[marcmnrsports]

been offered a fully working gabro cnc plasma machine with thermal dynamics pakmaster 50 with computer etc all fully working, what cad system / software will it run , is it any good all advice / wisdom most welcome can i use any software to run the machine if i want to upgrade

many thanks

marc

[massajamesb]

I will go out on a limb here and say that, yes, you can run a different software in the future. The only problem is, you may have to run different drivers, motors, etc. I am not very familiar with Gabro, but I would be willing to be that it uses a proprietary controller system much like most larger industrial machines.
I know that some industrial machines will accept DXF format, much like Mach3 and others will. This opens up a whole world of possibility for you. I would download a demo or shareware cad system, and make basic shapes (i.e. circles, squares, etc.) and see if they will load right in. If not, I would be more concerned about whether it will take Gcode input, so you could take your simple CAD shareware designed part, run it through Sheetcam or equivalent, and then feed your processed G code directly into the Gabro and cut.