Yes — cncfoam.com can import an **.stl** or **.obj** and work out a cut automatically. Open **＋ Load parts → Import STL / OBJ**.
The important thing to understand: a hot wire only makes **straight cuts**, so it can never reproduce an arbitrary 3D model exactly. What it produces is the model's **visual hull** — the solid you get by cutting the model's silhouette from many angles around a rotation axis and intersecting them. Think of it as the shadow the model casts from every side, carved into the foam.
That means rounded, convex and faceted shapes (wings, cones, gems, busts, bottles, rockets) come out great, while holes, deep pockets, overhangs and undercuts get filled in — the wire physically cannot reach inside them.
Full write-up with pictures of the workflow: https://cncfoam.com/wiki.php?a=cutting-3d-models-stl-obj
The important thing to understand: a hot wire only makes **straight cuts**, so it can never reproduce an arbitrary 3D model exactly. What it produces is the model's **visual hull** — the solid you get by cutting the model's silhouette from many angles around a rotation axis and intersecting them. Think of it as the shadow the model casts from every side, carved into the foam.
That means rounded, convex and faceted shapes (wings, cones, gems, busts, bottles, rockets) come out great, while holes, deep pockets, overhangs and undercuts get filled in — the wire physically cannot reach inside them.
Full write-up with pictures of the workflow: https://cncfoam.com/wiki.php?a=cutting-3d-models-stl-obj