MACH 3 CNC CONTROL SOFTWARE TUTORIAL 2 THE INTERFACE

In this video

we're going to take
a look at the screens.

And this will just a a general
over view of the screens

just so that people are a
little bit more comfortable

with all the controls
that are on them.

I get a lot on comments about
complexity of the screens

but they're really not overly complex

and they follow a general rule of

if you don't know what it is

don't click it, don't use it.

Eventually you'll come to an eureka moment

where you say ahh

that's what that control was for.

That's a natural progression
in using any program

and especially so in MACH 3.

So lets take a look at
the screens pay attention

when I use certain terminology.

Um, it saves a lot of support time,

If you send me an email

saying the number thingy
on X isn't displaying properly

it's just going to cause an email

to come back to you
saying do you mean the DRO?

You'll see a lot of people on the group

correcting people's terminology at times.

They're not doing it to be mean
they're actually doing it because

it's a lot easier to convey
information between us all

if we use a standardized
terminology at least.

That having been said,

lets take a look at the screens.

Here we are on the program run screen.

There are 6 screens across the top

you can see we have program run

which is where we are.

We have an MDI or Manual
Data Input screen.

We have a Toolpath screen

which is good for looking at
whatever Toolpath you have loaded

and seeing what its program limits

and so on are.

We have an Offset screen

which you can use to

set your offset systems.

Here you can see we can switch
from G 54 to G 55 and G 56.

You'll notice that the
buttons do nothing

many times

unless we rest condition.

When we're reset suddenly
things began to work.

The control internally does
not like to do many things

if it's not in a safe condition.

Switching coordinates
systems is one of them.

We'll go into this later

so that you understand
what those all are.

We have a setting screen

which is a bit messy and the
last screen to be cleaned up.

It has special items on it

for specific types of uses

tangential knife control,

we have feed rate controls
and CV controls for plasma tables

and various controls some of these

will go away very shortly

and other will be just
a simply cleaned up.

We have the Diagnostic screen

which everyone is familiar
with from the previous

videos.

This is probably the most
important section up here

that shows you the
LEDs that you have.

Um,LEDs represent the signals that
you have connected to the system.

You can see that they're all out on mine

and they should be.

If I press a home switch

you'll see that the
home light switch comes on

and if I release the home
switch it goes out.

That's the normal operation
on these LEDs

typically you'll have
none of these on

when the signals
are not active

and the program's in a
normal run time state.

Normally the only thing you'll
see flashing around

when you're not moving
is this time in interrupt DRO

which shows the number of
micro seconds that the driver

is currently spending on each

interaction through
its interrupt cycle.

I don't expect many of you
to understand what I just said.

Just take it from me that
this number should

be flashing and
it's quite normal.

It should be less than
15 on all systems

and you can see mine
flashes between

about 6 micro seconds
and 4 micro seconds,

depending on how much
house keeping needs to be done

at that particular interrupt.

Lets go back to our program run screen.

This box here is the G code display box,

you can see that if we load a um,

a G code file.

I'm just gonna go to the
MACH 3 folder into my G code

there's examples.

There's the famous Roadrunner file
that I always use as an example

and you can see that the file is listed

here in the G code
display window.

By clicking into the window

we can scroll with
our mouse wheel

one line at a time,

through the program.

And you'll see over here

we have a white dot

that represents this
single line of G code

and as I scroll you can see

the white dot moving.

Sometimes it'll disappear
and this usually is

because it's to small to
display on that particular line.

But this is a handy feature
for scrolling back through

and finding a troublesome
spot on your code.

Clicking once again will take you
out of focus for that window.

The Toolpath window itself

double clicking

will reset it to a plain

and reset it to a size.

The red box going around our Toolpath

is simply the extrema of the file

these are the

the program is tell you

this is the highest Y value you have,

the lowest Y value,

the minimum X,

and the maximum X values.

We can take a closer
look at that Toolpath

by going into the Toolpath window.

Now you can see once
I've clicked in the window

if I rotate my mouse I'm
zooming in with my mouse wheel

and zooming out.

Double clicking resets us.

You can see the dash lines are rapid moves

between cutting segments.

The dark blue lines are
actual G 1 feed lines

and if there were light blue lines
here those would be G 2 or G 3 arcs.

You can rotate it by clicking
in it and rotating around

again if you get lost double
click and you're back to normal.

If you hold down the shift key

and move your mouse back and forth

you can slowly zoom in
and out on the picture.

And by clicking down
your right mouse button

and moving the mouse
you can pan it around

and those can be combined

you can zoom in and pan on the zoom.

We also have a mode called jog follow,

which resets the drawing
so that you can jog it around

and actually see where you are going

from the jog.

I'm going to switch us to

a normal jog mode here.

Now when ever you zero DROs

these are the DROs by the way,

digital read outs,

this yellow line, two yellow lines

shows the X and the
Y axes intersecting.

So at this moment
my tool is centered

somewhere up around
this roadrunners foot.

If I jog my axis you can
see that the drawing

moves to show where
the tool is currently at

when I'm in jog follow mode.

If I turn off jog follow mode

the lines move to show
you where you would be

again double clicking
will reset the system.

If you zero DROs

you could just see that those
lines moved to the zero point

or the origin point of this piece.

It's important though

when ever you zero DROs

that you do a Regen
of the Toolpath

so that the system recoordinates
the Toolpath display

with actual coordinate positions.

When you're running a file

here we have a cycle start button,

when you're running a file

it will draw in green and show you
as it cuts that particular path.

Clicking once on the image at any time

will clear away that green line

so that you can see

a little bit clearer in case
it's obscuring your view.

We have a feed hold button,

which as you can
see stop the movement

showed us what
the next line is

and from there we
can hit cycle start

and continue.

Or once feed held

we could for
example, hit reverse

and the program beings
to run backwards.

Hitting feed hold will
turn off the reverse mode,

hitting cycle start will go forward again.

Reverse is handy for plasma people,

it's not real handy for mill

although it is used by some.

Stop of course, stops the program;

stop will stop a program,

hitting the escape button
will stop a program,

and hitting reset will stop a program.

We also have an edit G code button,

which will bring up an editor,

so that we can edit
and change anything

in the code that we wish.

Closing the editor

will automatically reload the file

and display any changes
that you've made.

We can close a G code
file with this button.

We can load G code files
with this button

but we have a recent file button

which will give us a list of the
last 10 files that we've used.

We have a rewind button

which rewinds the G code.

Single block puts us into a mode

where pushing cycle start will
execute one line at a time.

Turning off single block we could
then continue the cut from there.

We'll hit stop and rewind.

We have a set next line button.

You'll notice if I scroll through
this it tells me which line I'm on.

I could either say set next line,

in which case the program counters
have all been set to this line

and pushing start will simply
start moving from that point.

That is not really a safe way
to start a G code file in the middle.

The safest way to start a
G code file in the middle

is to scroll your G code down
to the line that you wish to start from

and clicking run from here.

This will force the program to
run the file internally to that line

in order to set all previous
states to the correct position.

You'll see we get a message

press cycle start for preparation move.

If we push cycle start it will tell us

where that line in the program is

and it knows we're not there

and it will then go to that position

and we're ready for a cycle start.

We have a Tool Information line

which shows us what are
current tool number is

diameter,

length of the tool.

This light change tool will
be flashing when the system

is telling us to change our tool
and we'll get a message down here

asking us to press cycle start

when we have changed our tool.

We can turn jog on or off.

This button probably doesn't
belong in the tool information

but it was a nice spot to put it

and it was empty there anyway.

We have an off line mode

which stops any output
from going to our motors

in case we want to run a simulation

and we don't want our motors to move.

We have a go to Zed button

which means go to zeros,

pressing this button
tells all our axes

to go to the zero point.

We have a machine coordinates button

which when pressed will show
us our machine coordinates

of the current positon

verses our work coordinates.

The next video will
go into explaining

the difference between the two.

We have a Soft Limits
button that we can turn on,

as long as our axis
is currently within the

width and height of the
soft limits we have set.

Again this will be the subject
in the next video as well.

Here we have scale values

that we can scale in
access if we were to

for example .5 in the X scale

We get a warning that
the X is now scaled.

Hitting regen toolpath we can see
it's now scaled to .5 of what it was.

Setting this back to 1 will
turn off our scale warning

and regening we can see
we are now back to a full file.

We have a feed rate selector

this is feed rate override.

We have units per minute

and units per rev

that are real time updates
as your moving.

Here we have our Spindle Speed selection

we can turn a spindle on or off.

We have Spindle Speed override,

that we can override the spindle speed
that was set in the G code program

and allow the spindle
to speed up or slow down

pressing reset will of
course bring it back to 0.

This section of the screen
here is used for multipass

again you don't need
to worry about it

unless you know
how to use it.

Generally though if
you have a G code file

which is set to
a particular depth,

say its set to cut 2 - 10

you could hit MultiPass

and tell that file
to cut five times

dropping two each
time until it hits 10.

So it is literally a
MultiPass selector

allowing you to cut a
file in multiple passes.

Here we have a Wizards button
which allows us to select

any of the Wizards
that are in the system

and we also have a Last Wizard button

and if you have selected
a Wizard in the past

during that session

it will just bring it up
quickly again for you.

We have a Conversational button

which will switch us to
conversational screens.

This will be the subject
of a video of its own

but here we can select material

and calculate what are feeds
and speeds should be

and then we can select various
automatic conversational systems

to do jobs that we might not want

to go to a cam program for

or things which can be quickly
done through a wizard.

Pressing exit will take us
back to our normal screens.

You can see that the wizard eye

was in already started to post a program

we didn't select any real programs

so we don't get much code from it.

Hitting our recent file list

we could select our roadrunner again

and there's our famous roadrunner.

Here we'll display the file name

that we currently have loaded

and here's a Reference button

to send all our homes to 0
to our home switch.

If we press Reference
you'll notice that the Y axis

is now moving up
and now it hit its switch

and now the X axis
is moving to it its switch

hits it and then backs off the switch.

These are simulated
and you'll see that the X axis

went forward to its switch
which it normally wouldn't do

I haven't set this system up for homing

we'll do that in the next video
when we discuss work offsets

and general coordinates
systems themselves.

We take a look at
the MDI screen

again we have are
DROs repeated.

It's handy to have DROs
on most of the screens

so you know exactly
where your table is at.

We have 0 buttons
for zeroing the axes

and another Reference
button here to scaling

Radius correction is
used for axis work

where you can tell the system
the actual circumference

size of the object and
it will correct feed rate

to create a Toolpath that
feeds at the correct rate

on the circumference
of a rotating object.

Again something that
you can ignore unless

you understand what they're for.

We have Dereference all axes

where we can tell the system

that we're no longer homed.

These LEDs turn green
when we are homed.

Off line again Machine Coordinate

and we have a verify button.

The verify button is used

if you want to check to
see if you lost any steps

in your running of various programs

it will send the axes
back to your home switch

and then bring them back
to where you were

when you pressed verify

and report to you
when you lost steps.

Scaling off button will turn off
any scalings that are in effect.

If we had a scale of .5 on our X

and we want to get rid of it

we could just press off.

We have a Stop button,

we have a Start Teach
and a Stop Teach button.

These are Teach
modes with MDI.

You can actually
write a program

and type in the commands
as you go.

The Teach will remember
any commands

which were typed
here into the MDI

and create a G code program
from what you typed.

We have a set variable position

if we go to a particular position

we can say set that
as a variable position

and later on in our program
if we're somewhere else

we could say go to
variable position

and it will return there.

Think of this memory
plus on a calculator

and memory recall.

We've duplicated
the feed rate

and the spindle speed
controls here

and the jog on and jog
off controls for safety sake

in case you don't,

you want to make sure
you don't hit an arrow key

and destroy your work while
you're playing around.

The input line here for MDI records
your commands as you type them.

If we do a G0X0Y0 for example,

you can see my axes
just moved to 0

and this little box
here is a history box

which now displays
that command.

If we type G0X10

the history box has
just grown by 1

and by pressing the
up or down arrows

we can scroll threw
those settings

and recall them.

Pressing enter takes any command

and pressing enter on a blank line

will exit you from the MBI input.

Also pressing enter while
you don't have the line selected

will select the line and take it off.

This is the Toolpath screen
here we have DROs

just to show you where you are.

We have program limits that
show you the range of the program

so your minimum X would
be this point here is 0

your max is 7.72 which would
be this point here.

We have a Regen Toolpath button

which regenerates the Toolpath.

These are buttons duplicated
from the front page

you can rewind a file,

single block it,

reverse run it,

stop it,

or feed hold it.

You can also estimate a program
by hitting simulate program run.

No motor movement will occure

and you can see the
DROs are not moving

but the time is counting
very quickly up to show you

how long this job will take to
cut at its current feed rate settings.

It takes approximately a minute for every
10 minutes of program run simulation.

So if you have a multi hour job,
this could take a little while

to figure out exactly
how long it's gonna take.

But it can be useful

for calculating an estimate for
a customer who wants to know

how many hours of time
it's going to take to simulate his

or to cut his actual job.

So this program will take
3 minutes and 56 seconds

to cut at its current
feed rate setting.

Now we have a Run
from here button

so that you can start the
program from any point in it.

We have an offsets page.

This particular section here is used
for setting a gage block height.

Um, it means you can put a
block on top of your machine

jog down to it

and then set you zed
coordinate to accuracy

without the risk of
the tip of your bits

scratching your piece

and this is used by
a lot of people

as a safe way of setting
their tool height.

We have a current work offset,

which shows us what the
offset is in various modes

but primarily it shows
what the current

work offset is in the
mode we have selected.

Normally you will be set to G 54

until you've gained a
certain amount of expertise

and then your free to select
any of the offset systems.

There are in fact 255
of these systems

but we've given quick
access to the first 6.

Most people I don't
think will ever need

more then the first
6 that they have.

Here we have an edge
finder selection,

this can be used

and is useful for finding
the center of a circle

or finding the edge of material.

This is a duplication
of the Gage Block Height

with a few other
help systems on it

these help menus
will soon become active.

We can turn on or off
the tool offset as well

as long as were
not in tool zero

which has, which never
has an offset in it.

These buttons here will
allow you to bring up a dialogue

to see what is stored in
your work offset systems.

Here you can see G54
through G59

and we also have G59p7
through G59p253.

So there is a lot of offset
systems that you can use.

We also have a tool table,

which will show us
what is stored

for each entry in the
tool table

and again we wont get into
that until we've gone through

showing you exactly what tool
tables are and how to use them.

The Setting Screen

which will change very shortly,

is used for special jobs
like turning on lasers triggers

to trigger measurement lasers

across a grid of X, Y coordinates.

We can set a rapid override

which slows down or
speeds up are rapids .

We can tell the system
that when input number 4

is coming into the printer port

to do a single step
whenever it sees a toggle.

Various settings and you should need
to use none of these as a beginning user.

These are all fairly advanced settings

and really aren't necessary
for most people.

The diagnostic screen has a
couple things that are important

one is the pulse frequency.

If your system is running properly you
should have a pulse frequency here.

You can see that mine is
dead locked at 25,690

this should not vary much

it is a sign of a well
operating system

that this number
doesn't change

and doesn't fly around.

It won't affect you if it
flies around a little bit

say 10 or so

but typically it should
be fairly well locked.

Most of the other
settings on this screen

are not very important to you
at all other then these LEDs.

Then we have a tab screen

which is pulled out by
pressing the tab key

and these are the jog
selections in the system.

I'm gonna flick back to

the program run screens
that we get a better view.

You can see that
the jog buttons

will jog the axes with
an onscreen jog.

We have a slow jog rate

which we have set to
50% at the moment.

Slow jog is what you
get when you just simply

press the arrow keys.

If you look here you can
see my units per minute

when I jog it's currently
321mm per minute,

but if I press that's a 50% rate.

If I press the shift key and
when I press shift you'll see

this LED light up here
on the panel.

That's an indicator that you
are now going to fast jog.

So by pressing the shift key

and pressing the X jog

you can see that we've gone
now to 642 units per minute,

double the speed that we were.

This slow jog rate can be used
to get vary fine movement control

from your arrow keys,

when you want to slow things
down for very fine approaches.

Pressing shift will take you
to a high speed move

so that you can move quickly
away or two a piece.

For jog modes we can also
switch to a step mode

which means every press
of the arrow key

will move us this amount here .01mm

and you can see my X axes
as I press the key is now

each time I press it moving .01.

The cycle step can be cycled through

now we've cycled it up to .1

and now each time I jog it will move .1.

And you can set these cycle jogs... steps

in the Configure State menu.

Here are the ones we
are cycling through

when we press this
Cycle Jog Step button.

You'll see an entry here 999,

999 triggers the system to
switch back to continues jog

it's a way to get back to continues
jog just by cycling through.

We have an MPG mode

and in the MPG mode ,

when you rotate
your MPG wheel

you will jog in one of
four various types of jog.

By selecting velocity

the faster you turn the jog wheel

the faster your access will jog.

By step velocity at the moment is the
same as velocity only it is a redundant

mode and no longer required. But I'm
going to leave it there for the moment

we'll fill it with a better mode soon.

Single step mode

will move you one single step

whenever you rotate
the wheel a small amount

you must stop between steps
to get single step to work.

Multi-step you don't need to stop

you can calibrate your MPG wheel,

rotate it 5 clicks

and the axes will move

an appropriate amount
with 5 clicks of movement.

This percentage reading here
is not used at the moment

it is part of the old
step velocity mode

which will again be replaced.

There's a Calibrating button here

to calibrate your MPG

to tell the system how many
encoder counts it will get

per detent of the wheel

and so on, and it'll
calculate things out

to make it work smoother for you.

There's a shuttle mode
which can be turned on.

Shuttle mode runs a program
by rotating the wheel.

In shuttle mode

we can tell a
program to start

and as you can see
it will not move

and it's waiting for us
to rotate the wheel.

If we were to then
rotate the hand wheel

8, the program will
then move slowly

as you can see as I
stop turning my MPG

the DROs stop moving.

If I get rid of that we can see

the program is now moving

and you notice it is
cutting in the wrong place.

That's because we did
not regen the toolpath

after all our playing here and zeroing.

So it's important,

I'm gonna stop this again

regenerate the toolpath
after you've been zeroing.

I can now tell the program to start

and again it's not moving

because I'm not moving my MPG

as I rotate my MPG now the program

as you can see follows through

and cuts only at the speed
that I rotate my wheel at.

This is a very handy mode
for those who are nervouse

and want to run a
program very slowly

and a little bit at a time.

And that's what shuttle mode does.

Once I turn off shuttle mode

you can see the program
begins to run automatically

and will finish itself out

unless I tell it to stop.

That's about it for the
buttons that are on the MPG

and Jog tab.

That's about it for all the
buttons in the system really

and all that you need to
know to get started.

In the next video we're
going to take a look at

work offset and offset systems

to get you more use to that.

And that's it for now.