I have all three. My experience is this:

For rendering Poser figures, Shade is 1st, Vue second, and Carrara 3rd. Probably because transPoser has a bug that Eovia hasn't been able to/won't fix. Saying that, most things import fine into Carrara, and you may not run into the bug. I believe it has something to do with size.

For modeling, I would have to say Carrara 1st, Shade 2nd, and Vue nowhere to be seen.

It's possible that Shade could overtake Carrara in the modeling dept as I learn Shade.

Also, to me Shade is easier to apply materials to parts than Carrara or Vue. Not saying it's hard in any of them though.

I would try the demo of each and see what you think. However, I don't think the demo of Carrara will alloow you to import Poser figures since you need the plugin transposer. Vue and Shade support Poser natively. Carrara 4 Pro will include the transposer plugin. My thoughts may very well change after I get my upgrades to Vue and Carrara. Can't wait to see!

Message edited on: 09/27/2004 10:12