Computer Numerical Control Applications

CNC applications provide a user interface for the control of a Mill, Lathe or other machine. They typically do motion planning and send control signals directly to a stepper or other motor driver. Because standard operating systems are NOT design for real time control, it can be best to use a seperate embedded motion controller and simply relay G-CODE or other commands from the main system.

http://www.machsupport.com/ Home of Mach3, popular CNC app for Windows platforms. Windows is not generally designed for real time control, but a clean / special install can work with the PC parallel port to send Step and Direction signals to motor drivers via a break out board like the BOB.

• https://www.poscope.com/PoKeys57CNC a MACH 3 recommended USB Motion Controller with PMinMO compatible connectors for direct connection to open source drivers like the THB6064AH or Linistepper.

http://www.linuxcnc.org/ Home of EMC², popular CNC app for Linux (Ubuntu) platforms. Open Source. Uses the PC parallel port to send Step and Direction signals to motor drivers via a break out board like the BOB.

http://www.dakeng.com/turbo.html Turbo CNC. One of the better CNC apps runs from win/dos command line. Performs well on old/used PC's which keeps your nice laptop safe from electrical problems! Uses the PC parallel port to send Step and Direction signals to motor drivers via a break out board like the BOB.

http://www.kellyware.com Home of KCAM. Simple Windows based app.

See embedded motion controllers for non-PC based systems.

Also:

• Computer Aided Design (CAD) Applications
• Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM)
• CNC Mills
• 3D Printing
• Stepper Motors
• Firmware for Embedded CNC controllers
• CNC Milling versus Drilling
• Wax Castings are often made via CNC machines and then used to make molds for harder materials.

Code:

• http://linuxcnc.org

  EMC, Enhanced Machine Controller.  Free, open source CNC control which runs on linux (with a real-time extension) - due to the real-time requirement, EMC has its own 'distro'.  
  EMC is feature rich, under active development, and looking for more developers.
  

  James Newton of MassMind replies: Source code at http://git.linuxcnc.org/gitweb?p=emc2.git;a=tree;f=src/emc/kinematics;hb=master, the actual calculations of movement appear to be in the file tp.c (Trajectory planner)

See also:

• http://www.dietzm.de/gcodesim/ GCodeSim is a GCode Simulator, and RepRap printer controller for Android, and any Java platform.
• http://chilipeppr.com/tinyg Sends gcode data from the web app to TinyG based CNC controllers.
• http://zero-divide.net/index.php?page=fswizard A free feed and speed calculator. Shows best spindle speed and feed rate for given bit and material. This can make a HUGE difference in the operation of any CNC mill.
• http://www.enroutesoftware.com Enroute Software offers CNC and CAD design software solutions for sign makers, wood workers, and for people within the fabrication industry.
• http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL038E88AC9E55CCCB playlist of video lessons teaching CNC with a few examples for inspiration.
  
• http://www.hwml.com/LeibRamp.htm LeibRamp was developed in 1994 by Aryeh Eiderman and is said to be the "World's fastest ramping (motion profile building) algorithm." On this page, Eiderman provides an overview of the math involved in calculating pulses per timer tick, for slew, and ramp acceleration / deceleration.
   
• http://www.lumenlab.com/d/gcode/cnc-g-code-tutorial Nice little G-Code tutorial
   
• http://eng-serve.com/cnc/index.html A few neat little online G-Code tools: A commenter which explains what each code is doing in english, a scaler which increases or decreases the size of the result by a factor, and a drill file to G-Code converter for PCB production.