Re: Still a little unclear

Hi,

Like 124 others I have been lurking and maybe like the others,
getting awfully confused over a lot of the terms and names of programs
and bits of hardware that have been used recently. This posting has
been partly spurred on by Bill's request for us lurkers to put in an
appearance!

When I saw Don Hughes posting of 19 May, I thought "Aha -
someone else like me", although Don is obviously further advanced
than I am being familiar with G code.

Then I saw Jon's posting of the 20th. This really started to
make the bits come together.

I particularly liked the:

> (in your computer) CAD program outputs DXF file >>> DXF file converted to
> GCode >>> GCode to DeskNC >>> DeskNC to parallel port pins >>> (now we move
> out of the computer) >>> parallel port pins to driver board/amplifier >>>
> driver board/amp to stepper motors >>> stepper motors to translation
> mechanism in your machine
>

I wonder could someone build on this and indicate how the various
programs and proprietry names that have been floating about fit into
this basic scheme of things.

Maybe it would need a more diagramatic approach, which would lend
itself to a graphical web page, that could, I am sure, be posted
somewhere.

I don't know whether such an approach would help others, but I am
sure that I would have a better insight into the whole business with
such an over-view.

The only problem with getting this better insight, I will be keen
to get going and collect some of the hard ware to have a stab - but I
don't think there is too much in the way of second hand stuff here in
Hong Kong. Maybe I will have to look around during my trip to U.K.
this summer.


Cheers


Roger Mason, in Hong Kong