that’s awesome KSiegel….so the fusion 360 comes with the machine, but we can use other software for the design too? Like the Mastercam9 you suggested? We are going to start out with address signs, tree of life, silhouettes of butterflies and birds (I used to give him templates to draw on the steel and he hand cut them for me)…so pretty basic stuff for now. we still have to get a laptop for this, so I will wait until we get that and reach out to you to point me in the right direction.
I personally love mastercam, started on 8 and yes a cracked 9 is everywhere.
fusion 360 is an Autodesk company product. its basic version, which is plenty enough for what you’re doing, is free for small business, start up companies and home use. google it, create an account, yada yada yada, then download the program.
M9 is more of a mechanical drawing program. you CAN draw complex parts but its going to take a while to master that. i just quickly searched google for Mastercam9 cracked, and all im seeing is X9, which ive never used. just let me know when you want M9, i have the program and crack saved on a drive from years ago.
i know some programs will import pictures you find on google images, and then convert them to a basic black and white image, where you can create plot points to transfer to cut. im not sure if fusion will do that.
just to add:
i would suggest getting a laptop soon and start learning F360. it takes a bit of know how to use the software. basic commands, features, drawing, rendering…
this guy on Youtube does videos on how to learn F360.
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LOL…I just found his tutorial, but he was making a 3d part, so I skipped it. I will circle back and watch though!
@Andy-Lisa
If you are not computer savvy I recommend staying away from cracks. They usually have virus/trojan horse attached to them. If you do run cracked software, at least run it on a virtual machine. Ideally on a stand alone system.
If you don’t know what a crack is, don’t bother running it. It’s an illegal stolen copy of the software. There are enough legitimate alternatives out there that there is no good reason to bother with them for someone in your situation. If you want to do just 2D drawing in CAD (like brackets, flanges, etc) you can get Fusion360 to do that, but there’s a learning curve. The bonus with Fusion360 is that it also can take your drawing and produce the GCode (CAM software). Most free 2D drawing wont have that ability built in.
For your intended workflow you probably want to research Inkscape .
Inkscape is geared toward the more artistic drawing and text. Once you produce the drawing you need to convert that drawing to GCode, this is done with CAM software. Fusion360 is both CAD (drawing) and CAM (generate GCode). While it is good for producing technical drawings, it’s not so great for artistic stuff. So you use Inkscape for that, then import the Inkscape drawing into Fustion360 to run the CAM software on the drawing.
See this post:
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your right…I don’t know what Cracked is…LOL . I can sort of follow you…as soon as we can confirm what the laptop specs are…I am going to order one and then download the Fusion 360…probably the others you mentioned too. We will get licenses for any software necessary too. I appreciate free stuff, but then when tech support comes in, you can’t get help or version updates etc.
My background was Telecom…I am ok around computers…can learn anything…did some html and lots of coding…have Cisco certs from years ago, .but i’m 60 now so alots changed…I used to draw engineering diagrams, no CAD available back in the 80’s that my boss would buy…LOL… so I am so excited to work with my husband with this venture. My daughter is now an engineer and she uses all sorts of CAD programs and will help me with this i’m sure, she can mirror my future new laptop and we can collaborate…and I really like these forums for sure!
Just remember there’s “minimum spec” and then there’s useful. Here is a link to the Fusion360 requirements, here.
If you intend to do your design on the same computer as the one that controls the Crossfire, Fusion will most likely be the most computer intensive application.
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If your going to use Fusion I would recomend you get a good PC. Way above the basic fusion requirements. Like a gaming one. Many here will agree, Fusion is a RAM hog at times. So get the best you can afford from the start. As far as Mach…a cheapo will run it. And welcome to the gang!
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yes Greg9504…I agree…still trying to get a grasp on the basic and then ramp it up to “useful”!
yupper Jimt ……I love all the input…I only want to spend the money once…and I would rather grow into the computer, than have to replace it or add memory etc. Especially if I have to run more than one program, like Inkscape and F360. Just starting this thread has given me more insight! I think the one we buy will have to be the one running the Crossfire in the beginning…its a long walk to the barn…and I’m sure since we are new, we will have to tweek a design and not want to go back up to the house to do it. I’m going to open the F360 link that Greg gave me the link to now…
as Greg suggested, youre probably looking for something more like Inkscape.
MasterCam is more of a mechanical drawing software for designing parts. i used it for years at my previous employer designing basic 2d parts for the plasma table. stuff for structural steel and vehicle fabrication.
“Cracked” means the software registration requirements have been bypassed by “cracking” the code.
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I second this! @Andy-Lisa unless you need to do 3D design and are already 3D CAD savvy, I’d go with Inkscape and only use Fusion for toolpathing or buy ($150) a copy of Sheetcam and skip the complexities of 3D CAD/Fusion altogether. 3D design requires a different way of looking at things and can be fairly tough to master. For the signs and things you’ve described, you’ll have a lot less problems using Inkscape (free) for design and Sheetcam for toolpathing/GCode generation. The small business version of Fusion is no longer free - it is for hobbyists who make less than $1000 but it’s not longer free for small businesses (used to be up to $100,000 in sales) so if you’re not going to need 3D CAD design, just go simple. The hardware requirements are simpler too 
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@jamesdhatch If we use Inkscape and Sheetcam or fusion for the gcode, will it do anything to my tech support with my crossfire? And why does anyone who is using a plasma want fusion then at all because you only cut flat pieces?
Nope - no issues with Tech Support. Many of us use alternatives to Fusion (I use it only for doing 3D design - even when designing the part I still do the toolpathing in Sheetcam).
The original Crossfire came out with the suggestion to use Fusion 360 and it was free for anyone as long as they made less than $100,000/year. Late last year they changed their licensing so it’s not quite the great deal it was. It did (does) provide the ability to do some complex 3D work. It also has some neat add-in functions - I use the sheetmetal function in Fusion because I do boxes, etc. that I’m going to bend later on a press brake. Fusion will draw it in 3D and then “unfold” it so I can do a 2D cut.
Most of the folks who struggled with Fusion ended up going with an alternate like Inkscape. I use that occasionally as I use it when teaching laser cutting classes. I also use CorelDraw ($) and some folks use applications like Adobe Illustrator ($) or Affinity Designer ($ - but not much). You just need to be able to save as an SVG file.
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@jamesdhatch ahhh…I think i’m understanding a bit more…thank you James! I think I can download inkscape now on this computer to play around with it. my husband is going full blown metal shop and I know he has a brake too…mig welder etc…so he may want more out of this than our craft stuff…but we can always add that later. for example, would we be able to download from fireshare on this site the alphabet letters and add last names using inkscape or the tree of life for example?
Yes. Inkscape can read (& write) DXF files too which is how most of the stuff up in Fireshare is stored. Inkscape is free & tons of YouTube videos out there to learn from. Folks here on the forum can help you too.
You can also find tons of SVG and DXF files out there online as well. Also, check out plasmaspider.com - a $20 donation each year gets you access to their free files that people upload.
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Plasmaspider are good folks, been there a while. The $20 a year is worth it just for the dxf files.
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Oh just thought to add this, checkout uscutter dot com. It is where I get all my vinyl supplies they have a lot of svg and dxf files, good folks also
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