Hi,

Having keyboard functions on when Mach has booted up seems like it should be a basic function but it appears its not. A script has to be written by a programmer to make it work.

Its there already, all you have to do it TURN IT ON!!!! Have you bothered to read the post in the Mach3 board, there I have explained it in great detail. You don't have to write anything, just
comment out one line.

Moving the Z axis to a safe position while going to work zero to me would be a basic function but its not. A script has to be inserted in order for it to do this.

There is already a <GoToWorkZero> button that operates on the X and Y axes....if you really want your machine to dive in on the Z axis to machine zero or any other number go for your
life......one line is all it takes. Don't be surprised when it crashes....remember you asked for it to operate this way.

You seem to imagine that NFS are clueless, and that they have half done things or not done other things because they don't know what they are doing. As it turns out their
collective machining experience well and truly exceeds yours and mine combined, and what they have done in fact is do are things that are logical, repeatable and as safe as they
can make it AND provide the tools for users to adjust it to their liking. If you cannot or will not take the effort to adjust to your liking then stick with Mach3.

Craig

Hi,
This is the GoToZero function in the screen load script:

function GoToWorkZero()
    mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G00 X0 Y0")--Without Z moves
    --mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G00 G53 Z0\nG00 X0 Y0 A0\nG00 Z0")--With Z moves
end
See how one line works with the X and Y axes only, and the other line (commented out as standard issue) allows X, Y  AND Z moves. If you choose you can have
all three axes move, just comment out the first line and un-comment the second line.

The functionality you seek is already there.....choose which one you want. NFS chose to have a function WITHOUT Z moves being safest and would not catch users out,
however if you wish you can have the GoToZero function WITH Z moves....just choose it.

A word of caution...the function with Z moves drives to Z0 in work coordinates. If that is the surface of the material the machine will drive hard towards it and hopefully
stop with the tool just touching....if you make the slightest mistake you risk driving the tool into the material. Do you want that?

If not then add a little to the Z move like this:

mc.mcCntlMdiExecute(inst, "G00 G53 Z0\nG00 X0 Y0 A0\nG00 Z50")--With Z moves
This will mean that the Z axis stops 50mm above the surface of the material....which is for my money somewhat safer....but its your machine, your call.

Craig

It is interesting, because legally when they sell you the Mach4 for $200 it does not state that you HAVE to be professional programmer to use the software, So except they provide 100% of the coding with full guide OR they provide full GUI for all functions, it is not right.   

What’s more interesting is that Mach 3 also requires coding. VB scripting is coding. There are hundreds of different kinds of machines out there that are running Mach 3, and a lot of them have different operations that require a different VB script. I can tell you Fanuc also requires machine builders to code their own specific operations. There isn’t any cnc software out there that doesn’t have some type of coding available to the end user. When you purchase software you should research how to use it. This forum exists so people can do just that. I have had great experiences with this forum and with NFS support. If you want a machine that works right out of the box, then buy one from an actual machine builder. There are a lot of them.