I use a Shapeoko XXL 3 and 4 and I have a HDM on the way. The 5 Pro and migration to ballscrews for X and Y instead of belts for their more affordable machines looks great. Wanted to first say this is a great resource and I’ll be constantly referring to it. It doesn’t mention Fusion 360 and Vectric Aspire much so I just wanted to add that Fusion is great for engineering designs and CAM but is terrible at machining shapes derived from STL or other high resolution 3D data. Fusion likes you to create the source data in Fusion. It can’t handle creating CAM tool paths for scans with more than 50,000 triangles and even more than 10,000 is asking a lot. Aspire absolutely eats STL tool paths for breakfast and asks for seconds. So for machining topography I’ve moved entirely over to Aspire. I like it so much I’m using it for other non topo projects too because it’s just so fast. It is significantly slower on a Windows VM but absolutely screams along on a modest gaming PC. There’s a free tier for Aspire so try it out. To buy Fusion or Aspire is expensive which is why the guide probably doesn’t mention them much.
Also total tangent but I just installed a Fireboy automatic fire extinguisher above my CNC machine that I use for overnight unattended jobs along with cameras and remote shut off. I’d strongly recommend this for longer jobs. CNC fires are common and seem to be most often caused by insufficient work holding where the part comes loose and is dragged by the bit creating friction and heat.
Also total tangent but I just installed a Fireboy automatic fire extinguisher above my CNC machine that I use for overnight unattended jobs along with cameras and remote shut off. I’d strongly recommend this for longer jobs. CNC fires are common and seem to be most often caused by insufficient work holding where the part comes loose and is dragged by the bit creating friction and heat.