Interesting thread here.  I've been a RayDreamer and Carrara user for a decade now, maybe longer.  I love this software, and I use it in broadcast television almost daily.  It's powerful and stable.

My problem with it comes from the lack of respect it gets.  I did an effects-heavy sequence for a no-budget feature film using a CGI model I built of a train in Carrara.  Nobody believes that I did it in Carrara.  

This lack of respect for Carrara translates into troubles when trying to get it to integrate well with other software -- After Effects, for instance.  Yes, there's a nice AE plug-in with Carrara 5 Pro that moves camera and light info into the AE project, but the kind of rendering integration that Cinema 4D has with AE is stunning, and Carrara just doesn't have that.  I'm working on a video game and getting animations from Carrara into the game engine is just impossible.  

I'm hoping that Carrara 6 will improve its professional integration.  (They did add the "pro" moniker to Carrara in version 4; you think they'd get more pro features going, wouldn't you?)

I've been fighting with Lightwave recently.  Let me tell you -- anyone who's complained about the lack of features for rigging in Carrara should just try to rig in Lightwave.  Lightwave is a NIGHTMARE for rigging.  Has a great modeller, has a wonderful renderer, but rigging?  Impossible.

Anyway, here's hoping that C6Pro is a little more pro and a lot more fun.

:D

 - Dex