Re: Why is a Gcode standard important???

Jerry,

I'm not Ted, and I'm going sequentially through the posts,so there
may already be an answer "up ahead", but here goes:

No, entering/executing one line at a time is not conversational
programming. That would be an example of MDI (Manual Data Interface)
programming of the machine.

Conversational programming is so named because the operator has a
text-based or graphics-based (or both) "conversation" with the
control to make a program.

The control asks "questions"(again by text,graphics, or both) and the
operator "answers". You might begin by selecting from a group of
possible "typical" machining operations. For example, drilling a hole:

You select "drill" from the list.
The control responds "single or multiple holes?" You select mutiple.
The control asks "straight line ar arc?" You select straight line.
The control asks "number of holes/distance between?" You continue
this process, making selections and/or giving numerical "answers"
until all the necessary conditions for what you want to do have been
met.

At the end of this conversation, you can have the control run the
code you have just created/defined; or you can have
another "conversation" for the next detail of the part, continuing
until the entire part is completely programmed/coded.

Some controls will create/show a gcode program OF the conversations'
output, others will simply run an internal program without showing it
to you(derived from the conversation(s). In these controls, you may
have a text representation of you conversations, like:

start
tool 1
drill hole
drill hole
tool 3
pocket
...
...
end

This is considered by many to be a simplified way to create code,
somewhere between a full cad/cam and the basic MDI. Several
commercial cnc mfrs. have "made a name" for themselves by having a
good conversational means of creating programs for their machines.

Hope this helps.

Ballendo

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Carol & Jerry Jankura"
<jerry.jankura@s...> wrote:

> Ted:
>
> Could you define what is meant by "Converstational programming?" Is

this the

> same as, for example, TurboCNC's allowing you to enter and execute

one line

> of G-Code at a time? Or is it simething further than that? Perhaps

a few

> example conversations would be helpful to my understanding.