Multiple x and z axis carriages printer

[grabredemeyer]

Hey Guys,

I'm working through a build on a machine right now that will have separate x and z carriages and one large y axis. The y floats under the separate x and z carriages. The whole point of this is for better multi-material (several materials) prints with destring processes, different print heads on each carriage, different tech on each, etc. The reason this is such a big problem is the need to print in soft materials with better results. The machine will be driven by an Azteeg x3 pro. I plan on using the extra extruder drivers to help drive extra x and z axis.

I've now seen marlin branches with control built in for multiple x axis carriages. I've also seen branches that drive two z axis motors from separate drivers. My question now is does anyone know of any branches out there with support for both so I can run multiple x and z carriages along with a single y? My plan to control the y was just to run a post processing script on my gcode that will add or remove offsets to my y values between tool changes. If this isn't in existance, does anyone have any recommendations on easy ways to make this happen? I am planning on running the machine with marlin most likely. I do have a few ideas in my head on how to do this properly and have read some interesting threads like this where something like this is close to working: http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?14,228233,228233 I am still yet to see this working with both multiple x and z axis.

Let me know your thoughts, I'll continue to dig. I just thought someone here might have seen something like this or would have thoughts on simple solutions to approaching this.

Cheers and thanks for any input!