So has anyone moved on to Mach 4?

Garry Foster

Member
Messages
2,024
Location
North Central Ohio
As the title asks have any of you tried Mach 4. It has been slow coming along but seems to be getting there. Since Art sold ArtSoft mach 3 seems to be unsupported more and more. I bought a copy when first released along with the PP driver but haven't done anything with it other than get it configured..
 
Is the pricing structure still asinine for hobbyists?

Last i saw it was crazy expensive for small guys all the sudden. May have been subscription based, even? I forget ...

I refuse to pay rent on my software. Give me a license outright or give it to me for free. Those are the choices I wish all software consumers would demand, personally.
 
Been doing a little reading on the version. Looks like they've worked on the efficiency of the app to work with USB controllers. Though it's significantly faster, I'm not sure my machine would benefit much from it. Pricing is about $25 more for the Hobbiest, another $25 if you need to use the parallel port. Looks like with mach4 they've changed the license to be coded to the PC's id too, so the software will only run on one pc. So sounds like unless you purchase more than one license you'll have some downtime if the pc goes down. :rolleyes: I guess that is the point though, to get those that are using it commercially to pay the bucks for uptime.
 
Actually the price for hobby is close to Mach 3. Response to problems in most cases has been slower. Yes it is tied to tbe pc but they have a page now where you can get a new liscense automatically. It isn't rented and though they prefer a liscense for each system as you manage the liscense yourself, not sure how they get that. Art wrote the pp interface and it does have to be licensed separately. I bought both 4 and the new wizards early just to support the development. Also the pp only runs on 32 bit as Art says Msoft has managed to shut down his ability to get his tricks to work. I wouldn't have bought the wizzards as Brian doesn't seem to b want to support routers. No tabs ect. I have probablly done more with the old dos Turbo CNC than any of TV the Win or Linux stuff.
 
Last edited:
Gee way u guys are talking I was wondering what the price is for Mach 3 and then Mach 4
So I looked it up. Mach 3 is 175 and Mach 4 is $200.
Here I was thinking it was like $2k or something.
Why do we battle to see value in software in general. People all want it for free or close to free yet it's the heart of what makes machines these days. I am not specifically referring to CNC or mach 3

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Rob I agree.

I see it that way for cutters also. So many people use $5 cutters and cringe at $25 cutters. My Tapered ball mills run $35 - $38 but work better than anything else.

Same with programming software - it is part of the process, but we look for the free stuff.
 
It looks like the pricing model originally announced has changed. IIRC there was no hobbyist license at first and there may have been enough outrage that they dialed that back some. They announced the new version with some video I watched a good while ago that just turned me off entirely. I'm glad to see they've come to their senses.

CNC software and Video Editing software is the only software I have voluntarily paid for - there's GOOD value in that stuff. It's hard to write. There are plenty of free stuff out there for things I don't depend on as much and works just fine. I am not willing to "subscribe" to use my computer.

I don't hold any illusions about the work it takes to make good software -- it's my job -- I've done so for 16+ years now. But there are pricing models that are "value" and there are models that are "leach every dime out of you" -- subscription models are the latter, in my opinion. Heh - i'm kinda opinionated about it, I guess, since i do it for a living.
 
Top