I love Carrara although I haven't used it much since I switched to C4D. Carrara is actually better at somethings but I wanted the expanded capabilities of C4D although I must admit, I haven't gotten around to learning a lot of the more intensive modules yet. Although for the power you get, the learning curve isn't nearly as bad for C4D as it could be. Carrara is a really feature packed program, especially for the cost. Physics, character animation, great renderer, built in fractal terrain, instance on an object animation, poser integration, and the list goes on. Silo is also a great application. Currently, as you know, it's strictly a modeling program. I'd suggest that you get a trial version of Carrara (at least I think there is such a thing) and play around with it a little. You really can't go wrong with Carrara Pro if you want a feature rich 3D application without shelling out $3000 bucks for it. I'd also get Silo as a companion to Carrara. I prefer subdivision modeling with Silo to Carrara but admittedly, I haven't played around much with the new subdivision modeler in the latest version of Carrara. Actually, I used Carrara's spline modeling much more than it's poly modeler. For what it does and ease of use, Silo is almost embarrassingly cheap. I have a feeling as it matures a little it won't stay that way, might as well get in on it now. Just keep in mind that Silo 2 is still in beta. It seems like it won't be long 'till it is released for the PC. Mac folks have to wait a little longer. I'm not sure if I can continue to buy future upgrades of Carrara and C4D, but if I can, I'll keep Carrara. To recap: I'd get Carrara Pro and Silo

Orio, On an aside not sure why it would be different for a laptop, but I have a personal copy installed on my machine at home and at work single serial number, 2 machines, which is possible and allowed according to the Adobe rep I spoke with when I purchased CS2. We also have a work copy loaded on 2 machines in the same office. As long as you don't have both copies open at the same time or are not connected to the network, we're OK. You might want to give Adobe a call and see if they can tell you how to get authentication for you lap top unless they are telling us both 2 different stories. Good luck, g.

I'm assuming it's "locked" the same way other aps like Adobe CS2 are: - You install the software. - You enter the serial number. - You register your serial number. - You get an authentication number for your machine from vue (probably via the web with prompt from screen "wizards" upon first launch, or with a phone call option for the 2 people in the Appalachians that don't have web access). You may or may not have to enter the authentication number manually upon email receipt of auth. number if not the "automatic" way. If you want to move Vue to another machine. You contact vue. You may or may not have to "de-authenticate" your machine. You repeat the installation process for your new machine, and authenticate that machine with a new authentication number from Vue. It sounds convoluted and a pain in the but, but if they implement it the same way Adobe did (at least IMHO) it is quick and painless. Although given the choice, the license server sounds better. I use C4D on a mac and would love to see what 6-extreme is like but their site only mentions 6 extreme for the PC. Anybody care to comment on how much a difference there would be between the more seamless workflow of Extreme with 2 way native interaction between vue and C4d vs. 6 infinite with the C4D plugin? I can't tell if they have the same working features but X is more fluid than I + plugin, or if X has different/more/better features beyond better integration between 2 aps.

http://www.eovia.com/support/support.asp

In the white area of the main html page body you'll see the page is divided by horizontal tabs one on top of the other

Horizontal Tab 1: "technical support"
Horizontal Tab 2: "FAQs"
Horizontal Tab 3: "Bug Report"

I use Carrara Pro for professional use. Given it's cost compared to other aps, I'd go ahead and get the Pro version if I were you. After you get the first full versions, upgrades are pretty cheap, so given what you get for your money, the inital investment will be well worth it and you will have an extremely robust, full featured ap at a fraction of the cost of the alternatives.

If you're looking to work with Poser, you'd have to buy the poser transport plugin if you went with standard, so you might as well go ahead and get the Pro version that includes the poser plug-in plus the other features of Pro.You might want to consider Hexagon as well if you do much modeling yourself.

The spline modeler in Carrara is pretty good. Although the latest verison offers a much improved vertex modeler, I still don't care that much for it. Hexagon is a great low cost modler.

It occurred to me there maybe some stray "temp" files floating around and causing problems. I did a find file for "temp" and threw away the the ones associated with Eovia. That seemed to solve the problem. Thanks for your responses.

What about the case of ruled line objects where the curves can't (or not really feasibly) touch?

Thanks I was blind and didn't see the "enable" pull down. The Carrara generated stuff came in. However, the illustrator import went through the motions as if it was importing but when the file opened, it appeared to be blank. I zoomed in and out and looked around the scene from different views, but I could't find any paths. Any other thoughts on what I should try next? Thanks again

I appreciate all the excellent input -- extremely helpfull!

< The render options allow for "all or nothing" options with regard to renderosity but do allow for a large variety of pixel depth and anti-aliasing. > "renderosity" should have been "radiosity" gh