well folks im just sitting here looking at my newly built cnc machine from hobby cnc  and let me tell you it has been a journey.
it is all wired up ready to go, tuned the motors and changed all limit and homing swithches to sheilded cable.

all directions are correct and all is ready, and i have been waiting for this point.

i have downloaded mach3 for test use and to see if it is for me.
it looks good and seems to be user friendly.
i have read it from front to back and i am ready to go.
now im looking at it and saying what is next.

how do i begin to cut parts,what is the correct wy to go about this,

1. mach3 seems to be good , what about turbocad , i knowthat it runs in the dos mode , that im not worried about, im sure it ia a matter of choice.

2. knowing what these programs do what is the next step in the proceedure or software , that i will need to move closer to testing 

thanks.......Robert

You can open some of the wizards and do some simple shapes, pockets, circles or whatever, that will give you a feel for things.
 You can use TurboCAD or similar and create a DXF file and import it into LazyCAM to produce code, LazyCAM comes with Mach.
 Hood