I know this has been talked about before but I wanted to start a new thread to see take advantage of new updates, technologies, etc in late 2015.

Short version. Looking to model 3d, and cut 3d. What is best program or combination of programs for CAD and CAM? Specifically using an indexer, but also taking advantage of 3d slicing to do a layered assembly of larger 3d models, (think human sized) on machine bed.

I have been running aspire for quite some time, using it to model "3d" projects referenced from a flat plane. I've gotten to the point where I am very comfortable using the software and its advanced features, but I am ready for the next step in 3d design and wanted to hear the opinions of forum members on which program to go with for FULLY 3d work. As a point of reference, Vcarve and Aspire were my first CAD/CAM programs ever. I am not a designer, more of a guy who lifts heavy things. However I do learn quite quickly and just really want to start a dialogue to inspire some ideas on which program can take me to the next level.

From a CAD design perspective, sketch up seems pretty user friendly. I can draw full design models of simple furniture, etc. I have heard there are plug ins to port drawings over to aspire for nesting etc but it seems to fall short on modeling compared to Rhino?

I just downloaded the demo of rhino 5, and rhino cam. Although have no idea how to use either, I hear there are slicing functions built in to take apart an STL model? How is rhino cam running the bot? is it better to import STLs to aspire instead of using rhinocam?

I read a while back where Brady mentioned deskproto does fully 360˚ indexer work, is this still the only program, or the easiest program to utilize the indexer like this? There appears to be some cool toolpath options in DP that I have not seen in aspire. I know I can do turnings in aspire with the unwrapping stuff, but it seems pretty complicated to me, maybe I have not spent enough time practicing. I can make the heck out of a dowel though. Rhinocam appears to now have a rhino turn or something like that, anyone used it yet?

Every now and then I check the shopbot home website to see if they have updated anything. I noticed that the machines are now shipping utilizing this fusion software from autodesk. It is a cloud based thing, which is not appealing to me whatsoever. I know there is the option to label yourself as a "startup" to get access to the software for free, but I imagine this is a ploy and 5 years later when you are really invested is when they drop the hammer. For the record I am not opposed to paying good money for good software and do not ever expect or accept handouts. I think it kind of scares me to not really know what the cost will be of software that my business relies on to function. Plus do my designs get uploaded to china or some other stealyourdesignistan place?

The fusion videos I have watched showed parametric sizing for models, which is similar to ecabs resizing. Here though, you create tags, and then just type in the tag names and things adjust accordingly, this looks REALLY cool and is something I wish aspire did. Does anyone here have experience using both programs that can give a comparison?

This is probably enough questions for now. Please feel free to chime in, I love your guys' opinions.