New here so, a little background.

I've been doing both architectural and mechanical drafting and modeling in AutoCAD since R-12.  For rendering, I've been using McNeel's AccuRender since AR-2.  At AutoCAD 2004 and AR3, I finally jumped off the Autodesk subscription carousel.  AR4 delivered none of the things that we users asked for like caustics, volumetric lighting and soft shadows.  Instead, opting to spend development rescources on a new, cartoonish UI, integrated with Windows and IE that has slowed material creation, assignment and rendering to a crawl.  Not to mention that AR uses AutoCAD's mesher which has a nasty tendency for creating radiosity artifacts.

I've realized that I need nothing more than Acad 2002 for creating 2D construction documents and am looking to make a change in software for modeling and rendering.  I'm leaning towards Rhino for my modeling needs, as it's comfortable to work in and generates much better meshes for rendering.  Which leaves me looking for a rendering package.  Some folks who have jumped ship with AR are getting excellent results with Vray for Rhino.  But I have to confess, the biggest selling point of AR, at the time, was the plants and editor, which I would lose.  I know a lot of people just Photoshop them in but if the viewpoint changes, you have to PS them in again for each view change. 

A friend and hobbiest let me take Vue 5 Infinite on a landscape test drive.  It is a very impressive piece of software and I'm now considering Rhino/ Vue 6 Infinite as a combination for both interior and exterior renderings.  My quandry, though, is how one would handle scale for imported objects.  Obviously, with both AutoCAD and Rhino I would be working in real-world units scaled 1:1.  Vray for Rhino would leave me in the same environment.

 Looking at Vue, however exceptional the output, I get the feeling that it would be very much like what caused me to abandon Bryce years ago.  The tedium of having to scale and rescale objects and reassign materials over and over to make changes.  Then there's the problem of setting camera and target points, which is done in feet/ inches in AR and Rhino.

So, tell me about import scaling for architectural work.  Easy?  Difficult?  Is there a way to import objects and preserve origin points or do imports always come in at 0,0?  Setting cameras and targets?

Looking for some serious input.

TIA, Frank