If you are considering pursuing a job in the 3D industry, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with either 3D Studio MAX, Lightwave, or Softimage. If you are a 3D hobbyist I would go with Truespace, if just for its rendering capabilities. I don't know if Rhino has as complex a raytracing engine. Or you might want to go with Vue, but the effects and realism you can pull off with 3D Studio MAX, are amazingly worth the price of the software. And there are about 300+ free plugins for MAX, and just as many professional plugins available commercially. Also, if you are running NT, you can network render with MAX, Lightwave, and Softimage. Employers in the industry will not take you as seriously unless you know one of these higher end 3D packages. The majority use either MAX or Softimage. My 2 cents, co(V)(V)union