Mach 4

[StuartC]

My old computer crashed, a friend gave me a new computer, a 64-bit machine...so I bought an ethernet smooth stepper (which improved my machine alot) and I'm considering changing over to Mach 4. Does anyone have any experience using Mach 4 or have any recommendations?

Thanks,
Stuart

[Mobius]

Personally I see no reason to switch to Mach 4. Mach 3 works fine, there are more addons/support and the new pricing model is absurd for a hobbiest or small business. Unless the pricing has changed, I haven't looked into it for awhile.

[ChrisInEstes]

I got an email from the Mach3 people a couple days ago. It listed some of the improvements in Mach4. There's a link at the bottom of the email that points to an installer for Mach4. I haven't checked it out yet, but I think maybe possibly perhaps it might indicate that the upgrade from Mach3 to Mach4 Hobby comes at no charge.

I'm running Mach3 on a dedicated XP machine & it's working fine for me. I don't know if Mach4 would run on XP or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't.

Chris

[ger21]

and the new pricing model is absurd for a hobbiest or small business.

While there website is not very clear, the pricing is basically the same as Mach3, only it's $200 instead of $175.
The Mach4 license is tied to your PC, but you can generate at least 5 licenses yourself through your account on their website.

I haven't checked it out yet, but I think maybe possibly perhaps it might indicate that the upgrade from Mach3 to Mach4 Hobby comes at no charge.

No, there is no upgrade price. It's $200 for everyone, although they did offer an introductory special price of $140 in August 2014.

Personally, I don't feel that Mach4 is ready for daily use at this point. It's still changing at a rapid rate, some features are still not implemented, and plugin development seems to be lagging.