Mesa 5i20 -> 7i42a -> 7i47s -> geko 203v X3

from the previous table, STEP0 and DIR0 are the first axis step and dir signals

Amazing, it spins!!!. What I had a hard time wrapping my head around, was I needed to leave the encoder option as "unused encoder" because it auto-gens the direction signal from that terminal.

Thanks so much

Not sure what you mean. The encoder should have nothing to do with the step gen's pins.
You should be able to use the encoder for anything you like while still using the step gen.

But I'm glad you got it going!

it very possible i do not have any idea.what is going on but what i am talking about is i have one control wire going to step on the gecko from tx4 and one from tx5 to dir on the gecko. In my setup i have 0 set to step gen and the corrisponding 0 set as unused x axis encoder. Is it possible that step gen controls the dir aswell?

If you look at the pintype column it tells you the signal type.
for instance a stepgen had a pintype of step (step gen a) and a pintype of direction (dir gen a).

The number is the component number.
for instance there are 4 step gens numbered 0-3
There are 4 encoders numbered 0-3