Tool Path Opt. Based on ACO for CNCTool Path Opt. Based on ACO for CNC 177
8.2.2 The use of Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
Commercial Software is available in the market, and this is capable of
producing most CNC machine programs in a time much shorter than any
manual programming method. Current CNC software, commonly known
as CAM software (Smid 2003), has many features that translate the original
part drawing into a CNC program, this means that a program generated
by a computer has to be in format compatible with the CNC machine and
its control system.
The starting point of CAM is the CAD fi le, by using solid models or
surface modules; a CAD model represents the fi nished product. Solid
models can be converted to IGES , VDA, DXF , CADL, ...