Well, I tried Amapi (v5 I think) but found that it was not my "cup of tea". For sure it has advanced modeling etc, but the interface is something you either enjoy or not. At least that's my impression.

Well, the other way around I think C3 also lacks some finesse & tools but that's another topic. Generally I don't think there's an easy way to do this - because it would require the software to read your mind for what you wished. So the practical way is to add contour lines which defines the details you want. Mainly would be pleased if it was possible to easily do the things described in this car modeling tutorial: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=156460&page=1&pp=15 Better control/navigation/editing features in general are needed to make such tasks easier in C3 and even C4 (?) Also integrating the vertex modeling into the normal viewports would be nice. But again that's another topic. A good polygon reduction tool in itself is a premier feature. Cheers, Rune

No need to get complex :) Just make a primitive sphere - convert to vertex model and try to decimate vertex count by 80%. The result speaks for itself. The functionality I would like, would be to decimate a high-poly model to a low poly model which with subdivision level 3 would approximate the original high-level 3D shape (with some inevitable smoothing of course). But that may be a tall order. Doing decimate by fidelity gives a bit better result, but needs several iterations and then funny yellow polys start appear etc. Cheers, Rune

Regarding the "Decimate" function in the menu - does it now work better? Found the CS3 functionality of "Decimate" to be quite useless for polygon reduction. Cheers, Rune

I get this error - and from what has been posted on the yahoo forum this is actually some kind of "General protection fault error" from Carrara. I get it simply by right-clicking in the viewport and selecting rotate, dolly or bank - it pops up immediately. (The other like zoom, move etc works OK) Use the icons on the left instead and there's no error. So it seems to me they have hardcoded something in CS3 that is not entirely consistent and that's why these "general errors" pop up. Mainly just an annoyance though, as I can click OK or cancel and continue. Originally I didn't get these errors, so maybe either a point-release 3.02, 3.03 or 3.04 or similar or add-ons. Rune