I'd be surprised if this question hasn't been asked before, but I've been searching and I haven't found it. Similar questions for CAD/CAM advice resulted in recommendations for professional quality software that seems to be way out of my price range.

I unexpected acquired a nice CNC mini-mill that is ready to make parts, although I do have to finish learning Mach 3 and some G-code first. It seems to me that eventually I'm going to want to be able to design a part my computer and then make it on my mill. To be honest, I don't know if I need CAD, CAM, 3d, 2.5d or whatever software. So I'm looking for some affordable recommendations.

Here are my requirements (I think)

  • The software needs to be "modestly" priced. I'm just a hobbyist and $200 is the very most I might be able to justify paying. Free, of course, is good. However, I don't want to waste a lot of time learning a free or cheap program and then find out it won't do what I want I need it to do.


  • I live in a Windows world (although I have nothing against Linux).


  • Free and easy-to-understand tutorials have to be readily available for it. This is really important to me. I've played around with CAD software in the past and they all seem to have a long learning curve. That doesn't bother me, but what has scared me off is that many of them either seem to lack good tutorials for beginners, or you have to spend a large chunk of money for them.


A local vocational school offers an inexpensive evening course on AutoCAD that will be starting soon. I probably I won't be able to afford to buy a copy of AutoCAD after the course, but will the skills I learn be easily transferable to another program?


Thanks for your advice,

Rob