Pixman, sorry I misspelled it's LinuxCNC -- formerly known as EMC2. And it's free. Also open source.
I use free SketchUp to draw with, and free Sketch-U-Cam to write the G-code with. I don't know if all those (or any of them) would suit your needs. I run them both under WINE in Puppy Linux.
I understand that CAMBam can also output G-code from a DXF -- will be looking into that shortly.
LinuxCNC is a Linux based CNC program. It can be tried out on a LiveCD -- meaning that you don't have to install Linux on your hard drive to try it out -- it will run off of the CD. However it will be fairly slow on the CD.
Eventually you would install it to HD, and it would run faster. I have it on an ancient computer, and though the Linux OS runs slowly, the CNC Program itself runs fine. In other words, it takes a long tie to open programs, open windows, etc in the OS, But the CNC program itself keeps up with the requirements of cutting very well -- even on a Pent III computer with 290K of RAM.
In fact an older single Processor computer -- pent 3 or 4 would probably be preferable to a dual proc more modern one. It must have a parallel port (or accept a parallel port card) and I would guess that a Pent 4 machine of about 1Ghz or so and half a gig of memory would suit it best. You still have to check the computer for latency -- a test for this is provided with the liveCD.
I use free SketchUp to draw with, and free Sketch-U-Cam to write the G-code with. I don't know if all those (or any of them) would suit your needs. I run them both under WINE in Puppy Linux.
I understand that CAMBam can also output G-code from a DXF -- will be looking into that shortly.
LinuxCNC is a Linux based CNC program. It can be tried out on a LiveCD -- meaning that you don't have to install Linux on your hard drive to try it out -- it will run off of the CD. However it will be fairly slow on the CD.
Eventually you would install it to HD, and it would run faster. I have it on an ancient computer, and though the Linux OS runs slowly, the CNC Program itself runs fine. In other words, it takes a long tie to open programs, open windows, etc in the OS, But the CNC program itself keeps up with the requirements of cutting very well -- even on a Pent III computer with 290K of RAM.
In fact an older single Processor computer -- pent 3 or 4 would probably be preferable to a dual proc more modern one. It must have a parallel port (or accept a parallel port card) and I would guess that a Pent 4 machine of about 1Ghz or so and half a gig of memory would suit it best. You still have to check the computer for latency -- a test for this is provided with the liveCD.