I used Max with a web company that I worked with, and when I left them I was stuck without a modeller, after many trials I chose trueSpace 5.2 to use cause it had the same flow as max to me. Then hex came out and I really only use trueSpace now to render particle animations and backgrounds (like 2 times LOL) other then that I have collecting dust. The last offer I got from Caligari about upgrading from 5.2 to 7 was for 399 I almost took them up on it but then hex 2 is oh so very close
I still may get another program for rendering but I have poser 5 and 6, vue and bryce, ts and shade7 so it's not like I need one LOL.