Best cam software to use for plasma cutting

It has none of what you asked, but it is very usable, Inkscape.
Open source, very easy to use, can do some nesting by using groups of ojects and layers, does leadin/leadout somehow, uses gcodetools extension included, so can be modified to your hearts content.
I just modified it to export the plasmac.cut.feed-rate, so i can use the material settings in PlasmaC.

tcbmetalworks wrote:

It sounds like it's the most open source but the least user friendly. I really want to try to build my table idiot proof so if I get lucky and it gets to the point I'm not doing all the work myself and I can easily have a newbie operator run the machine.

Inkscape is not a CAM software, it just has a CAM plugin that outputs gcode. It is a drawing/scetching/whatever it does software, so the CAM is just an add on made by a single user (probably with some help of others, but back then he was alone with about 500 people asking for help and features from him), but it does work magnificently for what it does.
As for newbies, almost all machines i build are used by other people, sometimes people with absolutely no computer experience (yes i do bump into them occasionally), but it takes at most two days of 3-4 hours a day to learn to draw something or trace a path from a picture or image, edit it a bit, save it as gcode and use LinuxCNC to run that gcode. I am trying to say it is by far the easiest to use for plasma cutting.
Luckily, i do have a client that spent xxxx (nearly 2000$ i think, it was long ago) on every plasma CAM he could get, still uses Inkscape.
After all this i have a feeling you might take this the wrong way, as me pushing, well i am, so if you try other CAM's, please do report back how it goes, i would really appreciate it, a lot has changed by now in Plasma space.
What do you mean by "plate centering" ?