Battwell,
You largely answered your own question. I am new to Mach, in fact new to PC controller CNC, but I am sure that it is a capable piece of software otherwise it would not be so popular. However, on first acquaintance I do not find it intuitive particularly at the initial settings stage. The manuals have not been much help either and several queries on the Mach and Galil forums have failed to produce the required info.
It sounds like you have been through the mill pretty much with Mach and Galil and so maybe you can help. Here is a starting question, by the way I am using a Galil 2143 over ethernet driving velocity mode servo motors, with the 4.6 Galil plugin;
Galil has a lot of tuning options, Mach 3 has some also, specifically acceleration and velocity. I guess that they are in there mainly for when Mach is driving steppers through the printer port. The question is "Do I ignore the Mach settings, do I set them the same as I set the Galil, or....?
I have several other questions but they have left my mind right now (getting old). I do have the system up and running and cutting metal but it has taken days to figure out stuff that I feel should have been obvious enough to do in minutes. i am sure that I am far from optimally setup yet but it is working.