I got my table upgrade to the latest software, little more than pressing a button on the version I had. Regardless, its done and i think an improvement, like the auto align, the center start has some very cool possibilities, they have made changes to some of the defaults that are a bit obscure that should make things better with height management as well. One thing I discovered this morning was that Arc Speed needs to be turned off if you are using sheetcam to set your cut speeds. I understand why it happens, since it does not do it in G-code, it does it at the machine level and slows down what ever speed at which it is running. So if you have it activated, it will double slow down at those places. Not a dig, I thought about it and it really is expected behavior but may seem unexpected when it happens, I had to sit back and look at all the settings for a minute. and while we are on the topic of sheetcam, Hyperthem does recommend you check the "reverse cut" box in the settings. It also seems that the support team is much futher up to speed on this. These are all really good steps in the right direction thank you. edit to add, BTW, I have never seen so much dross but those holes were straight.

Final update. the default THC settings were to blame, there was a setting in there that I could not find any info on, PI ratio. Well, in the master config it was set at 100 times more sensitive than it should have been, No matter how much I tried to slow things down on the z axis it wasn't going to fix that turd. They were pretty crappy about passing on the information, so I am still a little bitter about that as i did not find out until at least a couple of months after they identified the problem. 1/4" plate was mostly okay because it is very flat. but as you went down it got worse. But as I stated, they are much more open with info finally. they listened. The Optimum software actually doesn't suck now. it's pretty decent.

Anyway, it is finally cutting very well across all thicknesses. Im finally happy with it and it is acceptable dare I say good. They seem to be changing their ways a bit. they are now also admitting sheetcam exists and a lot of people use it. so overall, the take off was pretty sketchy but I am finally at cruising altitude . I am calling it good finally. If anyone is considering the STV. Go with the Optimum. I am betting the myplasm stuff is going to die a slow death but thats just what I would do. From looking at some of the settings I think there is a lot more they can add to it.

I talked to STV today and I am now on the same software as everyone else. Mine was much more entailed than pressing a button, but not as entailed as hitting reset buttons, I was a few revs down. Glad to finally have the latest and optimistic about the newer forum for Optimum. There are some new features that are cool, In all honesty, I think the software has potential to be very good, I would not complain if I thought it was hopeless. the reason I do is because I know it is capable of much more than I was getting out of it. It is also clear that the STV staff is much more up to speed and familiar with the product than the last time I talked to them. Good to finally have some information flowing, that is what makes us all better at what we do. Thank you all for your assistance, I am off to the Optimum forum where I hope to continue to learn and fine tune for my set up. I have a few sizes perfected now.

The THC speed is the best fix of them all. it corrects a whole host of issues and is a huge improvement. i no longer wish to toss it over a cliff. In conjunction with that make sure your z speeds are about 15% of your normal xy speeds and you will see an increase in consumable life and cut quality.

Update, it's running very well now. they did an update to the software and have a complete manual now so I was able to tune it and very happy with the results now. It was a bumpy road at the start but over all I am now very satisfied with the machine.

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