I know that I have just barely scratched the surface on learning how to design patterns but, as powerful as the software is, you are only limited by your skill and imagination. Mainly due to a lot of reading on the CarveWright sight, watching videos and the great guys and gals on the CarveWright Forum that answer any question you may have no matter how dumb it is. It really surprised me that the learning curve for using the machine and the basic Designer software was not as sharp as I had thought it might be. Since I bought mine they have come out with a newer model and up-dated the basic Designer software about four times with each version getting more and more sophisticated. I guess you might say the same for the ShopSmith. If you aren't up for that then this isn't the machine for you. After all this is a computer controlled, close tolerance machine that requires following a good maintenance schedule. There have been a lot of bad revues on this machine but I have found that a large part of it is due to operator error or lack of maintenance or both. But, once I got it fixed, the machine has done everything asked of it. To be completely honest, for the first couple of months, I did have some problems and had to replace some parts and really felt like I might have made a big mistake buying it. I have had mine for close to two years and can honestly say that I am totally satisfied with it. I was asked by a forum member (kablerj) to post a tool revue on the CarveWright CNC machine.