Michael Crofts

Thanks to all who replied. It turns out there are approximately 55 CAD programs available at the moment. Easy enough to weed out those I can't afford, but a nightmare trying to select from the rest. After looking at a model engineering forum I am probably going to try QCAD Professional, partly because it will run on Linux, and partly because for something like this I think I'm safer with a paid-for product which is perhaps less likely to vanish into the ether one day. Well, I can hope. Interesting to read about Phillips Digital Print - they are the preferred film maker for G&H so I will be using them. I like the idea of seeing the films before sending them to the etcher, for a beginner that sounds like a good way to go. I'm expecting a few failures before I have my first etch in my hands. Michael

I'm new to this. The etcher I want to use is Grainge & Hodder, for personal reasons and because they have done some amazing etches in the past. But I believe they only accept .dxf files. Can these older, cheaper versions of Turbocad produce .dxf output? Specifically, I need to be able to import .dwg files and use them as the layouts, then draw the etch layers over the top, and export the finished work in .dxf format. Thanks in advance for any advice! Michael