Mach 3 Released for PCNC-1100

[MichaelHenry]

In case there are any Tormach owners here who don't follow the Yahoo Tormach group, Mach 3 has been released for the PCNC 1100. The files are available on Tormach's web site from the Documents page.

Mike

[shurst]

Thanks, Mike, I hadn't noticed the update. Mine is supposed to arrive Thursday (day after tom.). I hope it is a happy addition to our shop. (We manufacture Stirling-cycle engines and intend to use this machine for rapid R&D of smaller parts.)

Do you have a Tormach? If so, what do you think of it so far? I was a little hesitant to buy with their short time in biz, but there specs look good, their people are friendly and knowledgable, seems like it will accomplish all of our small, rapid R&D tasks, and it is MUCH less expensive than the Haas toolroom machine (my second choice). I just hope I didn't make an $11K mistake!

Anyway, thanks again for the update!
--Scott

[MichaelHenry]

I've had a Tormach for several months now and am generally pleased with it. So long as you understand the limitations (as described in Tormach's design approach article) I think you'll also be happy with it.

The relative newness of the mill didn't bother me once I'd visited Tormach. Greg came across as a very honest guy and left me with an impression of integrity that is somewhat rare today.

Mike

[hockeypuck]

We loaded mach 3 today and the program we were trying to run stopped after 1000 lines, it ran without a problem thru mach 2, could it be they cut back on lines of code?

[drwc]

I suspect you did not copy your license file over and that is why you are limited to 1000 lines of code.

[Greolt]

1000 line limit is the main limitation of Mach in demo mode.

Put the licence file in the Mach directory and all will be good.

Greg

[Ron111]

Shurst,
My chance to learn something, this question just shows my ignorance, but what are the Stirling Engines used for. I see where you can buy kits for building these stirling engines, but is there an actual use for these or are they conversational pieces.

Thanks for the info,

Ron

[hockeypuck]

Thanks, we did just that and all is fine

[rustfinger]

Hey,
If anyone can help me with a few adustment to mach 3 I would really appreciate it.
I am now using mach 3 - but it seems Tormach has changed a few things from mach 2. I would like to change a few things back:

1. The default extension on g-code files to open is now .TAP I usually use .txt of .cnc or .nc, depending on where I made the file. I would prefer the option of other file names. Is there a way to change this?

2. There is a startup macro that runs every time you restart your file. Is there a way to disable or change that?

Thanks to any help offered!

[zephyr9900]

When I installed PCNC3, I had to enter all my custom settings (tool table, jog settings, etc.) I could understand this, since PCNC3 is a parallel installation to PCNC2. Though it would have been nice for it to transfer the settings from the older program...

But today I installed the v1.4 release of PCNC3 over the existing installation. It deleted all my custom settings again! Of course, I didn't realize this until I had crashed two tools , the first when slow jog was suddenly 100% instead of 3% which I had set, and the second upon the first tool change, after which I discovered the tool table was reverted to the "demo" table.

This is an unacceptable behavior for any program, doubly so for a CNC program! You just do not overwrite user settings without confirmation!

In the future, how can I back up my user settings (tool table, fixture table, jog settings, etc. etc.) so I don't have to remember what all I had changed and re-type in by hand? I don't see any mention at all in the PCNC manual about backing up user settings.

And what rustfinger asked also. What's with the batch file anyway?

Thanks,

Randy

[zephyr9900]

I am back to PCNC2/Mach2 as of a few minutes ago.

After the unfortunate happenings of my previous email, I re-measured the lengths of all my tools and recreated the tool table. I edited the gcode file to start right after the first toolchange (since I had already machined with the first tool.) I had not moved the machine, so the X and Y coordinates were still correct, so I put in the new tool (Tool5 in the tool table), set tool 5 in the tool box, and set the height of tool5 relative to the workpiece.

I started the program, and upon selection of Tool5, the Z DRO jumped by about 4 inches. I quickly stopped the program.

If I cannot pick a tool (already in the tool table), set the Z height and start a program using that very tool without Z going all to crap, I'm not using the software.

I fired up PCNC2, refed the machine and re-picked up my X-Y-Z coordinates with Tool5.

I then started my edited gcode program with no problems at all.

I'm back to PCNC2 until someone can tell me how to edit the tool table (for a broken tool etc.) and have the new settings stick without exiting PCNC3 entirely and restarting.

A small thing I also noticed about the simple PCNC3 screen--the incremental jog setting is not shown, and I need to go to the comprehensive screen to set/view it.

Best regards,

Randy

[zephyr9900]

I'm back to PCNC2 until someone can tell me how to edit the tool table (for a broken tool etc.) and have the new settings stick without exiting PCNC3 entirely and restarting.

A small thing I also noticed about the simple PCNC3 screen--the incremental jog setting is not shown, and I need to go to the comprehensive screen to set/view it.

John Prentice, who it turns out is the guy customizing Mach3 for Tormach, is addressing both of these items.

John has sent me a modified GUI for testing, that has the incremental jog display and controls on the simple screen.

On the much more important tool length problem, it turns out that in PCNC2/Mach2, editing the tool table immediately updates the tool length offset, but in PCNC3/Mach3 you need to re-select the tool after closing the tool table editor in order to update the tool length of the currently-selected tool. This is apparently not a trivial item to correct, due to the way tool lengths are handled internally.

The moral of the story is that with PCNC3, if you break a tool and replace it while it is currently selected, re-select the tool to update the length offset before resuming your run. I verified this over the weekend and am back to using PCNC3. Overall it is a nice improvement over PCNC2, even though I don't use any of the wizards.

Thanks to John for staying on top of this!

Best regards,

Randy