First off, I really like Carrara Studio 2.1. I also somewhat like Amapi (probably only somewhat by my lack of understanding). Why does Eovia have both? Wouldn't it be advantageous to merge the two products together? It appears that may be the direction they are going, looking at the new Amapi 7 specs.

For the way I use Carrara a merger of Carrara and Amapi would be great. But, from a marketing viewpoint I would think having a full range of products that are interconnected would make sense.

I once talked to someone at Eovia, last year, about the same thing. Their reply was: They are two different programs, with different approaches to what each one does, so they have no plans for merging them into one program. As Keithw stated in his post, I'm sure sales & profits have a lot to do with it. If I had two or more programs on the market, I wouldn't want to combine them into one . . . PROFITS would shrink by 50 %, by combining the two. Just my opinion . . . Mark.

My biggest concern is whether Eovia has the resources to support both products. They will soon have 3 lines, so to speak. Carrara, Amapi Designer 7, and Amapi 7 Pro. I may be off-base, but what other 3D companies have two programs that somewhat compete with themselves? If history is any indication, one of the product lines will suffer. The question is, which one?

They also sell Carrara 3D Basics. -Kix

Probally the lower end ones will suffer, if any of them, since they will receive less updates, since they are "lower" end. But I don't think they'll have a problem, eovias programmers never seem to sleep. Brian

I think that for a small company making 3D software at the $400 price range, Eovia has done well with Carrara. Version 2 is night and day better than 1, and I have to say that the interface (unstandard, though it is) is fantastic.

Sure it would be nice to have one program that had all the powerful features of amapi and carrara, but then you're talking about something that has a $700 - $900 price range. At that point, you might consider looking at LightWave, which has way more features (but is really hard to learn.)

I think one of Carrara's stregnths is that it sells at the right price. It is a great program to enter 3D with. And don't forget as far as sales of multiple products goes, that Eovia bundles older versions of Amapi with Carrara. So you think I'm gonna shell out the money for the newest version? Never.