Thinking about new CAD / CAM

[Tenson]

At the moment I am using AutoCAD 2007 with Dolphin PartMaster. It does what I need but not very fluidly. Every time I adjust my drawing in AutoCAD I need to re-import it to Dolphin CAD and assign names for each contour and then move that on to CAM again.

So, I'm thinking about moving to a new combination.

I mostly work in wood, but also a little metal and plastics.

It seems to me that AlphaCAM Router is a good option and very capable. I assume I could use the 'Router' to design parts for simple metal and plastic cutting too, even though they also sell 'AlphaCAM Metal'. SolidCAM seems geared toward metalwork and as I said my primary media is sheet wood.

So, if AlphaCAM is a good option then what is the better CAD package to go for? I figure I really have 4 options: 1) A Stick with AutoCAD, maybe upgrade to a more recent version. How does it integrate with AlphaCAM? 2) Use AlphaCAD as I'm not really doing very advanced stuff. 3) Go for SolidWorks. 4) AutoDesk Inventor (how much does a knowledge of AutoCAD help here?)

I'm inclined towards Inventor or SolidWorks as a long term solution and something worth having skills in. Which do you think suits best for woodwork and integration with AlphaCAM?

In fact how the hell do you make any of these programs integrate with AlphaCAM? One thing I'd like to do is name and group my contours in the CAD stage, rather than having to do it each time I import to CAM. I hate having a long list of 'Con 1, Con 2, Con 3...' and not knowing which is which.