Optimizing cutting paths, was Traveling Salesman Joke

I'm pretty impressed by Doug Yeager's ACE converter, now available for
free under GPL.

ACE seems to optimize the path quite nicely! I exported a particularly
messy dxf file, with no particular orientation of line segments, and
while
ACE worked for quite a few minutes creating the code, it did a great
job of minimizing dead-air. Even finished the cut at a point nearest
the
starting point.

Give it a try, look at all the capabilities (it'll let you decide
max 'z' cut,
and how far above the workpiece to retract for fast moves.

Happy user and customer for both ACE and CNCPro /mark