Machine Profiles

The General tab sets name, type, and units (inches or millimeters), plus the MCS Origin — click a corner on the 2×2 dot grid to tell JetCad3 where your machine homes, which orients the bed and rapids. A Simplify Tolerance controls arc-fitting fidelity for spline and SVG import and the Simplify tool (default 0.001"), and a global Max Velocity caps rapids for honest time estimates. Each axis gets travel, max velocity, and acceleration; a plasma Z is seeded homing at the top with downward travel. Both the machine config and its cut charts can be password-locked.

The Cutter tab picks Manufacturer → Model → Torch Type to load factory cut recipes. The Torch tab enables Arc Voltage THC and sets the default target voltage used when a recipe doesn't supply one. The Post tab lists post processors whose type matches the machine — LinuxCNC, QtPlasmaC, Mach3/4, GRBL, FluidNC, and more — with per-machine property overrides; controller-specific sections appear based on the selected post. Rules and reusable G-code subroutines live on the profile too, so everything travels together.

Those subroutines are your copies, and nothing overwrites them behind your back — plenty of tables need custom code in there. When a newer version of one ships with JetCad3, the subroutine shows an Update available badge instead. Hover it to see what changed and which settings were added, removed, or re-defaulted. View bundled first opens the new version read-only so you can lift your own changes across; Replace with bundled swaps it in and keeps your parameter values and any pinned toolbar toggles. If the stock version covers your setup, it's one click.

One setting worth checking on a plasma table is fire_torch → Preflow Delay — how long your supply takes between the torch relay closing and the arc actually transferring. Measure it once and enter it. It keeps the machine still until the torch is really lit, which matters most when you resume mid-cut or pause and pick back up, and it's what makes peck marks land at the time you set.

A profile is not limited to one process. If your table carries an oxyfuel torch beside the plasma torch, or takes a bolt-on router spindle, add that process from General → Processes instead of building a second machine — it shares the axes, travels, connection and subroutines, and keeps its own post, torch, rules and nesting. See Multi-Process Machines.

Each profile row exports its .jcm; Export All bundles every machine on the computer into one zip backup, and Import accepts multiple .jcm files or that zip directly. Imports always get a fresh identity — re-importing duplicates rather than merges — and machine-local connection details are scrubbed on the way in, so a profile from another shop drops in cleanly.