daverj sed: "I'm wanting to do some mesh work on Poser figures" I wouldn't recommend Carrara as a modeling app. Evoia included Amapi with it, for a good reason. The cut down version of Carrara won't have any different modeling tools than the full version. Before you consider it, read as many reviews as you can find. That'll deter you. The free version of Amapi might be worth a try, but I don't think it has any .OBJ import or export. I didn't have any problem with getting it to crash every 10 minutes or so... Might have been the computer I was using it on at the time, but I wasn't the only one having that problem. Haven't used it for a while, and I thought using a 'cane' to navigate around it's disappearing icon based interface was a pain in the @$$. Rhino is really nice, but in the long run isn't cheap because it pretty much is only good for modeling. (yeah, I'm aware of the rendering add-on, but.. no dynamics, particles, bones, animation etc..etc..) Before you shell out the clams for that puppy, consider what all else you might want to eventually do beyond what Rhino is capable of. You can get Lightwave for not much more than Rhino costs. Truespace... Eh, I suppose that's a decent possibility, but it's interface is pretty funky and quirky. Caligari used to have some of the older versions on sale for pretty cheap. I'd check to see if there's free .OBJ import/export plugins for them first. Truespace has been known for it's fair share of stability problems, and alltho this might have changed, Caligari used to get a poor grade at customer relations, too. Just ask Bill Flemming. It's really a shame that NewTec doesn't sell Lightwave's modeler as a standalone. They could probably sell a lot, if they had the price at $500 or less. Some of the top CGI companies buy Lightwave just for the modeler. A lot of Maya users do their modeling with it, then export to Maya for the rest. NewTec DOES let people transfer lisences of Lightwave. If you could get your hands on Ver. 6 or 6.5 on e-bay or somwhere, the price would probably be pretty good, and you'd have a great modeling app, AND everything else that goes with it. Knowing what I know, if I were you, that's what I'd try to get first.