Hi!
Don’t be intimidated, you got this! Plenty of folks to help you with things and these links will get you started. It’s really(really!) (really!) worth the time to follow the tutorials to get a feel for your incredible new toy.
START HERE WITH THE FIRST PRINTS
TONS OF GOOD INFO HERE TOO
THIS IS MY FAVORITE it explains what all the settings do
So any acrylic is OK for the laser and it goes by several names including plexiglass, lucite, cell cast and arcylite. The best news is acrylic all has the same basic structure/chemicals and lasers about the same. So if you find acrylic the same thickness as the proofgrade (PG) acrylic, you can just use the PG settings for it. There are two types of acrylic; cast and extruded. Both work just fine in the laser, but cast will engrave better becasue it engraves white and provides more contrast. Extruded engraves more clear and stinks a lot more when cut. Generally speaking, cast acrylic has paper making that you can leave on it you want (but you can take it off too) and extruded typically has plastic masking that you want to remove. (The plastic will melt and can mar the acrylic.) Now go make something!