Software clues for Rookies

[brebey]

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

[ger21]

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.