Pros and Cons - BobCad, Mastercam, Aspire

[becikeja]

I need advice: I am a weekend warrior. Built a CNC machine about 10 years ago and started using BobCad. I currently have BobCad V27 with Bobart. To be fair I get to use the machine about one or two weekends a month. I do 2D cutouts, inlays, and occasionally 3D carvings. Almost every project is a one-off but occasionally, especially the 2D work I do create multiples. Would like to do more 3D carvings and considering the addition of a 4th. axis. I have found BobCad to be adequate but not the easiest to use and definitely not intuitive to a hobbyist. I call myself a hobbyist but have been fortunate enough to sell enough stuff to pay for the hobby and upgrade my tools. It's great to have a self sustaining hobby.

Currently I am considering upgrading my CNC to either an Axiom Pro-Series, or a Legacy Maverick but that's a different discussion. At the same time I am considering changing my CAD/CAM software. Both Axiom and Legacy really push the Vectric Aspire Software. It seems they have a lot of 3D models available and really good training. I downloaded their demo and find it not as flexible as BobCad, but a lot of features are disabled in the demo. I went to IWF a couple of weeks ago and saw a demo of MasterCam. Very impressive but I have heard that they require a monthly license fee. I prefer a one time payment and to own the software on my machine and not pay any recurring fees.

I feel like I may be comparing apples and oranges with these 3 packages but not completely sure. This is where I need the advice of experts.
1) I have BobCad and have somewhat trained myself.
2) Mastercam seems very intuitive but a little pricey
3) Vectric Aspire seems very simple to use but limited capabilities compared to BobCad

What are the Pros and Cons in your opinion of these 3 packages? Or are there others I should be considering. All opinions and thoughts welcomed. Thanks in advance for the advice.

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[ger21]

1) The only feature that's disabled in the Aspire demo is g-code export. Everything else should work.

BobCAD is really more of a mechanical CAD/CAM program, with a reputation for being difficult to use, and not intuitive at all. But very powerful. I've never used it.

I've never used MasterCAM either. It's more of a "high end" package, and probably is not used by many hobbyists. Expect to pay 3-5x more than for Aspire, depending on what version or options you want or need.

Vectric software is the hands down leader in the hobby router market. If someone has a router, and is spending more than $300 on software, chances are they are using Vectric software.
What capabilities do you feel Aspire is missing?

[ger21]

You might want to consider Fusion 360 for some of the things Aspire won't do. It's free for hobbists.

[generaldisarray]

Mastercam
is not high-end , it is actually mid level and compared to the systems above it. It is a good value.
Is a one time purchase. You can pay yearly maintenance if you want, but you do not have to. Entitles you to new maintenance releases and versions. I think mill starts @2-3k? just guessing.
you can try it out with the Home Learning edition.

[ger21]

You'd probably want MasterCAM router, not mill.
And to get some features that are in Aspire, you'd need to add the Nesting, Engraving, and Art packages.

But I'm guessing the the Nesting in MasterCAM is much better than Aspires. But foir what you'll be doing, Aspires nesting capabilities would be fine, if you used them at all.