So, I have Fusion 360 on Mac Pro. I’m wanting to purchase a (cheap Walmart) windows laptop for Sheetcam and Inkscape. What do you recommend to look for ?
Literally any windows platform you can buy today will handle those two apps.
1 Like
Okay, thank you this will make it easier for me to shop now.
If using those 2 softwares is your issue why not use the Macbook? I run those on my my Macbook. Inkscape has a Mac native version and I run sheetcam via parallels. It is less expensive than another machine and probably more reliable than a super cheap laptop.
Well, I also have Inkscape on my Mac, but I’ve heard that Sheetcam isn’t supported on Mac. So, I just wanted to get something more adequate for this software and not make it more complicated for myself.
you can download a trial of Parallels and see if you think it’s too complicated. I find multiple machines with different operating systems more complicated but that’s just me…
Thank you I appreciate it. My wife will also be programming. She was going to use Sheetcam and Inkscape while I had fusion 360 on the mac. So, another laptop would be needed that’s why I asked which windows laptop would be best for these just so we don’t run into issues for getting the wrong one . I know I’ve seen that the SSD & Ram being very important for Fusion 360 so I thought maybe it would be the same for Sheetcam. Quite new to these programs.
1 Like
SheetCam is super fast without any noticeable load. Inkscape will bog down with image processing (bit map trace, etc), but is otherwise fast. Certainly 2D Vector graphics breeze through…
1 Like
You might also look into Affinity Designer. It sort fills a gap between the more freehand style of Inkscape and a dimension driven 2D CAD program. It’s pretty inexpensive ($55USD) for lifetime license, will run on both MAC & Windows, and there are a series of tutorials linked on this forum that are specifically showing workflow using AD to create Plasma cut objects.
I use this in addition to Inkscape & Fusion 360. Once you have Sheetcam you can literally use ANY CAD/Drawing package as input as it accepts SVG, DXF, HPGL, and maybe a few others…
1 Like
Thank you for this recommendation. I ended up getting parallels & I’ve run into some issues with files not showing on Windows for Sheetcam. Files that were originally from the Mac is there something I need to do different for it to work ?
Just make sure you are giving the windows machine access to you Mac file locations when it asks you. It should be no problem for you to access files seamlessly between the two. Initially use a location that is already available and as you get more comfortable with how it works you can be more creative. Let me know if you need more help I’d be happy to get on a google meeting and show you how mine is set up or help you get yours working.