Thanks for all the info..Thanks frenchy for laying that out.

It kindof sounds like they are basically similar with regard to sculpting....

I have sculpturis. Great program. I was looking for a stepup though....

Michael,
I am interseted in the organic addition to some mechanical models. SO something like make a box with lid and then scribble around on the top of the lid. Create effects that would normally be just a bump map to render, but now actual "geometry" I can toolpath. 3D relief by hand so to speak. The 3d coat will most likely be my choice. It outputs the result as "STL" which my CAM package can import and toolpath. My CAM package doesnt work with OBJ and I dont want to have to start trying to convert poly's to NURBS.

(The next revolution: Sculptris for NURBS!!! Can you imagine seeing a car drive down the raod with warts and snakes all over it??? Buwahahaha!)

I suppose I should load the demo, but I think I read that the demos dont save anything. Can these packages control the poly dicing the way that MoI Can? or is the STL going to be basic faceted. (Most likely will just need to learn how to dice it up with the program)...Thats probably the main aspect of my purchase with it....If the STL wil be a good result for machining. I've seen an STL produce good results from Shapeways with my MoI model, but....Thats MoI and a different process of printing...

SO a question would be: If I make a nice NURBS model in MoI, then add some texture to one of the surfaces in 3dcoat and export as stl, what is the quality, or do I have control of the quality of the resulting stl surface as a michinable surface trying to replicate smooth stuff...