I must admit, I didn't expect such a simple answer. If you are "up and running" try writing some GCode to make a program.
Again forget all the bells and whistles. There are two commands (4 to be really truthful, but start with two)
G0 is the command to move from where you are to another specified point. The axis are split into inches. We will assume you are starting in the bottom left hand corner of your table. There are two co-ordinate systems running simultaneously on your machine. One is machine co-ordinates and the other is program co-ordinates (or work co-ordinates). These are displayed on the same DRO's. If the Machine Co-ordinates button is lit, the machine is displaying machine co-ordinates, if the button is not lit you can see the program co-ordinates. (Click the button to toggle between the two).
We will use program co-ordinates - becasue this is how you write your programs. Change the display to program co-ordinates, and then zero the axis DRO's. This now says the place where my cutter is in 0.0.0. Normally when milling, this is the bottom left hand corner of the work, with the cutter just resting on the top of the work.
If you now type in directly on the MDI page ( page 2) G0X1 (return) the machine will move the cutter to position X1 Y0. You could have repeated the Y position in the instruction it would have made no difference. Iy you type G0X0 the cutter will return to 0.0.0
If you type in two co-ordinates e.g. G0X3Y5 then the cutter will move positioin to X3Y5 simultaneously moving each axis i.e. a diagonal move (not strictly diagonal but) Note the y axis will move more slowly than the x axis so as to reach it's position at the same time. If you also typed in in a z co-ordinate then the z axis would move simultaneously as well.
The axis with the longest movement moves at the speed set in motor tuning, the other axis move accordingly.
G1 is the same command, but this is the cutting move and you can add a further parameter F which is the feed rate. i.e. it does not move at G0 (warp speed) F is in inches per minute.
You can now cut some thing - start the spindle, drop the z axis to cutting height, and move from here to there
three commands - M3 G0 Z-1 G1F2X6
We will cover M3, M4 and M5 later, which start and stop the spindle.
G2 and G3 are cutting moves (F parameter if required) but these deal in arcs of a circle - G2 is clockwise, G3 is counter clockwise.
There are other parameters to add in, and I tend to use the R parameter which is the radius of the circle (or arc) (You can use I,J or K which are offsets for the centre of the arc, but R is a lot easier). R can be plus or minus - and if you use the wrong one you will get rabbits ears - try it and see.
The beauty about Mach 3 is that you can make up GCode programs and when you enter them , your movement will be shown in the toolpath window, wich gives you an idea if you have done it right or not. You can also run it on Mach 3, without your machine being connected. I have Mach3 on this computer which is in my office/study/front room and I write most of my programs here and then transfer them to the workshop on the wireless connection to run them in the workshop - but most of the testing is done here in comfort.
Have a crack at it, and you will find that it is great fun, and you can soon get quite proficient at it.
I forgot to say that that is all there is to GCode. Those four commands cover all the moves. All the other commands are to do with positioning, and incidentals - yes there are a lot of them, but you don't need them.
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