OK, Just thought I'd update you on my progress. I've implemented all the changes that have been suggested so far. I've made some significant improvements, but not significant enough. What I've been doing is implementing a change, rendering 1%, seeing how long that 1% took to render, and then simply multiplying that by 100 to gauge a very rough estimate of how long the whole thing might take. Now, I know that's probably not the most accurate way of doing it, but I don't know any other way. Currently, it's taking about 12 hours to render 1%. This means it will probably take approx 1200 hours, or 50 days, to render 100%. While that is a HUGE improvement on 200 days, it's still not fast enough. I've got about 21 days before this has to go to print, and I need to really slash this render time further. Does anyone know of any further thing I can try? I have heard of a little device called a RayBox (I think), which is sort of like an external hard drive, only it's solely devoted to 3D rendering: it simply plugs into your machine, and off you go. It doesn't feed off your machine, so you're free to get on with anything else, while this takes care of the rendering. Trouble is, I can't find out anything about it, no pricing or availability. Anyone heard of this? I've thought about the possibility of rendering in stages: i.e. remove all trees for example, then render. Then render a version with just the trees, and then one with just the buildings, and so on, putting it all together in Photoshop. How does this sound? It's a lot of postwork, but if it can save me on render time, it might be worth it.... Once again, all and any suggestions are welcome. Many thanks, Rob.