Hi all. It's my "first day", so to speak; I'm not even done building my CNC router yet (I'm building a modified Rockliff design).

I'm nearing the end of the build, though, and find myself feeling like I finally caught the lion's tail..."Well, that's great, but NOW what do I do"?!

It occurs to me I know nothing about the software. I have Mach 3 to run the router, and I'm reading the tutorials, help pages, etc., and learning about that. But it deosn't seem to give me a way to create a part.

What do I draw the part with? I guess what I'm asking is "What's the best way to design and draw a part and get my router to cut it?"

Is there something about Mach 3 that I'm missing? Do I need some other CAD software to draw the part and then convert the drawing to something Mach 3 can understand?

Is Mach 3 not even the best choice of CNC control software?

Any guidance at all - either specific product suggestions or general information about how the process works in general would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bill

It depends on the parts, but Assuming you want to cut parts out of flat sheets, you just need a 2D CAD program to draw the part, and you can use MAch3's LazyCAM to convert it to g-code. For 3D parts, you'll need an additional CAM program.