All right, the Carrara manual states: Additional primitives allow you to place Text objects, Spline objects, Vertex object,Metaball object and Formula objects. In the Texture mode, you can select and use various layer tools. To learn more, refer to the Layer Tools (we are given four object references). I am game here...but, help me out, what is this about (it sounds very interesting)? In 1.1 the Primitive Tools are: Sphere (dropdown), Spline, Vertex, Text, Fire (dropdown), Formula, Metaball, Particle, Spot (dropdown), Conical (dropdown), Directional (dropdown)and Target. Let us all look for clues: sorry, there are no page numbers and no index in the manual. My eyes fog over. Phil

Phil, The data you are looking for is under the texturing/shading portion of the manual. Basically the layer tools become active when you change the type of shader from multi-channel (at the very top of the shader) to Layers List. You can then add multiple layers to the shader by clicking on the "PLUS" icon at the very bottom of the shader. Layers can also be nested, so you can have layers within layers. Pretty powerful. Depending on the type of layer, you have various options for blending them together. The type of layer I use most is Parametric Mapping because you have an opacity mask for blending. This mask has all of the features of any other channel and is quite useful. Otherwise the blending is set to additive (I guess) by default. The parametric mapping is also useful if you want to define separate areas on the object with their own shaders. .Painter

Whew! Thanks for the explanation. You not only described a definition, but added some real life useage. I appreciate this. I guess, more patience on my part is needed, but I find that when I get confused and I don't deal with it right-away, I tend to get lazy. With 3D you can't afford to get lazy and I want to know this program. This message I will file in the layers section and it will probably be a key feature for me to know. Thanks for the help and you haven't heard the last of me. Phil

You are quite welcome. I hope you find the information useful. .Painter