I have Carrara 7.1.1. I just got around to looking at it. My problem is when I put an object in the Assembly room, everything is fine. When I go to the editing room, the one with the wrench icon, I get a blank stage. I do get a preview in the instance panel but nothing, ziltch, blank. No lights, camera, grid, or even object. I even tried various things in the upper editing header. There is only a few icons in the header. I even tried looking at everything with my glasses on. Still no luck. Mark if you are around please tell me what I am doing wrong. Thank's.

What version of Windows are you running?  Also are all of your video drivers up to date.  What video hardware are you running?  I'll see if I can help.

I'm running XP with the latest release. I have a NIVARA( spelling wrong) 9800 card with latest drivers. All my other software is doing great. Poser, DS (latest) and Flash CS4.

Do you mean NVidia 9800?  Most of the time an error like that is video driver or hardware related.  Other causes could be memory (not enough or having hardware problems), A Virus (Unlikely if you are using up to date antivirus software.)  Or even other software running in the background which is messing up memory or video subsystems.

The think about Carrara is that it uses a HUGE amount of system resources compared to most other software you probably have on your system, including Poser, DS and Flash.  It is also very touchy about video drivers.  I actually had to drop back a couple of versions when I first got C 6 Pro.  The newer video drivers were not working correctly with it.  I am also assuming you have the latest DirectX nd Open GL software.  Try making sure you are not running ANY software which the system or Carrara doesn't need to be running before you start Carrara.  Try and see if there is a new driver out for your card.  See if these help. 

I have had some pretty serious problems with 7 myself, but not exactly the same as what you describe.  My problems all happen in the shader room, then the whole program goes unstable.

Thanks for your help and suggestions. Every thing is up to date as you suggest. I usually only the software that I am using, nothing in the BG that I know of.

Thanks again for uour suggestions.

Thats about all I can think of.  Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling to see if it may just be a bad install?

I appreciate you taking the time to help.

Many thanks.

Got it Wrench is the modeling room?

A few things first. 

What kind of object do you have selected when you go from the assembly room to the object room if anything or the whole scene? 
Is it a primitive you created or something you have imported or placed from the content window?

One thing that might be helpful is to have a screen shots of the assembly room with the object selected and then whats happening in the modeling room so we can see whats going on.

Primative. And thanks for the correction. Modeling roon, thats it. Couldn't think of it for the life of me. I knew someone would understand when I described the icon.

Screen capture, good luch there. I'm having enough trouble with Carrara. First time this has happened. Had Carrara 5 forever. Never used it much, but now the need arises.

Thanks anyway. I appreciate it.

I know this might sound like a dumb question, but are you selecting the mesh before entering the modelling room?  If you don't selelct the mesh first then you will see the preview, but you will not be able to actually do anything with it.  I only ask because I just did this myself not two minutes ago. lol.

Two things:

1 - not select the object before hit the Modeler Room Icon

2 - primitives go to a conversion dialog before enter the model room

The modeling room only ever shows the selected obj. Everything else is left behind in the assembly room. On top of that, the mesh is only shown as the unposed default until you start modifying it for morphs. If you are not even seeing the origin grid, check to be sure that it is turned on, the different grid planes can be turned off and on in the tool bar.

Yup thats what I was thinking, primitive selected or nothing selected. 

I do a Ctrl+A to select all and then press 0 to center the object in view.

Thanks to all. I got it working. Throm and GK Dantas hit the nail on the head. What I was missing was that little retangle box in the upper right corner of the modeling screen. Convert to a different modeler. Nice new window giving you choices and when one is selected, guess what. The modeling window opens in all of its glory. I appreciate all of your help from everyone.