ProbeItM4 for Mach4 – Coming Soon

Coming soon: ProbeItM4 for Mach4.

ProbeItM4 is on its way: the Mach4 edition of ProbeIt, the touch-probe application for measuring, edge tracing and surface scanning. Until now ProbeIt has not been available for Mach4. ProbeItM4 brings the full feature set of the UCCNC edition to Mach4 users. It runs as its own program next to Mach4 and talks to it through Mach4’s own interface library. Nothing is installed into Mach4: no plugin to enable, no screen set to load.

ProbeItM4 running next to Mach4: opening G-code, jogging from ProbeItM4, and sending the program to Mach4.

What it will do

  • Probe tip calibration with directional compensation, at two speeds with interpolation in between
  • Perimeter probing: trace 2D profiles in X/Y, plus X/Z and Y/Z surface tracing, recorded to DXF and CSV
  • Edges, corners (inside, outside, angled), bores, bosses and posts, slots and ridges
  • Automatic G68 rotation from an edge or corner
  • 3D surface scanning to a point cloud (bed-of-nails grid), also with a 4th axis rotary, and basic rotary probe routines
  • G-code editor with scale, flip, rotate and mirror, plus autoleveling of G-code to a probed heightmap, sent straight to Mach4
  • 3D/DXF viewer with layers, colors, selection, delete/undo and draw line; DXF files that open in Vectric apps, Fusion and Lightburn
  • Clearance moves at a feed you set instead of G0 rapids, and a separate clearance feed for perimeter probing

Gallery

A probed surface shown as a point cloud in the ProbeIt 3D viewer
A probed surface as a point cloud, with the probe cone in the 3D viewer.
A perimeter traced with ProbeIt, opened in a CAD program
A traced perimeter, recorded to DXF and opened in CAD.
G-code autoleveled to a probed heightmap in the ProbeIt viewer
G-code autoleveled to a probed heightmap.

Where it stands

ProbeItM4 is in final testing. It has been tested with Mach4 on a CNCdrive (UCCNC) controller and on a SmoothStepper; other motion controllers have not been tested yet. Requirements: Mach4 4.2 (tested with build 4.2.0.5036, on a CNCdrive controller and a SmoothStepper; build 4.2.0.4612 was also tested, with a CNCdrive only) on Windows 7 or later, .NET Framework 4.0 or later, and a touch probe wired to Mach4’s probe input. A free 45-day demo and an online manual will be available at release; pricing will be announced then.

Want to know when it is released?

Send a note through the contact page or to eabrust@craftycnc.com and I will let you know when ProbeItM4 is ready. Questions about your setup are welcome too: tell me your control, motion controller and probe, and what you would like to probe.

Using UCCNC or ProbeItM3 for Mach3? ProbeIt for UCCNC is available now. See also the comparison of the versions.