Good morning Graham,
The way the other programs see it is that a relay is a relay, a mpg is a mpg, they basically all work the same. Of course you have to tell it the logic ladder, they give you a blank ladder to fill out.
Take a tool changer for example, they" basically" all work the same. The ladder is different from model to model, the components very in number and type.
As an example my son took LABVEIW and built a control panel piece by piece adding in all the components. That panel was to run a very complex machine process. He filled out the ladder logic and answered a few questions on the components and the Labview wrote all the code for the process panel to work. He dropped in the Guages/ controls he wanted to see and what the monitor points were and pressto instant control panel.
Now I have a simple mind but it would seem the CNC machines have a fairly simple basic structure in how they work. A relay is faily simple it is either NC or NO, A solenoid is either on or off, A mpg is quad output, two signals, ETC. Mach already does the hard part.
Labveiw has a free demo package, try it sometime. See what you think.
Just a though for the future. (;-) Terry