[Harmonitron]

Hello. I'm an electrical engineer with CAD and programming experience. I'm finishing a homemade 3-axis CNC machine with control by EMC2. Everything going well. I don't have a spindle yet so I've made a hot-wire foam cutter attachment. It's mounted on the Z-axis with the wire parallel to the Y-axis.

I need some help in converting DXF to NGZ. Can members recommend -

1. DXF to NGC conversion utility. (I can use Windows or Linux.)
2. Explain how I specify that the cut path is in the XZ plane.

Many thanks.

[jschmitt]

Cambam has a Free version and several good tutorials to get you started. His price was very reasonable for the full version.

linux has gcam, pycam, and a gcode hack for blender. I have not enough patience to learn to use.

[cncbasher]

Also take a look at Heekscnc & Heekscad

heekscnc - CNC machining add-in for HeeksCAD - Google Project Hosting

orentation of the axis is in the configuration
also a good program for foam cutting is

http://gm.cnc.free.fr/en/index.html
and Jedicut
http://www.aeropassion.net/index-en.php

[Harmonitron]

There's some fantastic stuff available. Thank you all for the links and your time and trouble.