I have been using Mach4 for years on a home made machine with ESS and the Z axis is moving in way I have not seen before. 

Issue:  Seems that the Z axis keeps moving down without moving back up before the next move. On another PC I use the MACH4 simulator and it runs correctly. 

If you look to the image you see on the gcode the z axis should be -.2343 but if you look at the position it is at -.6177. So the router is PLOWING into the wood.

Thanks!
Phill

this has to be a setting in mach4. something to do with tool height

The z axis is tight
I upgraded to MACH4 5036 and ESS to 298
cleared out the tool database.  went to vcarve and changed everything to tool 0.

Why would the z axis move down further than the gcode states?

So it is working now.

Has to be something with vcarve and how it creates the gcode for the v-carve tool without a clearance bit.  I added a clearance bit and it now works.  I thought I could crate a star with a clearance bit and just increase the depth so the v-bit would do all the work.  But vcarve does not like that.