HNC Converter

Extract text from NoteCenter or CNC files (HNC)


Drop or upload your .HNC file
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How to extract text from your HNC file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HNC file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert HNC to another file type

To convert HNC files to another format, you need CIMCO Edit or other Text software.

Convert a file to HNC

To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Document or CNC Code" file type, you need software like CIMCO Edit or a similar tool.


About HNC files

The .HNC file extension is primarily associated with two very different, legacy formats: NoteCenter Notes Documents and Heidenhain CNC Program files. NoteCenter, created by Domas Savickas, was an outliner and organizer program that stored user notes using an underlying HTML structure. Alternatively, in the manufacturing industry, .HNC files contain numerical control (NC) code written in the Heidenhain Dialog format, which provides instructions to automated CNC milling machines. Because both formats rely on older, unsupported software or specialized industrial editors like CIMCO Edit, opening them today can be extremely frustrating. Users often face compatibility errors because modern operating systems do not recognize the extension natively. Without the original software, it is difficult to read the notes or the machining instructions. Fortunately, standard target formats like TXT, HTML, or PDF are perfect solutions. Because these files often contain plain text or embedded HTML, our analysis detects the supported underlying format, allowing you to view and convert the data into a widely supported format without needing a 20-year-old application.

Convert.Guru analyzes your HNC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.


FAQ

If you want to convert HNC file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use CIMCO Edit or similar software from the "Legacy Notes or CNC Code" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to HNC, try CIMCO Edit or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Notes or CNC Code" category.



The HNC Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HNC converter.