History of G code

[SurfRunner]

I am teaching my class how to use these forums for learning.

So, we have a question:

Where did the G and M codes originate?

Thanks!

[acondit]

Originally Posted by SurfRunner I am teaching my class how to use these forums for learning. So, we have a question: Where did the G and M codes originate? Thanks!

I found this on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-code

G-code is a common name for the programming language that controls NC and CNC machine tools. Developed by the Electronic Industries Alliance in the early 1960s, a final revision was approved in February 1980 as RS274D. Due to the lack of further development, the immense variety of machine tool configurations, and little demand for interoperability, few machine tool controllers (CNCs) adhere to this standard. Extensions and variations have been added independently by manufacturers, and operators of a specific contoller must be aware of differences of each manufacturers' product. When initially introduced, CAM systems were limited in the configurations of tools supported. Manufacturers attempted to overcome compatibility difficulties by standardizing on a machine tool controller built by Fanuc. Unfortunately, Fanuc does not remain consistent with RS-274 or its own previous standard, and has been slow at adding new features and exploiting the increase in computing power. For example, they changed g70/g71 to g20/21; they used parentheses for comments which caused difficulty when they introduced mathematical calculations; they started to use nanometers just recently (requires 64-bit); they introduced the NURBS (non-uniform, rational B-spline) to overcome slow fetching of blocks from memory (instead of caching).

Alan

[Switcher]

Originally Posted by SurfRunner I am teaching my class how to use these forums for learning. So, we have a question: Where did the G and M codes originate? Thanks!

Gerber Scientific Instruments, created the g-code file format.
http://www.gerberscientific.com/


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[Plaqn B]

Here is a good link; http://www.linuxcnc.org/handbook/gcode/g-code.html

RS-274D is the recommended standard for numerically controlled machines developed by the Electronic Industry Association in the early 1960's. The RS-274D revision was approved in February, 1980. These standards provide a basis for the writing of numeric control programs. There are a number of historical sidelights to this standard, many having to do with the original use of punched paper tape as the only data interchange medium. The 64-character EIA-244 paper tape standard is now (thankfully) obsolete, and ASCII character bit patterns are now the standard representation. This old tape standard had specific characters used for 'searching' for specific lines (program blocks) on the tape, 'rewinding' the tape, etc. Ocasionally this obsolete language is still used when referring to some cnc control tasks. The full NIST Enhanced Machine Controller is nc programmed using a variant of the RS274D language to control motion and I/O. This variant is called RS276NGC because it was developed for the Next Generation Controller, a project of the National Center for Manufacturing Science. The version of RS274 used by EMC adheres closely to the publications of the NCMS wherever those publications produce an unambiguous set. In some cases reference to other implementations of RS274 had to be made by NIST.

[thanhct]

Thank you men!