@MDO2010:

Regarding why Carrara 8.5 doesn't work for me I have extensively discussed it awhile back. If you search my posts older than 300 days, It could be interesting readings if you have extra time.

Everybody's mileage is different though. If Carrara 8.5 works for you then, by all means, keep using it. But don't expect Carrara 9 to ever see the light of the day. Carrara is dead. As dead as JFK, as dead as John Lennon, as dead as the dinosaurs. Daz is too small a company to handle multiple 3D apps at the same time. They have made a deliberate decision to concentrate on Studio and drop Carrara (and Hexagon, and Bryce, and Mimic). That makes us, Carrara users, vey unhappy, but Studio users are a lot better off.