Over at DAZ for nothing, saving $1000 according to them..LOL.

Downloaded just to campare it to Vue 9 Infinite, will let you know when I've had a play..

That should read 8.1 and it's a 30 day trial if you don't already own 8.

Haven't seen many landscape renders done with Carrara, here at Rendo or anywhere, does this mean it's not good enough, or that noone cares to use it for anything else than rendering their paid for Daz content? Except for Howie Farkes, who's a genius.

Well as it was free I thought I'd give it a go, I've downloaded but won't have time to play until the weekend. I can't see it moving me from Vue though, even with Vue's frustrating bits..LOL.

Carrara is offered for free in magazines each year.  Its outdoor rendering is just a bit better than Bryce.  You won't like its clouds if you've used Vue at all.

Carrara is a jack of all trades and a master of none, least of all realistic landscapes. Vue is lightyears beyond Carrara in that department. On the other hand, Carrara is superior to Vue in modelling, uv mapping, animation, particles and so on... It's a great program for those who can't figure out Blender or who can't afford the professional level software. The one clear advantage is that you can access the Poser Runtime and use most of the content directly in Carrara.

If you already own Vue  and have 1000$ to throw down the drain, get Modo 501. You will end up with an application everybody is praising (I have seen some video tutorials and it looks really kick-ass, it was on my buying list had I failed to learn Blender).

If you need a modeler and can wait for ngons and sculpting, get Blender 2.56 (it is coming out of beta in just weeks). 0$.

If you need ngons, try Wings3D. 0$, so easy that you learn it watching a pair of video tutorials.

If you need NURBS, MoI (300$ ?) or Bonzai3D (495$, SketchUp on steroids).

If you need sculpting, ZBrush (500$ ?) or 3DCoat (400$ ?).

If you want to use Poser content, get Poser 8 (250$ ?) or Studio (0$/150$).

If you need plants, Arbaro (0$), ngPlant (0$), IvyGenerator (0$) or XFrog (300$ ?).

B.t.w. Blender+Wings3D+Poser8+StudioAdv+Bonzai3D is about 900$...

Carrara is a textbook example of a programs that could have been a juggernaut but wasn't. DAZ is leaving it behind functionality wise (there is not even a LuxRender exporter in the works, Poser users are better off with Pose2Lux), putting all its interests in Studio. Another example is their decision to put in a half-baked support for dynamics (which nearly useless) and ignoring request to add scripting.

DAZ cares so little of users, their needs and their opinions that they don't even remove from their forum posts of people discussing programs alternative to Carrara or Hexagon; compare this with Luxology customer care (I saw an incredible thread in their forum: somebody described a Modo bug and a few hours later one of the developers responded telling that there was a fixed build available... DAZ doesn't even answer tens of requests about whether a program is still in active development or not).

The only program sensible to buy from DAZ is Studio (the only one they really care about), well knowing that, when you have added all the plugins to replicate Poser 8  out-of-the-box functionality you are roughly in Poser Pro price range.

As a modeler, Modo makes Carrara look like a Tonka Toy by comparison. I have Maya and I still prefer to model using Modo (combined with Zbrush for organics.) The only trouble with suggesting Modo as an alternative to Carrara is that Modo isn't really geared toward character animation at this point while Carrara can pull this off on some level. Of course, you can create great character animation in Blender, but you'll have to create your own figures, and this seems to be a deal breaker with many hobyists.

Hey guys it's free, I thought I'd try it for that, I have no intention of forking out a grand when I have Vue 9 Infinite. I was just trying it out to see if it was any good..

I agree with Alex's points.

I got Carrara Pro 7.2 with 3D Artist magazine last spring, and I was exited in advance, I have the hope to get more serious about modeling. But I was quite disappointed, mainly because I find the interface/workflow awkward and un-intuitive. Also it seems like it can do a lot, but none of it particularly well (as mentioned elsewhere here). 
Version 7.2 is slow, opening and saving files, renders very slowly at high settings. But it's quite robust when it comes to handling complex meshes, in my limited experience.
One cool thing is the texture painter, that's something that should be in Vue (a little like the existing material painter in the terrain editor, which is already brilliant.)

I think many Vue users have the impression that Carrara is a powerful, Vue-contesting landscape application, but this is probably based on the works of brilliant artist "HowieFarkes". He should make a statement in his profile and elsewhere: "Don't try this at home, kids!" G

(I was looking forward to experimenting with the plant editor, but it's not good, compared to Xfrog and Onyxtree. I made a "larchtree" and exported it to OBJ for import to Vue. It was deliberately a detailed and complex model. In the process I thought Carrara had stalled, left the screen, came back 15 min. later to kill the program, but it was finished: The tree was exported to a file 985 mb size! That's what I call solid :) Needless/needles to say I didn't try to import it to Vue...)

Dear thefixer, I had no doubt that yours was little more than thinking aloud.

B.t.w., in the DAZ 4 product page (I just found that it is available to "buy"), in the COLLADA Import/Export section it is written that:

"Dynamic clothing can also now be exported as part of a COLLADA file using the new "Freeze Simulation" feature. Available as part of the Dynamic Clothing plugin, Freeze Simulation is used to convert dynamic clothing simulations into static morph data. The same data can then be imported into your Carrara scenes."

In other words, forget for now (and forever) of having dynamics in Carrara capable of handling cloth (amusing thought, compared to Blender cloth and fluid capabilities). Add to this that only Optitex can create clothes for their engine and... well I lack words.

I think that, for Carrara, 2011 is the decisive year. Either DAZ gets out a Pro version with some serious improvements in the modeler, scripting and export to LuxRender (or other renderers) or Carrara will enter the same league of Hexagon, i.e. a program so behind the competition that the cost of realigning it to other programs far exceed the possible cash flow of the sales.