"CNC Is Little Help Without A CAD file"

[jon_banquer]

Wrong on so many levels but not unexpected in a group that's completely out of touch with modern machining techniques:

Mill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tyocLvlaqQ

Lathe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UcSt_z2be8

Lets not forget Hurco and Mazak with its Mazatrol language.

Most shops I work with long ago dumped their Bridgeports even for secondary operations. Majority I work with use DPM bed mills.

[Cydrome Leader]

Let me know when I can get a CNC hammer, wrench and drill. There's no need
at all to make simple manual operations complex just to use a computer.

[David R. Birch]

I must have been doing something wrong, I programmed an Anilam control
on a Dahlih CNC mill for 6 years and I never needed a CAD file. I was
running ACAD 10 on a portable XT clone I'd built, but there was no post
processor that could turn a DXF into a cutting file. I used the CAD for
checking geometry and locations, wrote the program in a text editor,
then transferred it to the control through a null modem cable.

ACAD 10 was the 5th CAD program I'd learned.

David