Hi,
I last tried FlatCAM about 2.5 years ago, what version it was I don't know.If you used "released FlatCAM" that was probably version 8.5 and yes that was NOT impressive.
I had for some years prior to that experiment I had been using EAGLE. When Eagle was bought by Autodesk and incorporated into Fusion I sought an alternative. None
of the free or open source tools, including FlatCam were of use to me.
I used Fusion, or rather the electronics design modules within Fusion, which is familiar to any whom have used EAGLE.
In the event I subscribed to Fusion ($675NZD/year) and I use it all day every day. I thought initially, as you do, that Fusion is expensive, but when you consider all the features,
the quality of those features then you realise that Fusion is very VERY competitive amongst the Pro level CAD/CAM packages out there. I am now of the opinion that Fusion represents
good value for money. Like any system there are things which I would like done differently but over-all I'm very satisfied.
Despite Fusion being able to generate Gcode toolpaths for isolation routing, its is not as good as the very familiar (to me at least) as the ULP PCB-to-Gcode in EAGLE.
Thus I have a copy of EAGLE into which I pass the Fusion design, and then use PCB-to-Gcode to generate the Gcode isolation routing files. Best of both worlds.
I have attached a pic of one of several boards I have designed this week. Not only designed, but made the board, populated, tested and programmed the uP and sold
it to a customer, money is already in the bank. I also attached a few lines of the Gcode generated by the ULP for this board.
Craig