Reliable printer out of the box ?

[Doddy]

i use emachineshop (free) cad software and Cambam (licenced) for my CNC projects.

Whats a good combination for 3d printers please ?. Ive never had any exp with them

You probably should understand the tool-chain.

CAD: You have your CAD software - which you're familiar with from your CNC work. That's pretty much your choice.

TESSALATION: Now, the 3D modelling/printing process then leads you to tessellation - the transformation of the CAD output into a description modelled into 3D space in terms of generating a (lot of) triangular faces that describe the object. Imagine the wireframe image of a 3D-object, that's kinda what I'm struggling to describe. That is the STL format that Jazz eludes to. If your CAD will generate STL then stick with that. F360 (that I'm familiar with) will export objects as STLs. https://www.emachineshop.com/help-im...ort/#undefined suggests the emachineshop's CAD software will also do this. You probably want to use CAD software that exports the STL directly rather than using a 3rd-party agent.

SLICER: Next, you feed the STL object into the slicer. The purpose of the slicer software is broadly similar to CAM - it generates a series of layers, maybe 0.25m in height each (user programmable) and generates the X/Y tool path for the 3D printer, often presented as G-Code. Each layer is essentially a horizontal slice through the STL model at that given height (hence the name). There's lots of slicers on the market, usually bundled with the machine (and maybe optimised for the machine). It's within the slicer that you'll control filament parameters (extrusion rate, retractions), extruders (temperatures, cooling fans), machine (feed rates), to output a file suited to print.

PRINTING: Maybe integrated into the slicer, or a separate printer control program, or you simply dump the output from the slicer straight onto the printer (removable media) and print from the printer.

My particular toolchain:

Fusion 360 for CAD and tessellation. The STL Export integrates with the "QIDI Print" application that provides the slicing and is a poor-man's version of the very popular Cura software. From there I can export over WiFi to the printer and elect to print from that software. So, in a nut-shell, F360 and Qidi-Print.

But your choice will be very dependent on your CAD intent and your choice of printer.