Bob good luck with your upcoming surgery.
I have a lot of people ask me if they should upgrade from VCarve to Aspire.
These are the questions I usually ask:
Do you want to make your own models? This is time-consuming and a lot of people just buy models they want to use instead of making their own. When you make your own models your projects become unique and stand out among those that are created from purchased models.
Do you need to import more than one third-party 3D model at a time for the projects you do? VCarve Pro limits you to one third-party model per design file so you would need the upgrade to Aspire.
How often will you be sharing files with other people? Are those people using VCarve Pro or Aspire. Aspire will save files as VCarve format, however, any 3D models and toolpaths will be removed from the file so there is a limit to saving files as a VCarve format. It is interesting that when a file is saved from Aspire to a VCarve format and it contains models created in Aspire the file icon for the VCarve file will show the models but when the file is opened in VCarve there are no models for 3D toolpaths. If you open the VCarve file in Aspire the models are not there and the 3D toolpaths are missing.
If you create a 3d project in VCare it can be opened in Aspire and will contain the models and toolpaths.
I have full licenses for VCarve Pro and Aspire because I do jobs for some customers with VCare and some with Aspire. This way the customer receives a file that is compatible with their software.
Bottom line is unless you will use the extra power of Aspire then you may want to stay with VCarve Pro.