If you remember our last blog you might remember that we were discussing about CNC software which basically consisted of three types of software. Now don't jump to the conclusion that after CAD its CNC machining straight away.There is an intermediate step as well which comes under the purview of CAM or Computer Aided Manufacturing. It is an intermediate step since it tends to correlate the gap between the geometry as defined by the CAD software and the machine code which CNC machines need to run and produce the desired affects.
CAM is used in the middle to convert the geometric shape of the stored parts in the software into machine code which is understood by the CNC machines. Therefore CAM software provides directions to the machine by creating what is known popularly as the G-code which directs the tools etc of the machine so that it converts part geometry into tool directing code.
There are various professional software packages available for computer aided manufacturing and some of these include MasterCam, SurfCam, Vector and so forth. In actual practice most of the popular CAM programs integrate directly with CAD software so that there is no need of duplicate entry of geometry of the latter into the former.