@ Artformz2: As wonderful as Carrara may be, it is a dead piece of software. Expecting a Carrara 9.0 release is a lost hope. In fact I don't think there will even be minor Carrara 8.5.x.x releases anymore. Since you are on a Mac, Cheetah3D is the obvious alternative. For $99.- it offers so much more than Carrara does, that not using it would be missing 80% of the fun.

@ galaxiefilm: I agree with you that there is a lot to like in Carrara, but I am also quite uncomfortable to have an extended 'love affair' with a corpse. I also agree with you about Lightwave as Carrara replacement. The Lightwave UI isn't all that bad and, at only $695.-, it's really in a class far above Carrara's.