yes it will work with the X-Controller. that is what I have. I personally liked Bcnc as the program runs from the local machine and although chilipeppr works nice it is browser based and I never liked some of the limitations of the browser, i.e. larger file support.
when I did the AR which is aluminum I did not need to use the tape method. but I did see a video in which a person used the aluminum tape to touch off of. just ground the tape with one wire and hook the other to the bit “same as with zero touch plate” and let it do it’s thing.
here is a picture of the program in auto-level
notice the grid that you specified in yellow that is where the bit will touch off to determine the height.
also here is a link to the video on youtube that explains it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59BkvBOx5A