ok had an idea, software is made to be great in some areas, not so great in others
and having all the best stuff in 1 program, drives up the cost, when often a buyer
is getting stuff he/she will never need/use

so my idea was, since carrara is already headed down the path of allowing programmers
to create parts for it, why not make carrara 6 work even farther along that path? create a basic
program, which would be free, and has no accual parts to it, just serves as "dock" for all
the other parts that will be created, to work in

so then assembly room, texture room, animation room, cloth room, etc
are all created as plugins, so you can buy just ones you want, and no need to export
things to another program, and different grades of each room can be created as well
allowing people to create other types of modellers, texture rooms, etc, which can then
be easily loaded in, and used

Where does that leave us with full version 5pro.

Would we have to start all over again? Would we be given the new moduals to make up for the loss? Would there be a reason to upgrade to 6 that starts with nothing and give up all the tools we already have?

Now extra plugs on top of what we already have I might consider. Cloth room, Fur, architec tools that do more than square.

for "upgrading" you would get the modules for the current rooms C5P has now
which ofcourse would be slightly dif due to a new version

new users would buy just the "dock" and rooms they want
they could just get the modeller if they wish, or a bit more and buy hex3
which by then, would be a module also, and could choose to or not buy a renderer
dont need a renderer if you're exporting to another app, but in the long run, this would
take over the other apps, or other companies would fit their programs into these modules

end result is 1 app, has exactly the tools you want, never need to export as all modules
would have the control as if they were 1 program, and ofcourse the smaller plugins like
we have now, that allow adding a single control to the rooms

I hate this idea.

Sounds a bit like Cinema4D. I don't mind the modular approach so much, but that's not what Carrara is about (so far).
Also what would the cost be for this kind of approach? Would you be willing to pay Cinema4D prices after getting used to Carrara prices? I don't think Eovia/Daz/whoever would be willing to make such a big change unless the price goes up to cover more programming work (I think).

I'd suggest dumping the standard vs pro thing - upgrade Carrara Basics a bit and make Pro the main version. If the software is good enough you don't need to add the Pro label, theres no Maya Standard or Pro.

arnt their 3 diffrent versions of maya?

Oh yes, of course - oops
Mind you with the prices the Maya range sell for you can keep them mate :P

this idea is terrable. the point of carrara is its a cheap all in one program  with professinal qualtiy (if you know what your doing that is...)

Lots' of issues with this approach. Cost and stability.

i dont know the age of the people here so some people may not get this...

Remember the transformer toys that had like 5 parts that came together to form one big one, remember they sucked compared to all the other awsome transformers...

moral of the story: if its cheap and come in parts, chances are it sucks.

Worst idea ever and the Carrara pricing is very fair and some of us are trying to get away from the "ROOMs" interface., please.

I vote NO on this one.

Quote - ok had an idea, software is made to be great in some areas, not so great in others
and having all the best stuff in 1 program, drives up the cost, when often a buyer
is getting stuff he/she will never need/use

so my idea was, since carrara is already headed down the path of allowing programmers
to create parts for it, why not make carrara 6 work even farther along that path? create a basic
program, which would be free, and has no accual parts to it, just serves as "dock" for all
the other parts that will be created, to work in

so then assembly room, texture room, animation room, cloth room, etc
are all created as plugins, so you can buy just ones you want, and no need to export
things to another program, and different grades of each room can be created as well
allowing people to create other types of modellers, texture rooms, etc, which can then
be easily loaded in, and used

I think it's an interesting idea, but it does fly in the face of what Carrara has been (and what RayDream was before).  That said, I don't think I'd be happy if Carrara went down this path, but I do note the merit of the concept.

One of the things I love about Carrara is that it is so rich.  Honestly, there are features that I use all the time now that I would never have known I needed until they were right in front of me.  I started out using RayDream 3D (it was the same idea as Carrara Basics is now).  It didn't have the vertex modeler, and I learned to build models with the tool I had.  When I jumped to RayDream Studio and then over to Carrara, I didn't even touch the vertex modeler, literally for years.  Now that I've begun working with the vertex modeler, I find I can't do anything without it.  (Of course I can, but I find that it's so much more efficient to use the vertex modeler.)  If Carrara were sold in the modular approach, I might never have popped the extra bucks for the vertex modeler, and I'd never have reached a level of proficiency that I need for both my hobby and professional endeavours.

There are still features of C5Pro that I haven't touched, but knowing that they're there, I can struggle to learn them when I need them.

I think it would be a disservice to folks who are starting out with 3D to go the modular approach, and also for those of us who are doing 3D work professionally, but not as the center of our professinoal world. 

I really like how Carrara pulls everything together and does it really well.

My two cents worth....

• Dex

NO VOTE...bad idea indeed!