3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe/ may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
view the rest of the comments
With your budget, the typical "entry point" into the hobby would most likely be any machine from the Chinese brands like Anycubic, Creality, Sovol etc. Those machines work OK, but it's very likely that you'll find some quirks that annoy you which leads to tinkering and printing (or buying) replacement parts and upgrades. But it also helps to further understand how the printer works, which can help down the line.
"Tinker-free" printers that just work and will do so for many 100 hours (like the printers by Prusa) are more expensive upfront but don't require constant "babysitting".
Regarding software, there's a plethora of programs that can be used. To name a few, we have the open source group (OpenSCAD, FreeCAD), the 'free' group (Fusion 360, SolidEdge), the web-based group (TinkerCAD, OnShape) and many more. Try them out and pick whichever suit you.