Help :) I have several good quality HDR images that I wanted use in Vue6i - however the HDR images that are already in Vue are in vue's native .vim format - how do I open a HDR image to use as hdr lighting in vue? Is there a specific program that I need to convert them with to .vim? Or........how do I convert my .hdr images to vue's .atm? BTW in case you had not guessed I am new to vue.

No conversion needed. Just load in your HDR. My guess is the HDR images that come with Vue are in  a special Vue format so they can't be used in another program. Must've been the deal with Dosch, who provided the images.
Vue accepts ANY image file format fo image based lighting, including jpeg, though this wouldn't be very useful, but also EXR, the open source format for high dynamic range images.

Thanks for the reply :) I was wondering how to actually load the HDRI image :) I cannot find out how to get .hdr images into vue. I tried the atmosphere editor, clicked on the litle file to browse where they are stored but it is looking only for .atm files. Any clues?

Ok, when in the atmosphere editor, choose the Environment mapping option, under "atmosphere model", then go to the "effects" tab, and there load in your HDR image in the "environment map" slot, by clicking on the small black arrow under the black preview.

Again thank you :) I did try that after reading your reply and it does work, but something seems to be wrong - I only get to see part of the hdri picture when i render. See image - On this one i do get the ground in the shot, but not the buildings, and in others I get the exact center of the picture - I have tried opening each and resizing down to miniscule proportions with the same result each time. Any clues?

The HDR is mapped around your scene, so it is normal you can't see it all. Just picture this: the right side of ther map is joined to the left side of the map, and since this is a hemispherical HDR, it blends seamlessly.
This is how it works in all programs. 
You can adjust the part of the map you want to see in you render by using the x & y  offsets, as you probably already did.
If you just want the image to show in the background, you have 2 options, provided you use Vue Infinite:
Load in an alpha plane, make it a billboard, so it will always face the camera, and load your map in the alpha plane dialog box, without loading anything in the alpha channel of the plane.
Or, with the camera selected in the world browser, click on the little "cinema screen" icon and load in the map in the following dialog box.
This will use the HDR as a background, but you won't get the illumination from the map with these methods.