Just got a Pro set up Today, What draw program is easiest to use? Any recomendations or favs? Any help is appreciated!
Affinity Designer ($), CorelDraw ($$), Adobe Illustrator ($$$), Fusion 360 ($$$$)
Inkscape is similar to the Affinity/Corel/Illustrator tools and is free.
YouTube tutorials on all of these are out there and super helpful to get up to speed.
If you want a 3D design program, that’s Freecad, Tinkercad, Sketchup, SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Autocad in order of price from free to $$$$.
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You can not go wrong with the recomendation from The Mr.Jamesdhatch!!
I have two videos on YouTube showing how I use Affinity Designer to create art and accurate CAD level stuff. It does plenty to draw accurate 2d parts to cut.
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Yep. I’m an original Affinity user back like 4 years or so ago. It came out well designed & easy to use and they keep adding to it but not raising the price.
I’ve taught CAD/CAM at the local makerspace monthly for years and default newbs to Inkscape because it’s free & I know every student will be able to use it at home afterwards.
Affinity is my second recommendation because it’s the price of a couple of pizzas & beer so generally affordable by everyone and it’s user interface is more modern than Inkscape. There are also some good books out there if you’re someone who learns better that way than via YouTube.
For 3D I was on old Fusion guy because the capabilities, company, training materials and support were all top shelf. The licensing was very friendly for hobbyists and small business. Then they started backing away which broke a promise they made when they first made a small change to keep the free version available for the little guy. They might argue they kept the promise but they keep gutting the features that are delivered in that license by deciding what a small guy needs. Pretty soon they’ll likely decide you only need to be able to make minor tweaks to someone else’s design 
It’s the new Autodesk financial model.
I ended up with Freecad because it’s about as powerful as Fusion vs Tinkercad which has some limits for my use. But again there are other good solutions too. I’d advise against using the Creo programs. Their paid version upgrade didn’t handle their free express version files. That bit me in the butt 
How does Affinity’ s learning curve stack up against other products?
I have used Sketchup for 10 years now. Not many great features, but super easy to learn and use. I have had to back away from Sketchup. It is still a great way to visualize and plan my welding and wood working projects; but they have cut the legs off of the the older non-subscription version (2017) I was using and the Extensions that made it usable for the CAD side of CNC have been eliminated.
I had started tinkering with Fusion 360 when I ordered my CFP in late July. I had gotten to where I could draw a straight line 2 out of 3 times then they went and changed it to a subscription service. Did I mention I hate subscription service software?
Right now I am bashing my way through the process with very poorly used Inkscape and Sheetcam. I like Sheetcam, but Inkscape was never intended to be a CAD workhorse.
If I thought Fusion would not keeping rolling back on there features, I would invest the time in learning that platform better.
So I guess what I’m really asking is it easier to use then Fusion, but have better CAD features then Inkscape?
Affinity is easier than both Fusion and Inkscape to learn. But both Inkscape and Affinity are drawing programs more than full bore CAD (the distinction being CAD having things like constraints or possible parametric design features). If you want full CAD, then go with Freecad - I stuck with Fusion for a long time because of the sheetmetal features but found them in Freecad too. I should have moved earlier 
I watched BrownFox’s videos on Affinity. It looks appealing for the Art “side” of the equation, i.e. signs and artsy fartsy things to be cut out. And it looked easier to use then Inkscape. I also like that it was cross platform capable. It did look a little clumsy from a CAD perspective. I am going to take a look at Freecad when I get a chance. The final answer may be there is not a one stop shop for everything I want to do. Ultimately I may have to work with two different programs for all the files I want to send to Sheetcam.
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I run librecad for brackets and such. I’ve been using it for a while on the CNC mill. It is a little odd to learn, but once you figure it out (via youtube) it is pretty decent and can do CAD stuff pretty well. I did a push-stick for my bandsaw and once I had the software figured out I could redraw the bracket in 15 minutes. Note the ultra high end bolt handles…
I had this laser cut from sendcutsend, It was around $30 in 1/4 inch (versus $300 from doall).
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That’s what I do. Different applications for different projects. The concepts are similar to all of the applications so it’s not too hard to use multiple apps. The biggest hurdle was 3D CAD wrapping my head around thinking in 3D and constraints, etc.
Ok, so I ended up using autodesk fusion 360. I got a chance today to sit down with my sis who is software/computer savvy and within an hour Bam! we were cutting. Only issue is sometimes it doesnt like to start first try? maybe settings? But I’m making headway, cut out some little stuff to get started. Now ordering consumables and going to print out a list for the razorcut45 that a awesome someone put on here. I’ll check back soon. Thanks for the help!