I don’t know enough about gcode generation or the parameters that are passed from the CAM program to the post processor and I expect someone will give us the correct answer at some point. However Mach 3 and 4 are free downloads with the manuals and you can mess with them as much as you like using a limited length of gcode file. Having used both I’d say Mach 4 is much more intuitive and once you get your hardware configured, which isn’t that simple…, it’s much more interesting to use than UGS or Chilipepper as well has having a growing list of third party plugins. One of the nice add ons right out of the gate is your ability to use a pendant with your XCarve and have your XYZ edges automatically calculated and set up for you using nifty Mach 4 offset screens. There is the additional cost of course and in addition installing a replacement motion controller for your stock Inventables setup but if you’re into getting much deeper into the inner workings of your CNC and don’t mind a few [additional]l grey hairs in the process, it’s great leaning experience.
Mach 4 does look very nice and certainly does have some useful features. But I still do not understand why it needs a tool library. I guess I have more reading to do.
Never heard of a tool table in Mach 3. Maybe it is new in Mach 4 but that makes absolutely no sense. Hopefully this is not misleading to everyone who is reading it.
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