CNC Mill for architectural prototyping and form exploration

I'm looking for some expert advice, and I'm hoping this is the right place to ask this question.

We're a mid-size architecture firm that's looking to bring in some level of CNC mill capability into our offices for design prototyping and exploration as well as for routering out parts for scale models. Our budget is in the range of $40,000 on equipment, including an extraction system, and we're looking to get the most capability for money spent.

Our main goals would be to be able to work with designs in high-density foam, wood and (if possible) non-ferrous metals.

Now, the last time I was using a CNC mill was about 7 years ago in my Master's program, and we had been using an AXYZ 3-axis router with RhinoCAM for toolpath generation.

Doing some initial research, we have been looking at the following models of CNC:
-Laguna IQ Pro - 24"x36"
-CanCAM B1-23 ACT - 48"x48"
-CanCAM B1-44M / ACT - 48"x48"

I'm also getting quotes from AXYZ, but I believe they will be out of our price range.

We'd likely carry forward a RhinoCAM workflow, since a lot of our design work comes out of Rhino3D.

So a few questions:
1. Are we looking at the right set of machines? Laguna seems highly recommended and appears to be good value for price paid, but lack of vacuum bed and auto-tool switching may be a hindrance.
2. Is a lack of a vacuum bed a deal breaker? I've only had experience with a CNC with a vacuum bed, so I'm wondering how much of an issue a non-vacuum bed will be in terms of cut pieces shifting and causing issues.
3. The CanCAM offices automatic tool changing. Seeing as how we will likely using a variety of tooling sizes on each job, I think this might be an indispensable feature
But what are people's thoughts on this?


Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!