if you are looking to make mechanical objects then yes you need to lean a cad software that can export the file in STL format which is what the Slicing software (also something to lean) read and turns into gcode which is what the printer reads.
If wanting to do mechanical there are some free options.. I choose Onshape.com which is free with the caveat that anything you design can be searched and used by any other Onshape user. This is a fully functional system nothing is turned off for the non paying users. It is also cloud based so system requirements are small compared to CAD software that are installed on your local system. Can not comment on the printer, I a MakerGrear M2 and never anything else