Hello all, I have recently started working with an Avid Pro 4848 and am getting used to Mach4. I come from the world of HAAS, Fanuc, and MAZAK controls, and I am trying to see if there is a way to enable single-block or a way to set up a feed control knob. I feel like these are handy safety features when you are first proving out a program, and I was curious how people set these features up or find a workaround in your workflows.
Thanks!
Hi Zolech,
I had the same questions/issue when I upgraded my machine a couple of years ago. I upgraded from the v-con rail system to the pro linear guide rails and all new rack and pinion drives and a plug and play spindle with the upgraded electronics. At the same time, I upgraded from Mach3 to Mach4. That’s when I lost the single block feature that was available in Mach3. When I inquired, Avid would not explain why this feature was no longer available in their Mach4 screen sets. It was a feature that I used regularly to verify programs. I, too came from an industrial cnc background and still do not understand why they won’t provide the feature in their screen set. It is available in Mach4, but not in Avid’s supported default setup. There are others here that have modified their screens for various features, but I have not tried that yet. The only work around I have used is to set the z to cut air above the material and use the manual feed override (slow) to visually verify that it is going where I expect it to. Let us know if you find a solution. Good Luck!
Bob
Take a look at the screen sets that have put single step and optional stop back in. It is fairly straight forward. I have a screen set that has those, a set of utilities, ATC, and spindle reverse options. If you only want single step, cut and paste those buttons from my (or other’s) set.
Files.zip (3.2 MB)
ScreenOverview.pdf (6.0 MB)
Hey Rob,
Thanks for the reply. I am by no means a computer programmer, nor do I want to be. That being said, how do I get the screen sets for the single block feature and the machine park feature? Is this something I can copy and paste into my “generic” Avid set? I have read your instructions and could follow some of the logic, but do not feel comfortable modifying my screenset without some guidance.
Thanks,
Bob
Hi Rob and Bob,
Rob, thank you so much for the information! I set up my interface and exporting and importing into the group was easy. I will test it the next time I am in, and if it works, you saved me so much time.
Bob, if I understood how to make these modifications correctly, it would have been as easy as exporting the features and importing them into the table group I wanted. No programming at this point is necessary. If it works, I will make a quick write-up for you.
Thanks guys!
I look forward to Zoleck’s write up. I am away from my computer until Saturday.
In the meantime, as always, make a copy of your screen set before making any modifications. They usually live in the Mach4/screens folder. The screen editor has no undo function and it can be frustrating when first learning.
There is no harm with installing my screen set in the folder above then selecting it with the view/load screen tab. Will let you try the utilities without any mods at all. If you like the screen just use it as is. There is a pdf above with documentation.
Thanks guys! I look forward to the write up.
If you are only interested utility tab I can put that into to generic Avid screen and post it. As mentioned I won’t be in front of my computer until the weekend. Again, no harm in trying the whole screen set
I made a video on screen editing a while back in case you are interested. In the description section I also referenced a couple of links to other editing videos I found useful.
Updated the screen set in the zip file above to make the Utility tab more export/import friendl.
Here is a generic Avid screen set with the utility tab added.
[AvidCNC - With Utility Tab.zip|attachment]
AvidCNC With Utility Tab.zip (3.3 MB)
Unzip the zip file, place the .set file into your mach4 /Screens folder and then in Mach4:
View/Load Screen and select the new file.
FYI, no need to zip a screen set. It is actually already a zipped set of files.
The web site will not allow dropping a .set file into the thread.
ah, that makes sense.
barunita, jjneeb,
Finally got some time to download the screen set and try it today. However, I keep getting a Lua error when loading the screen set provided here. I unzipped it and copied it to the Mach4Hobby Screens folder. See the screenshots attached. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Check here C:\Mach4Hobby\Modules\AvidCNC
for a file called Offsets.luac. It seems like yours is missing, but that file should come with the standard AVID build.
I just updated the settings so that you can post SET files now. Happy sharing!
If you have not done any modification to the default screens you might want to install a fresh copy of the Avid version of Mach4 then try my screen set. I have not seen that file reported as missing but I am about 8000 miles away from my system for the next month or so; thus cannot help for awhile
Sorry, I missed your reply before.
I don’t know why that would go missing, but it should be there on any AVID build. I can’t attach it here. You can ask AVID for it, or I can mail it to you (send me an email at jnwdwks@gmail.com), or install a new copy of AVID’s build and copy it over, or just use the new install.
