Large stencil software.

[Sister Sledge]

Hey everyone I'm seeking some wise words of wisdom. Before I go any further - I'm quite thick with technology etc which means the simpler the better!

I'm a hobbyist metalworker recently won a plasma cutter in a competition. I want to make stencils from MDF (not the bloke here and yes it works well) but will also need help with some designs and why I'm seeking software.
I've seen software for exactly this purpose but it costs - is there a freeware out there which is very easy to use and which comes with lots of helpful images which could be used?
This is what I spotted:

https://www.ronyasoft.com/products/proposter/

Free and ease of use are my priorities.

Thanks everyone.
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CCM 404 DS

[WD Forte]

Do you mean stencils as in say military ammo boxes type script or
images a la banksy/tattoos/ line art?
Both maybe?
Either way I reckon you need to work in vector images
as in lines and shapes not lotsa dots ( raster/bitmap)
as once you have a design it can easily be enlarged and shrunk
to fit your workpiece without suffering.

There's probably a shit ton of freeware about that I'm unaware of
but Gimp and Inkscape comes to mind.
Gimp is an image editor and Inkscape is a vector drawing program.
Havent used either for years and they mey be a bit daunting and frustrating for a newbie so something easily accessible would be best to get you started

What woud be your workflow?
I'm assuming hand held and guided cutter followings lines?
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bikers smell of wee

[Sister Sledge]

Honestly the workflow could be and will be anything. Could be a star shape, letters and numbers or even things such as that design you put onto the box lid with your machine thingy the other day. Stencil is probably the wrong description - literally print to paper, cut out or transfer that design to thin MDF, cut to make an actual re-usable 'hard' stencil and finally use the cutting torch to go around it. All done by hand.

I'm probably overthinking things at my end and likely only need to look at something within GIMP (I have lotsa Photoshops here) or another freeware and take things from there. My question was more a 'Is there a freeware that's really easy to use' type of request.

This video shows what I'm wanting stencil software for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-t5mm7cAw
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CCM 404 DS

[WD Forte]

Just a quickie
had a brain fade and kept thinking how the hell do you cut mdf with plasma cutter?
then watched the vid and got a Aha! moment
Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the pickup but
think I see what you want now

What I think you want is Template software not stencil software
where you can import or make shapes and it will resize to allow for the
radius of the cutting tip
so if your tip is say 12mm dia and your'e cutting outside
you'd want to cut 6mm bigger and vice versa for inside cuts

You may have to do the these corrections/allowances by hand of course
but I'd say you want somethign like 2d technical drawing software

I googled "2d CAD freeware" and this popped up and may be worth a look

https://qcad.org/en/
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bikers smell of wee