Hi CNCZone,
After reading a few threads and ending up with more questions than answers,, and loads of names and acronyms floating around my head, I've decided I need some help figuring out what software does what and what exactly it is I need that best suits my requirements, both now and in the future, as much as possible.
Just to give you an idea of my level of understanding so far, I trained on AutoCAD 2D back in 2001 and thats pretty much it...
From what I gather I need a drawing package to create the drawings, software to convert the drawing to Gcode that the CNC machine can work with.
The machine I'm thinking of getting is the stepcraft-2/840. This has an option for it to come with OEM UCCNC + UC100 for Oz$300, which from my understanding is the software to interpret the Gcode and the USB connections to connect the CNC machine to my laptop? Is this any good, easy to learn and reasonably future proof?
Next is the drawing package and something to create the Gcode..? And this is where things get a little fuzzy as there are so many options..
What I would like is something that starts off basic as I need to work with different materials in the 2D and learn how to use everything, but then I'll need to add plugins as I become more proficient, or something that comes in one all singing all dancing package that's reasonably easy to learn with.. And idealy something that is cost effective.. Is fusion360 what I'm after?
What packages work best with what I need?
Any help would be much appreciated and thanks in advance.
Rob