Fill in my knowledge gap :)

[Neale]

When you are comparing products like Aspire/VCarve and F360 which include both CAD and CAM modules, you do have to be careful to compare like with like. The Vectric CAM stuff is really easy to use, although it might not have quite all the features of F360 but which are more difficult to find and configure - there are so many options and parameters! However, I compare the CAD part of VCarve (and TurboCAD, which I used to use) to a power-operated drawing board. Very accurate, precise, etc, but a real pain if you want to change something in a design which is going to affect other parts of the design. Often easiest to delete and start again. F360, on the other hand, is like a power-operated "back of the envelope". Once you get used to the very different starting point - you literally sketch something that is kind-of what you want, then go back in and add critical dimensions where you have to and constrain and link other relationships wherever you can - suddenly you find that you have something where you can change history. Want to increase a dimension on something you did at the beginning of a drawing? Just change it, and watch the knock-on effects ripple through everything that you did after that point. I've done demos of F360 a few times, and I usually draw a simple bracket made from two plates joined at 90deg. I show how you position mounting holes in the edge of one piece and how the clearance holes in the other are linked - change the first piece and the second changes with it. Magic, once you're used to it!

[Boyan Silyavski]

A parametric CAD will always shine, when later changes are needed. Aspire will shine in a workshop environment for everydays stuff, simple jobs, signs, carving. The fluidity when making signs or carvings is uncomparable. Try that in other program and you will soon get frustrated.

One main thing that i start to miss very much in Aspire is trochoidal toolpaths. Its annoying and i see no reason why they don't include that, given its price. Now i am playing around with Estlcam which is 50euro and has that function. By the way I highly recommend that program as very intuitive and capable and am thinking to buy a license.
I could make the same in NX9 CAM part but i have to spend 1h deciding 50 details just for a simple pocket. Hence i start to need a simple CAM for the trochoidal toolpaths. That's why i am testing now the EstlCam. This program has one little very annoying detail that if fixed could be a serious contender even for Aspire. I am planning to contact the maker. Its that you don't see a toolpath list window like in other programs, but instead have to simulate the cut to see the various toolpaths and their order. Fix that and there will be a wow prog for 50 euro.