thanks. i had tried blender a long time ago. trying to switch from keyshot to blender was impossible for me. the blender gui is super complex. i was able to switch from keyshot to simlab. they were similar enough. i have been reading the simlab documentation and forum posts. it still seems like smilab refuses to add any non-realistic rendering options. i have been seeing people complain of the same issues. you can't do simple things fast. everything takes forever. i did see they have a new ability to utilized the free amd rendering engine. that's not bad. it would have been nicer if they integrated some kind of gpu support though. i appreciate all the suggestions.

frenchy. i saw someone complain about your posts regarding new software to try. i love them. i have been checking them out for years. that's how i knew about simlab composer. so i appreciate your posts in these regards. one reason i enjoy the moi forum so much.

update; i tried the latest version of simlab composer. i definitely prefer keyshot 6.3 a lot better. i guess i'll have to stick with that. maybe down the line i'll try the latest version of keyshot and see if it will run on a laptop. i know v7 wouldn't. i haven't seen that they changed anything much since then. so never bothered to try. i was hoping for an alternative. but keyshot seems to be pretty unique.