Ok, I have to throw out comments on that one. 1.) One of my 3D students was eligible for a free sidegrade to Lightwave via some of his editing software. He attempted to use lightwave for my class versus Carrara, therefore, my exposure to lightwave has been through this student. Bottom line, for generating single images and straight forward animations, the interface with Carrara is holding its own just fine against lightwave. I also think the images Carrara can make can hit just as hard as lightwave (as a general rule). DISCLAIMER!: I think amazing results can be made by both packages when skilled and patient users are at the wheel. They both have their strenghts and weaknesses. I still think that Carrara is a fantastic product for the $. 2.) There have been other Carrara users who have "left" for lightwave and have wandered back here at Renderosity. 3.) I haven't researched it in detail recently but the word a couple years back was that you could get the code for a reasonable amount of $ but when you went for the plug-ins, hang on to your shirt! Carrara has come a long way in the last few years. -Kix

-Kix