setting up thcad

ok so i have built a semi working plasma machine with a mesa 7i96, thcad10 and a powermax 45 but it seems i forgot to set up the thcad 10 in linux cnc. the machine will go as far as starting an arc but wont move because i does not detect any voltage. how exactly do i add the thcad to my machines .hal file i am extremely new to linux and computers in general and dont understand where to add the: setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.00.scale -1
setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.00.filter 1
setp hm2_7i96.0.encoder.00.counter-mode 1

also can i add it at this point or will i have to add it to a base machine and run the plasma configurator again?

so how do i add it to the file do i just literally copy and paste it in? if so where would i do that?

does it matter where i paste the code in the file?

Thank you so much sorry for the dumb questions, im slowly catching on with the computer side of this project.

OK so now i have officially cut my first part but i am still having a problem with the thc. The voltage reading on the plasmac dashboard is constantly scrolling widely like from -900 to +900 even when the machine is idling so the only way i can cut is with the thc is disabled. i used the online calculator for the scale and other settings for the thc and im pretty sure i have that part right because even if i change the numbers i still get the same thing. what could be causing this?