Hi, and thank you all in advance for your advice. I've had a Shaper Origin (SO)for a couple of years now and I'm preparing to take the plunge to purchase an Avid CNC 4x4 or 5x5 PRO with Avid CNC Rotary Axis. I'm mainly a hobbyist woodworker (but I've done paying jobs in the past) and my interests are building furniture, making wooden games (crokinole, Kubb/Viking chess, etc), some signs, and some 3D carving. I've put a constraint on this purchase that I won't buy the machine until I have a firm grasp on the software and workflow that it will take to run it, as well as building up a small library of projects ready to route once I have the machine purchased and up and running.

For the Shaper Origin, I've designed a few projects in Fusion 360 making use of parametric design, and free software called Vectr. By-in-large, I export into the SO and do most of the decision making regarding depth of cut and tolerances for roughing and final passes just before starting my cuts at the tool. I.e.. I have a half a clue on the CAD portion of the learning curve ahead of me, but zero clue on the CAM component of what lies ahead.

So my questions are...

Would there be a benefit to investing my learning in Fusion 360 vs. Aspire? Or learn both?

Does one or the other play better with Avid/Mach 4? I ask because I saw a YouTube of a design/CAM done in Fusion 360 crashing the CNC because it was programmed in Fusion 360 to go to the home position upon completion of the job; Fusion was set to X=0 which resulted in the Z-axis plunging into the table while the gantry was moving. My question here would be does Fusion define the home position or is the home position defined in Mach 4, and do they conflict with each other?

What does the workflow look like in going from design to cutting on the tool and is Fusion 360 or Aspire preferred and why?


What other software would be recommended?

Sorry for the long post, but starting the journey is exciting and daunting and I just want to head down the right road as best I can... Any other comments or advice on getting started are also appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob