I've used CML a lot, but I no longer use it. The (Enterprise) product license renewal is about $50k annually.
NS3 is a pretty nice (and free) network simulation tool, and it can even load the router binaries from CML (although that is probably a violation of the Cisco license).
You can get a slot up to 4 hours and 20 nodes to perform cloud based simulation set up for free. For personal usages, downloading images and local simulation the cost starts at USD199 per annum. I believe you can also perform integration and network automation of CML with GNS3. This "Introduction to Python Network Automation" is a good reference source to do that:
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 17.2 ms ] threadNS3 is a pretty nice (and free) network simulation tool, and it can even load the router binaries from CML (although that is probably a violation of the Cisco license).
https://www.apress.com/gp/book/9781484268056