Dennis, to be fair Mach is not CAD or CAM, it is a machine controller. Yes there are things it doesnt do in Turn such as CSS but overall it works well. If you need CAD/CAM you should really get that or just use the wizards. You paid for the controller that is Mach, not CADCAM.
Hood

Yes Mach Turn is a controller, and for the most part works very well at that. For me I guess tool nose radius compensation is part of the machine control, at least in all other controls it is. Thinking that G42 should be fixed by now is not a lot to ask I would think.
DaveA.

Time and economics I suppose. I have been waiting a long time for things to get fixed in Turn also, probably longer than most on this forum. I get pissed off every now and then as well but what are the alternatives?

Hood

My observation is that other lathe softwares out there cost 10 times what Mach costs.  What are the differences between them and Mach?  Probably just the unsolved bugs in Mach, because Mach performs very well when not asked for ´special features´ such as tool nose radius compensation, feed/rev in CSS etc. I am sure many of us are ready to pay somewhat more for Mach if the bugs were solved. I am not a programmer, but seems to me that correcting the bugs in the lathe version is not all that difficult.  I suppose G41/G42 works well with the mill version, then have it work in Mach should not be that big of a deal because the theory is the same (just replace an end mill with a tool nose).

There are also system integrators out there that use Mach as their control software.  It would be nice if us users, system integrators, etc. could chip in a little money each, and support the upgrading of Mach 3 lathe. Then Mach would be competitive with everything else out there......

If the company that own Mach is not willing to support it properly, then they should sell it to someone who has the resources to keep it up to date......

I just try to keep a sense of humor about it all. At least the threading got fixed.
Yes,  LT it is done, LC lathe was never fully functional or finished, and doubt if either one of them will progress more.
So if you want something more from a Cam then your off to say Dolphin or just a few others and you'll need to pay the price for the software.
There realy is nothing much out there for the lathe and frankly I would have thought that there would be after the last few years.
That to me, just says the market is not there for the effort that needs to be put forth. I see CamBam is in the beginning of a lathe module and it
currently is not at LT level. It's interesting about  LT, as we thought that after the published article on it, there would be a high interest, just didn't happen.

The redo of Mach by Brian is much more than i think he ever anticipated and hopefully after the mill end reaches some level, lathe will get it's long overdue attention.
In the mean time hobby alternatives are just not there.

Do not hold your breath and suggest users take care of themselves .....what's another 3-5 years.

What say you Brian?

RICH


 

Hood
I know Mach is a control software and that's what i use it for now, but when i purchased my Lic it was promised that LC would come about to use for turn and mill there have been attempts by Art to address this and i am thank full for his work but it's not finished i do have Cad Cam software to use and like promech find problems with Mach in turn i found that i can only get 2.43 V to work well for turn.

Dennis 

What is frustrating sometimes is to have things one expects to work not work and do funny things (this can even be dangerous).  I think there should be a list of the features that do not work, so that time is not wasted trying to get them to work. For example if one uses tool nose radius compensation, an alarm should come out instead of going on with herratic movements. I spent a whole day trying G41/G42 before considering, ´hey, maybe its not me, its Mach´.  Same happened with feed per rev in CSS.  Next week I will test backlash, and maybe I am for a surprise, hope not.  On the other hand I must say I have been working 24/7 for several weeks on repetitive stuff, and not a single pulse has been missed.  Accuracy and repetitiveness is excelent.  Threading, after forgetting about a high tech encoder an just installing a slotted disk works perfectly.

Jorge

Well there is always the DARKSIDE EMC2.

(;-) TP

I have to say, that I am that confident with Turn, that I will hit the cycle start button on a new program without even looking in the enclosure, and it works every time. As reliable as a Fanuc system for me. And I have run the crap out of my lathe all this year with only one problem I can remember. But yes, instead of Mill getting all the updates, and some might say that the updates being done with Mill is stuff that isn't really absolutely necessary, whereas tool nose radius compensation on Turn is absolutely necessary. Something that could be addressed in a few days maybe?

DaveA.

Dave, thats the thing, everyone has their priorities. For me I never use Tool nose rad comp so couldnt care if its there or not. Of course its good for it to be there but for me the most important thing was getting Front/Rear toolposts working properly. I have now modified the post processor in my CAM so that is no longer a priority for me but would still like it. Priority for me now would probably be CSS.

Sad thing is Brian is one guy, Mill/Plasma/Router guys are much more prevalent and also the part of the business that I imagine makes the money, OEMS, are probably 99.99%  Mill/Router guys. I would guess selling licences to the likes of you and me are not whats keeping Mach going, I know I have purchased a licence for each of my machines running Mach but even if everyone did that then its not a big deal, add to that you only pay once then its the volume licence sales from OEMs that keep the wages coming in to allow Brian to continue.

Just my thoughts of course so take of it what you will.

Believe me I have been wanting big changes for Turn for a long time, probably only second in length of time to Steve Blackmore. Also i have talked to Brian many times and they are not easy things to change, Rev4 should make it easier but when Rev 4 will be out is anyones guess, its been a hell of a lot more work rewriting Mach than even Brian thought.


Hood