Hello Andrew. Mastercam is SUPER expensive. About 11 years ago, before I bought my Shopbot, and before Aspire/Vectric existed, I purchased a seat of Mastercam, with their Art package. (Back then on Woodweb, lots of people were recommending that you get your CNC software and learn how to run it before you get your CNC machine, and that is how I got into this colossal mistake.) It cost over $10,000 and then there were huge annual maintenance expenses. And their "Art" product was not adopted by the industry, and fell off into oblivion. By the time I got my Shopbot, Aspire had come out, and I switched to that in a heartbeat, and I have never looked back. Unless you have a giant operation pulling in lots of big bucks, I can't image going down the MC route............. That was one of the biggest financial mistakes I ever made!
But maybe things have changed at Mastercam and everything is fine there now........... Chuck
Chuck Keysor (circa 1956)
PRT Alpha 60" x 144" (circa 2004)
Columbo 5HP spindle
Aspire 9.0, Rhino 5