NC machines use punched cards to transmit instructions to the machine. In contrast, CNC controls the machine through a computer. NC machines need additional time and expert operators to develop the products. On the other hand, CNCs require less manual labor and are faster and more automated.
The full form of NC is Numerical Control. The full form of CNC is Computer Numerical Control. 2. In NC, we use punch tapes and punch cards as input. In CNC, we prefer keyboards as input.
NC-CAM is a computer-aided manufacturing software program introduced in 1989, and used by printed circuit board manufacturers to create, modify, and optimize the CNC program files used by printed circuit board drilling and routing machines.
In particular, NC-CAM is used to optimize the RS-274C Excellon format files used to program Excellon, Hitachi and other printed circuit board drilling and routing machines.
PCB NC drill files convey PCB drilling and routing information.
The NC formats were originally designed by CNC drill and route machine vendors as proprietary input formats for their equipment, and are known under their company name: Excellon, Hitachi, Sieb & Meyer, Posalux, etc.
These formats are similar as they are based on RS-274-C and related to G-code.
In 1985 IPC published a generic standard NC format, IPC-NC-349.
Later XNC was designed, a simple strict subset of IPC-NC-349, designed not for driving machines but for exchanging drill information between CAD and CAM.
They are collectively referred to as (PCB) NC files.
