The Future of CNC Automation: What TubeCNC Is Building for Modern Manufacturing

CNC control used to mean one thing: making a machine’s motors move accurately. That’s no longer the whole picture. Increasingly, what matters is how design, CAM programming, machine control, and automation work together as one workflow — not just how precisely a single machine moves. TubeCNC is built around that connected approach.

The Future of Manufacturing Is More Connected

A typical CNC job involves several separate steps: designing the part, programming toolpaths, controlling the machine in real time, and often nesting parts to use material efficiently.

When each step comes from different software, the operator has to bridge the gaps — exporting files, converting formats, re-entering settings by hand. Every handoff is a place where time gets lost and mistakes can creep in.

The alternative is a workflow where the software that designs a part and the controller that cuts it are part of the same system. That’s the problem TubeCNC’s products are built around.

What Is TubeCNC?

TubeCNC is a brand of Puruvesi Automation Inc., a company based in Ottawa, Canada. Under the TubeCNC name, we develop:

• The myCNC family of CNC controllers (myCNC-ET6/ET8, ET10/ET12, and ET15)
• The myCNC control software that runs on them
• myPIPE — the CAD/CAM module built specifically for tube and pipe cutting

In short, TubeCNC covers the hardware that drives a CNC machine’s motors and inputs, the software that controls the cut in real time, and the design tools used to get a part ready to cut — for plasma, oxy-fuel, laser, tube and pipe, milling, routing, and several other machine types.

More Than Just CNC Control

myCNC started as CNC control software and hardware, supporting a wide range of machine types — including plasma, oxy-fuel, laser, mill, lathe, router, and tangential knife setups — with motion control, torch height control (THC), and built-in PLC/I-O management.

Since 2022, myCNC has also included built-in 2D CAD/CAM as a standard option for plasma, oxy-fuel, and laser cutting machines. That module includes:

• DXF/HPGL import
• On-console CAD drafting
• Automatic part nesting to minimize sheet material waste
• Per-layer tool assignment with adjustable lead-in/lead-out control

All of that without needing separate third-party CAM software.

For tube and pipe work specifically, myPIPE adds a 3D CAD/CAM module (CAD3D) directly into myCNC. It lets operators:

• Select standard tube, pipe, and structural profiles — including round and rectangular tubing and standard AISC W-beam sizes
• Define end cuts and cutouts on the part
• Import custom STEP (.stp/.step) files for non-standard profiles

On the CAM side, myPIPE handles the toolpath strategy — Rotating (using the machine’s A-axis to rotate the pipe) or Non-Rotating (lateral axis movement only) — along with cutchart integration and multi-part nesting along the stock length. The completed part loads directly into the myCNC control interface to run on the machine.

Put together, that’s CNC control, 2D CAD/CAM, and 3D tube/pipe CAD/CAM as parts of one system, rather than three separate products a shop has to connect on its own.

Why Integration Matters

The case for integration isn’t about any single feature — it’s about what happens at the handoffs. When the CAD file, the CAM toolpath, and the machine controller all come from the same software, a part designed in myPIPE doesn’t need to be exported, converted, and re-imported into a different CAM package before it can run.

That matters most on work that doesn’t repeat often: short runs, one-off parts, and frequent design changes, where setup time between jobs can end up costing more than the cutting itself. Fewer handoffs means fewer places for a file to break, a setting to get lost, or a part to come out slightly different from what was designed.

Building on Years of CNC Development

TubeCNC isn’t a new company chasing a trend. Our team’s experience developing CNC controllers and software goes back to 1996, and in 1997 the team performed a plasma cutting machine retrofit that became the basis for its first generation of controllers.

The myCNC project itself began in 2008, and Puruvesi Automation Inc. was formally established in Ottawa, Canada, in 2013 as the company behind it. From there, the controller lineup grew steadily:

• ET1 — released 2010
• ET3 and ET5 — released 2013
• ET7 — released 2016
• ET6 — developed 2017
• CNC Vision (camera-based calibration system) — released 2018
• ET15, our full-featured controller — released 2019
• Built-in 2D CAD/CAM — added as a standard option in 2022

TubeCNC is the brand under which Puruvesi Automation Inc. brings that hardware, software, and design tooling to CNC shops, machine builders, and integrators today.

What We’re Working on Today

Development of myPIPE and myCNC is ongoing. One recent addition to myPIPE’s CAD/CAM is a V-groove cut option that notches a tube so two segments can meet at an angle — useful for corner, elbow, and angled frame joints.

Alongside new features, we keep the Learning Center and our YouTube channel updated with practical, step-by-step tutorials — covering everything from machine setup and homing to specific myPIPE workflows like schedule pipe sizing and part nesting.

Where CNC Automation Is Going

Available from TubeCNC today: real-time CNC control, built-in 2D CAD/CAM for plasma/oxy-fuel/laser, and myPIPE’s 3D CAD/CAM for tube and pipe — all inside myCNC, as described above.

Broader industry direction: across CNC and manufacturing generally, a few trends are hard to miss — design and manufacturing software moving closer together, machine programming becoming less dependent on specialist CAM expertise, and repetitive setup work like nesting or part alignment increasingly handled automatically. None of that is unique to TubeCNC; it’s a shift most CNC and CAD/CAM vendors are responding to in their own way.

TubeCNC’s long-term vision: keep control software, CAD/CAM, and the machine interface as one connected system instead of separate products, and keep expanding what myCNC and myPIPE can do rather than introducing a disconnected new product line. We’re not announcing or promising specific unreleased features here — what’s described in this article is what’s available today.

The TubeCNC Vision

TubeCNC’s goal is a practical one: give machine builders, manufacturers, retrofitters, and CNC operators a control and CAD/CAM system built to work as a whole, not a collection of parts that happen to be sold by the same company. That means continuing to build out myCNC’s control capabilities, expanding what myPIPE can do for tube and pipe work, and keeping the software flexible enough to fit the range of machines — plasma, oxy-fuel, laser, mill, router, tangential knife, and more — that our customers actually run.

If you’re building, retrofitting, or running a CNC machine and want to see whether an integrated approach fits your setup, here’s where to go next.

Next Steps