Hello All,

First post and please forgive me if this is an old chestnut, but a cursory search did not reveal any like threads.

I am in the early phases of researching the purchase of a desk top CNC router/engraver. My hobby is making large scale (1/72) RC models of modern (ish) warships. I build the models from scratch based on plans, photographs and a little artistic licence.....

Hulls are made form oak and marine ply in a plank on frame construction, sealed with fiber glass mat and resin. The super structure is made primarily from High Impact Poly Styrene (HIPS) plastic. At the moment I draw the parts I need to make by hand, trace and transfer them to the plastic sheet, score and snap. Pretty straight forward for the larger block pieces of the superstructure, but really fiddly, and not easy to get accurate, when cutting out windows, doors, hatches, curves and so on.

My original idea was to use a CNC machine to cut out the frames, keels, some of the internal soft metal fittings, e.g. motor mounts and so on. Then I “discovered” SheetCAM and the drag knife. It occurs to me that I could replace the entire “trace, transfer, score and snap” process with the mill and a drag knife. Ought to be a big improvement in productivity, accuracy and time.

I have not committed to the CAD software as yet, but I am drawn to TurboCAD, gets good reviews, has a good reputation with "new users". Does anyone have any comments regarding compatibility between TC and SheetCAM?

Thanks in advance for your support

Andrew