Hi Mandk, my name is Orio, and you are the guy you're looking for. LOL :-) You will find my name on both manuals. Yes, Vue4 and Xfrog :-) Vue 4, I'm in the final Aknowledgements list, because I am an oldtime Vue maniac who was on the beta testing crew for version 4, and previously I founded the Yahoo list, which now I co-moderate with Guitta since January 2000. Vue is in fact the only rendering application I use, and when I discovered it in 1999 I dropped use of Bryce immediately (I know this will make happy some of the most "competitive" Vue users here) ;-) Xfrog, because modeling for Xfrog is how I pay my rent and food it's over two years now. I am the guy behind most of the trees you find in the Greenworks libraries (besides, the "other guy" is also a Vue user, Walli, he's the wizard of the plants and flowers)

To use Xfrog trees in Vue, was the main reason that pushed me to first get in touch with Greenworks (Xfrog producers). For me, Xfrog trees HAD to work in Vue, in the first place, because Vue was and always will be my renderer of choice, and I have no intention to give it up for no other renderer in the world!

So I want to assure you, Xfrog trees DO work perfectly in Vue. You can export them as OBJ or 3DS. I recommend 3DS because it is MUCH faster.
I have made many pictures that I could show you, but my web site is still to be done. However, as a simple proof that Xfrog trees work in Vue, please check the attached picture. It is a rendering of the Date Palm that I modeled for the Greenworks Fruit trees library. There is nothing around it except a basic desert, 'cause I didn't have time for a full scene then. Yet it should be enough to show you that Xfrog trees work in Vue, and indeed work well.
I personally find Xfrog trees to integrate very well together with the existing Vue vegetation. I hope to be able soon to have my gallery online, so to have more examples to show.

As for the demo version of Xfrog that came with that magazine, I do not have an "official" point of view to share, because I am not part of Greenworks, I am only an external collaborator, so I know very little, if nothing at all, about the company's marketing and management etc. I'm basically a hard working man, I work deep in the "mine", which is... my home studio and computer, lol!... hours and hours modeling stuff, or writing tree cards information about the trees.

What I can tell you FOR SURE, is that if you want to try out the export from Xfrog, you just have to download the 30 days demo from the Greenworks site. This will let you use the FULL application for 30 days.

Really there is no "bad joke" from Greenworks about the demo of the magazine. This is how I see it: you can download the 30 days demo, and export from it everything you want, everywhere. But sometimes 30 days are not enough to fully explore an application. Maybe you install it, then the day after you have to leave town for work for two weeks... you know how it goes. It happened to me more than one time in the past!
So here's out the non-saving demo comes handy! Because, you can start on it, until you figure out the things. THEN, you can install the 30 days demo of version 3.5 (which by the way will be more up to date, because version 3.02 does lack some components), and have 30 days to fully try out whatever export you like!
And after the 30 days demo is expired, if you are still uncertain about buying or not, you arenot left without Xfrog at all: you still have the magazine demo, which will never expire, to play with the program as long as you need to make up your mind!

So really, on the contrary, I think it was very fair from Greenworks to provide TWO ways of demo testing Xfrog: a permanent non-save version, and a 30 days full version. Then you can decide for your best how to use those two choices!

I mean... you can't expect Greenworks to just give away a full permanent Xfrog! :-) LOL

For whatever question, etc. you can IM me or look for me on the Xfrog forum here at Rosity, so not to abuse the Vue forum with off topic subjects.
I am VERY sensible about the Vue-Xfrog integration, because really my 3D world "orbitates" around three software:
VUE - as main application
XFROG - for all additional vegetation and also non-vegetation modeling (yes I do make architecturals with Xfrog!)
POSER - for human and animal models
These only three applications are all I need to be happy forever with 3D! :-)

Cheers, fellow Vuers! :-)

Orio