As A CNC Simulator ONLY

[MetalShavings]

Greetings everyone:

It will be a few more months before I own my first CNC Mill. In the mean time I thought it would be wise to try to come up to speed on my G-Code writing and reading by downloading and using the Mach3 program as a Simulator for testing my improvement. (or lack thereof)

After trying out the other freebie CNC Simulator program available on the web, I found out in short order that it would only function for about three months at best, then it would need to be reset/refilled or re-downloaded. After multiple attempts to do just that, I have had no success with any of these options so I went with the Mach3 program instead.

Since this is the Controller Program that I intended to use with any new CNC Mill I acquire anyway, I thought it logical to learn how it works as I'm using it as a Simulator to check my progress.

I have a couple of questions that I believe alot of you more experienced Mach3 users will be able to answer for me.

(1.)--If possible, I want to optimize the use of this Mach3 program strictly as a Simulator for now. As a Simulator only setup, is there any real need for me to go through this program and configure it to the CNC Mill I'm eventually going to purchase?

(2.)--If the "Soft-Limits" setting refer to the dimensions of the work table of a CNC Mill itself, are there configuration settings to specify the dimensions of the parts to be worked on? (example; if milling a 3x4x3 block of aluminum, where in the configuration settings of Mach-3 do I make those settings?

I've watched several of the tutorials available for the Mach-3 program but, I haven't come across the answers to these questions yet. If these tutorials did contain the info I was looking for, that information must have just sailed right over the top of my male-patterned-baldness because I just didn't see it.

Also; I scrolled through all the past posts on the Mach-3 pages on this forum looking at any post that even faintly looked as though they may contain the answers I'm looking for. No luck there either.

For those of you who may be wondering; I'm still up in the air as to which CNC Mill I will eventually purchase. I can tell you that out of necessity it will be one of the smaller BenchTop models.

If any of you have a suggestion as to which BenchTop CNC Mill might be more benefitial for a newbie over another, I'm open to hearing your input on that as well.

Thanks in advance for any insight or help you can give me.

MetalShavings

[ger21]

1) You really only need to set up the motors. Both ports and pins for them, and roughly the velocity and accel you'll be using, along with the steps/unit. If you don't set up the ports and pins, Mach3 won't let you do anything. And if the velocity is not set properly, it will probably run very slowly.

2) No. Mach3 doesn't have any idea what size material you're cutting. It just does what the g-code tells it to do.

One other thing. Although you can run Mach3 in simulation mode without installing the driver, I highly recommend installing the driver. Without the driver installed, some functions won't work correctly, or at all.

I used Mach3 as a simulator for years before I had a running machine. I used it for testing g-code created by a macro I wrote.

I even created custom screens for it before I had a machine.

[MetalShavings]

Hi ger21:

And many thanks for the quick reply.

On the Ports and Pins setup you mentioned; I have a general idea of what you're referring to from the tutorials I've seen.

I noticed when I first opened up this new Mach 3 program alot of the setting already had what looked to be default numbers in them. I left them alone for the time being as I don't know enough about them to really mess with them right now.

As far as setting up the motors; Since I'm not really sure which CNC Mill I'll eventually be using, is there a generic setting that might be acceptable for the greatest number of motors in use through out the CNC BenchTop Mill spectrum?

Thanks again.

MetalShavings

[MetalShavings]

I went back and re-read your suggestion regarding possibly having to set my Motor's ports and pins.

I inadvertently interpreted that as being two separate setup steps. Having viewed a second time, the tutorial I eluded to earlier, I see now what you were talking about.

Another thing that was throwing me off with respect to understanding your suggestion was the fact that this Mach-3 program seemed to be running OK when I tried out some G-Codes that I loaded onto the G-Code screen.

I should say; with a few exceptions that I don't know enough to explain right now, the Mach-3 program seems to be running OK. I have yet to change any of the settings that this program was set at when I tried it out for the first time.

It may be that it's not really OK. I'm just not familiar enough to tell.

Can you tell me what these "Screens" are that you mentioned? Right now, with the little bit I know about computers, the word screens refers to the image one sees on the monitor. In this case the "Screen" would be the layout of all the software's buttons and text fields and such. Is that what you mean when you refer to "Screens?"

Thanks again for your help. Sorry about the ignorance on my part. I'm working to mitigate that aspect of my CNC knowledge.

MetalShavings

[ger21]

Actually, I think you just need to make sure the X, Y , and Z motors are enabled in the motor outputs tab of the ports and pins screen. They probably are by default.

[MetalShavings]

Hi again Gerry:

I forgot to mention: I'm running this Mach-3 program on a PC laptop. I'm a Mac computer user by default so, using this old IBM Thinkpad laptop kind of throws a monkey-wrench-type learning-curve on top of the existing learning-curve of this Mach-3 Program.

I initially disabled the Driver because I read something to the effect that PC laptops weren't supported due to some power-saver something-or-other inherent to these laptops.

Since I'm a PC newbie as well, it means that in addition to having to figure out the nuances of the Mach-3 program, I'm also having to figure out the particulars to this older model PC laptop.

In light of this, do you think that installing the drivers would in some way affect the running of this program?

MetalShavings

[ger21]

It should be OK with the driver. I have Mach3 installed on an old Laptop for testing and it runs OK with the driver. The DRO's are a bit jerky, and it won't run a machine smoothly, but for simulation use it runs just fine.