Hi,

I am very new to this exiting world of CNC machines and is determined to create something good from it.

While reading things I got to know some idea of CNC and its components. Got some great links/references which tells how to Build Your Own CNC machine.
Before starting anything, I want to get sure of all the major concepts and the industry standard practices so that I do now reinvent the wheel.

My Understanding:
1. CAD (Designing in computer. Input is Mind, Output is a Design File e.g. dxf, etc)
2. CAM: Converts the design in machine related language and the industry standard is G-Code. Thus input is design File, output is G-Code (or some other code)
3. Control Software: A software that converts the Machine Language/Code into the actual signals that your control hardware would understand. e.g. EMC2, Mach, etc. From a software perspective, this control software is a device driver. EMC2, Mach3 acts as the control software/device driver where in you configure the properties of device which is your control hardware.

4. The Actual Machine

My question is between CAM and Control. I have read somewhere that there are Hardware Controllers that directly read the GCode. These electronic controllers take input from Parallel port and process *base*d on the input GCode.

My question is: what is industry standard? One, to create/Buy the electronic controller which understands GCode and integrates with the actual machine, or second, to use a software like EMC/Mach3 which converts the GCode into Machine signals which are then understand by Control Electronics component

Regards
Sandeep Jindal