Hello, folks.

I'm currently torn between two deeply held tenets:
1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
2. Stay close to the bleeding edge of tech, or you get left behind.

I've got a mill and a router currently - happily - running on Mach 3.  It's obviously not gorgeous, and it's obviously a little clumsy, but it works well and allows me to make the parts I need.

But I've got the itch (see #2) to transition to Mach 4, just because it's there.  Should I?  What do I get?  I have a 3-axis mill and a 3-axis router that I use to cut parts posted from various CAM solutions.  The posts all work.  The machines are all dialed in.  Nothing is really lacking. 

Apart from the visual changes and generally-more-modern underpinnings, what would justify spending the time and money to make the move?

Thanks,
-Ben

Hi,
I've been using Mach4 for eight years and in my opinion its light years ahead of Mach3.

As you have pointed out though, if Mach3 is doing what you want then there is no real need beyond the the want to experiment and possibly expand.

There is a learning curve associated with Mach4, and seems particularly fraught for people whom are already familiar with mach3. They seem to believe
that Mach3 is perfect and ALL machines should work that way....but that is not in fact the case. Mach4 adheres very much to the Fanuc21i controller standard
and you find a few things that Mach3 did are in fact pure BS compared to the industry standard.


I suspect that if you did swap over you'll swear and curse for a while, a month or more or less depending on your temperament but thereafter you'll never touch mach3 ever again.
That's what I did, I thought I'd use both....but as soon as I got familiar with Mach4 then I ditched Mach3.....and I don't even have Mach3 software on my machine and
I lost the license years ago.

Here are some of the details that you might like to consider:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=42891.msg278176#msg278176

Craig

Thanks!

This is very useful info.  FWIW, I'm no Mach3 sycophant.  I've spent a lot of time on Haas/Matsuura machines in different environments and I fully recognize the limits of Mach3.  Just trying to figure out if there are things that make Mach4 substantially better enough to justify the $/Cursing involved in migrating.

-Ben