I'd like to see an example of what you wish to cut. It sounds like you are looking for basic 2d profiling, pocketing and drilling type routines if you're looking at VCarve. If that's the case, Meshcam is not going to be your cup of tea as it's meant for 3d type toolpaths on STL meshes. It's a great application, but does not sound like a match for what you are doing.
You should have a look at EstlCAM. I think it will provide what you want for the CAM side. You just need to save 2d drawings as R12 DXF files to open them in EstlCAM. For CAD, I don't think you'll get much easier than Viacad, but Turbocad might be the most similar to Emachine. I haven't tried it, but perhaps DraftIt will also be similar. You have to buy the "Pro" version to export anything useful in DraftIt, which costs around $150. IMO, you're best off using Viacad and getting used to how it works.