Hello I a new to this stuff. I have been fabricating railings for 25 year. Trying to branch out. We have a Crossfire, small table at work. The previous guy to run this machine used Fusion 360, and Autodesk. We just purchased Sheetcam. I was wondering WHERE DO I START?? which program do i learn first? Many thanks !!
Is it a generation 1 Crossfire with Mach 3 or generation 2?
Welcome! On the computer you use to connect to the crossfire is there a program called fire control? To start you need to figure out if it’s using Mach 3 or firecontrol to control the table. The workflow will go like this
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A design software like Fusion 360 or Inkscape or Illustrator etc.
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A CAM software like Fusion 360 or Sheetcam etc.
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A CNC control program either Mach3 or Firecontrol.
It will depend a lot on what you’re trying to make what design program you use. I mostly use Fusion but sign makers use other things like Inkscape. Once you have the design you’ll need a tool path created and Fusion or sheetcam do that, there are others but those 2 are popular here. Lastly you need the control program to control the machine.
If I were you I’d figure out which control software is being used then I’d go to Fireshare and download Cletus’s test card file and try to cut that. Then work into the other software. Let us know what other help you need to get started!