Paul: what type of machine are you going to be making code wrote: There appear to be many optional modules, however, so I'll have to get through the quoting process to learn more.
I had an in depth demo of ProNest a couple of weeks ago, and while it looks like a great product, it is heavy on the material tracking and job reporting end of things, which we may or may not use. CAD is not integral for our needs, I've been using Autocad LT for years, but it may be useful for training non-cad users if the cad interface is simpler than Autocad. IGEMS has CAD included, but ProNest only handles tool path and nesting, and SigmaNEST appears to be the same. As far as I know, these are all 2D products and are stand alone, not integrated.
On my list at the moment are ProNest, SigmaNEST, and another product called IGEMS. I am currently looking for a CAM package for our waterjet cutting and soon to be CNC plasma cutting requirements. Also, I use Alibre Design for modeling, so hopefully I won't be too far behind on the Inventor side of things.
My work involves mostly metal cutting, but since almost all of my parts are made from flat plate, there may be some overlap in experience. Well I should state first that I'm not an Inventor user, and I'm not in woodworking, so I'm not sure I'll be able to contribute to questions specifically related to either of those categories.