I'm currently running Mach3, and Mach4 looks pretty enticing.  I'd like to try it, but I'm pretty much in full production mode and cannot take my machine out of service to play with new software.

Am I correct in thinking that Mach3 and Mach4 can both be on my computer, and either can run my system?  Each will (hmmm, my ignorance is showing...)  initialize my ESS properly, without messing up settings for the other program?  If changing between Mach3 and Mach4, I'd shut down my control system.  I can play with Mach4 when I'm done with my work for the day?

I'm running an ESS and PMDX 126.

Thanks!

Hi,
yes you can run Mach3 and Mach4 on the same machine.

My laptop has both and I can run both and useful for development, coding and so on.

It was my intention to put Mach4 on my machine control PC and like you transition to Mach4. That would require both a Mach3 ESS plugin and a Mach4 ESS plugin.
In the event I found it too confusing to try to do that. Mach4 is quite different to Mach3 and if you think that you can do things the same way in Mach4 as you have
become accustomed to in Mach3 you'll have some issues.

Because of the two different plugins you CAN do as you propose. It will require for instance that if in your Mach3 installation that your X axis motor is on port1 pins 2 and 3
then your Mach4 installation will likewise have to have its X axis on port1 pins 2 and 3.
 
In the Mach4 Plugin Configurator however it is common, not mandatory, to use aliases for your ports and pins. Consequently in Mach4 your X axis pins are likely to
be Xstep and Xdir, not port1 pin2 and port1 pin3. It is perfectly possible to ensure a one to one correspondence between Mach3 and Mach4 pins but you are likely
to find it confusing. Additionally the Mach4 ESS Configurator updates the Mach4 plugin as well. It works really well, when you set a pin or other feature in the ESS
plugin the Mach4 plugin is automatically updated to work in conjunction with your new setting. There again as a new Mach4 user it will cause some confusion.

I've been using Mach4 for just over a year and have become much more comfortable with how it all works and how to setup both Mach and ESS plugins. I suspect that
I could now do as you have proposed but at the outset I certainly could not have.

Craig

Thanks! 

And thanks again for your description of how the configurator works.  It will help me sort things out quicker.