About Amapi: The current version is 5.1 There is a v 6.0 coming in March if plans.... The development paths for Amapi and Carrara are slated to converge, if not merge. There is a good chance that v 6 will support OBJ files directly. The modeler is said to be as good as it gets with NURBS now. If this D/L gets you on the upgrade path, it can not be anything but a good deal.