I started out trying to cut corners on the CAD/CAM software. Brought me no end of grief and wasted a lot of time using various open-source and similar "products". I then switched to Vectric vCarve. Certainly not cheap, but deceptively simple. That is, when you first look at it, it looks as if there is hardly anything there to do all the fancy things you might want to do. Then you start using it and find out that they have very carefully selected the bits you actually need and left out a lot of the fancy stuff that no-one ever uses. It's great for routers and people doing mainly woodwork, that is, 2.5D work. That means things like cutting profiles of parts, cutting pockets and similar to depth, and it is excellent for lettering (signboards and so on). I use it still, especially if I'm just drawing a single part with no 3D elements, just because it is so quick.

However, for engineering-type parts, like an increasing number of people here, I am using Fusion 360 which is a professional level application which is free for home and hobby use. Great for building 3D designs with multiple components, and also for producing engineering drawings to take into the workshop for use at a manual machine (mill, lathe, whatever). It also has a CAM package built in, as already mentioned, so you can go from design to gcode in one package. Learning curve is a bit steep but it's well worth it, and not that difficult once you have grasped a few basic concepts. Lots of tutorials available. Don't know about forum support - I'm fortunate to have not needed it yet.

I wouldn't go back to anything less now, although I'm sure that there are some better options available. But at a cost...