

Also Artsoft is in the middle of a new version development phase and I would not expect a fix from them any time soon.  Especially since this particular problem is not something that directly affects Mach3.

This issue is relevant to both Cut2D and Vcarve Pro. (in fact all Vectric programs)  All programs will output gcode directly to a running instance of Mach3.

However a large proportion of users will not have a Vectric CAM program running on their machine control computer at the same time as Mach3.  Although I do most of the time.

Also this has nothing to do with what program is listed in the Mach file menu.  That is a completely separate issue.  Not related at all.

If you know your way around the registry then do a search for entries containing "Mach4.Document".  If they are absent then this feature will not work.

It is my experience that Mach3 will make these registry entries on installation to XP, but for some reason, it does not when installing to Win7.  Others seem to be reporting that they can be missing on XP as well.

What I did was extract the entries from an XP installation and patch them to my Win7 installation.  This is all working perfectly for me.

I have declined to openly share this patch because even though it works for me, it is possible that there may be unintended consequences that I do not understand.  I am no programmer.

My advise is, if you know what you are doing with registry edits, then you can easily reproduce what I have done.

And if you do not, then playing around in the registry can have consequences.  Wait for an official fix.

Greg

I already figured out the registry entry (by a registry compare in two PC containing XP & Win7). :-)
Having an IT background (for a long), I'm pretty sure that it is a security issue in Win7 and Mach installer unable to create the entry during installation. Immediately I have an idea in mind.

I uninstalled Mach3, manually removed the registry entry I made and did a fresh installation. But this time I right-click on the installer file and selected "Run As Administrator" and it worked! Now Mach3 working under Win7 without manipulation of the registry.

Cheers