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CamSoft Corporation 

CamSoft today is a developer of computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing and PC based CNC Controller software with a worldwide base of over 8,000 corporations and Universities, including many of America's largest and best known companies, and supported by over 60 independent installers and dealers in North America.

History
CamSoft began in the mid 1970s as an NC programming service to local machine shops in the Orange County and greater Los Angeles areas of California under the name Contour Systems, Inc. D.B.A. as Compucor. In 1976 one of the founders, Gary Corey, created the first microcomputer-based CAD/CAM system for sale in the United States showing the system at the Westec Machine Tool Show in downtown Los Angeles. By 1981 the company was incorporated. When Mr. Gary Corey worked with the initial group of engineers that pioneered and developed the first microcomputer-based NC software package back in the 1970s, the CRT "computer monitor" had not yet been invented. Programs were punched on paper tape and printed out on paper by teletypes connected to the first PCs. The engineering group owned serial #004 of the first microcomputer, which was purchased from a company that today is called Intel. This equipment was bought as a piece of used office equipment from Intel, which was labeled as Prototype #004. Prototype #004 used an 8-bit 8080 processor and had a single 8" floppy disk for storage, 4K RAM and a TeleType port initially running on it's own proprietary operating system and was then upgraded to the CPM operating system. Mr. Corey programmed the Intel Prototype using the Assembler programming language to perform trigonometry along with a series of geometry calculations used to develop tool paths for the mold industry before hand calculators, computer monitors or the disk operating system (DOS) existed. In 1991 the company shifted focus from DOS to Windows 3.1 and developed the first microcomputer-based retrofit package for CNC machinery based on Microsoft Windows.

Today
CamSoft's software and/or hardware toolkit allows a user to create and customize a CNC machine tool controller for 12 different machine types from 1 to 8 axes using a standard personal computer. The software also accommodates touch screens and floor standing and hand held pendants. There are various packages available for machine repair, retrofitting or installation on brand new machine tools for these machine types: Mills, Lathes, Routers, Water Jets, Lasers, Punch Presses, Press Brakes, Shears, Grinders, EDM or Plasma Torches, Robotics and general factory automation applications.

The software is designed around a Windows open architecture making it flexible for many machine applications. The future life cycle of a machine is then increased by using low-cost, off-the-shelf PC hardware components making finding spare parts easier in the future.

The operator screen, also known as the GUI or HMI, is user customizable. The screen can be as simple or as feature rich as the application demands using attractive bitmapped-images coupled with real-time solid modeled graphic tool animation for previewing actual machine cuts before pressing cycle start. The system contains a 3D CAD/CAM drawing and tool driving window which also has 10 CAD Links that import CAD files that can be drawn in other software systems to turn Graphics into Motor Motion or make a Picture into a Part. Industry standard G code files and post processors are available for over several hundred brands of CNC machines but it is not necessary to use them. There are many G code formats to choose from plus there is a user-definable G and M code table.

Patent pending advanced technical features are present in the CNC Professional version, while more cost conscious users are attracted to the CNC Lite or CNC Plus versions.

The Windows PC based platform means ease of operator use and reduced installation time. This provides a longer life cycle and is best for long-term maintenance making the user self-sufficient. The operator screen can be as feature rich or as simple as the user finds it fit using simple bitmapped images. The computer itself becomes the PLC and runs the IO relay logic. Learning Ladder logic, C++, VB or program a PLC is not necessary. The old circuit boards in the original electrical cabinet are not used and bypassed usually replaced with a single motion control card and/or IO card that fits into a PCI slot or is connected to an external box via an Ethernet cable. A library of pre-written logic routines are available for tool changers, jog sticks, hand wheels, homing routines, spindle types or probes giving the user detailed control over every aspect of the operator interface, motor motion, timers and I/O events.

The system incorporates a philosophy of a Universal CNC Logic Programming Language, meaning that when the user learns the system, he or she will have the tools necessary to program almost any machine type.

Reference
Patent No.: US 7,853,351 B2, Inventor:  Gary John Corey, Entitled "CNC Machine Tool and Integrated Machine Tool Controller Incorporating 3D and Up to 8-Axes Real Time Interactive Tool Compensation".