A standardized-but-not-very (think HTML extensions) language for machine tools. Originating at MIT in the 1950 era, standardized in the United States by the Electronic Industries Alliance in the early 1960s. Final revision in 1980 as RS-274-D.
Other countries use ISO6983, DIN66025, PN-73M-55256, PN-93M-55251. Manufacturers often extend the G-Code with proprietary settings. Siemens and Fanuc were popular controllers used.
CAM programs will often feature post-processors, which turn the CAM specific toolpaths generated into machine specific G-Code language.
Finally, some machine controllers are abstracting G-Code via conversational programming.
There’s a few web resources on g-code I use for reference.
- I’m a fan of CNCCookbook, so there is that abbreviated series. http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCCNCGCodeCourse.htm
- The KMotion is based on the EMC interpreter (from: http://dynomotion.com/Help/GCodeScreen/GCodeScreen.htm). Here is the Dynomotion link: “(Only the G Code portions of the manual, Chapters 10-14 pertain toKMotion G Code)” http://dynomotion.com/Help/GCodeScreen/EMC_Handbook/node45.html
- A link at Soft Solder of various G-Codes: Collected from various flavours and sources
- For quick lookups, I prefer the linuxCNC formatted pages: http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode.html or Tormach G-Code
- Another extensive resource, listing several differing controllers dialects: G-Codes Dot Net