Hi Chris,
but.. presumably there is a "transfer settings" style transition from mach3 to mach4, requiring no further setup, and also presumably if you are using a "standard" monitor 1080p the default screens will fit?
No, not really. There is a spreadsheet that will help the transition but Mach4 IS A DIFFERENT program and much of what know about Mach3 will have to
be unlearnt so you can get yourself going with Mach4.
Mach3 screens DO NOT work in Mach4. If you download Mach4 you will see the standard screens it ships with. Are those adequate?
Editing screens and/or composing new screens is very much easier in Mach4 than Mach3, having said that composing a new screen from scratch is time
consuming, if have have a real need then fine but otherwise editing or tweaking a standard screen set is the way to go. Mach4 screens display equally
well in many resolutions as befits a more modern program.
I'm not at all sure that the toolpath display in Mach4 is up to five axis stuff, there is some details on four axis display. Whether the toolpath display is
useful or believable should have no bearing whatever on the speed of the motion however.
My experience is that Mach4 toolpath following/zooming/rotation does not cause Mach to pause or otherwise 'bobble' as used to be the case with Mach3.
Craig