I have a quick question for anyone who might know. I currently work with RDS 5.5 and am considering going with Carrara. What are the major differences between the two? Should I go ahead and invest or is there not enough difference to demand spending this much money. Any help would be appreciated.

I personaly like working in Carrara better than RDS 5.5. The work flow is much smoother in Carrara. I still do all my modeling in RDS 5.5. Carraras modeler crashes more than RDS's did. So - I just save every 5 minutes when modeling in RDS.. ;) I render in Carrara. I like the way it renders better than RDS. The Lens Flares in Carrara beat the pants of the ones in RDS. The Shader editor is a little more advanced as far as I can tell. If it were me, Yes, I would go for the upgrade from 5.5 to Cararra. I hope this helps a little bit. Clint

The only issues I have had with an upgrade was "losing" add on support like SuperMesh or Painter 3D integration... Steve

The more I use Carrara the less I like it. If you'r used to useing keyboard shortcuts in RDS this will be a source of frustration, you have to mouse-about to use the zoom in most windows. Also, don't plan on doing any QTVR/IVRM panoramas either. Both Infini-D & RDS had that but no more. I also think the window layouts are much more flexible in RDS. You can have several model boxes open at the same time and still maintain several univers boxes concurently from different views (if you have a large monitor). Don't get me wrong, CAR is a decent app, it's just more like RDS3D VS RDS Full version. I just don't think it's worth paying full price for. Don't forget, MC is not marketing this app as the next version of RDS or Infini-D so you wouldn't expect it to have the same features, right? Perhaps I'll change my mind after using it more, it did take about a year to really get the swing of things in RDS (I'm either slow or don't use it all that much, take you pick).

I enjoy doing everything better in carrara instead of rds 5.5, and since I don't have superhuman speed that makes me crash my computer like clint in the modeler, I don't use rds at all anymore. True there are a few things better in rds, but Carrara also has some better stuff. Unless you've been working on rds 80hrs/week 50week/year(Like most of the people here) you should like Carrara, especially if you didn't have infini-d before

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I'll throw caution to the wind and just buy Carrara. It seems that most here use both programs for different things and since I'm a pathetic modeller (for now!) it shouldn't hurt me too bad. Thanks again everyone.