There are .obj importer and exporter for the "free" SketchUp, too:

-Importer;
-Exporter;

Radiance,

should we expect some basic node-based composition features like these in Ramen, in Octane?

I am for the following things (in no particular order):

- Documentation for all the new features;
- Displacement+Normal+Bump maps;
- Animation;
- Render Passes;
- Instances;
- Light presets (as in http://www.luxology.com/store/SLIK/);

Yes, the documentation for Octane is shipped in the Octane archive that you download. There is also a "Octane Render Alpha Video" here:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/videos.html

For your crash problem:
I had exactly the same crash issue as you. The problem was the driver version.

The ...

I hope that the following article answers the question how the video memory of the GT200-generation of cards work:

NVIDIA's GT200: Inside a Parallel Processor - CUDA Memory Model

PS: That is only for GT200!

PS2: Radiance, you can purchase the following book if you find it interesting ...

We are all only humans!

Before you throw a stone, why do not you try to write any software system yourself?

The life is beautifull, people . Just live it, while you can!

Here are my own links that i collected over the net:

http://www.evermotion.org/

http://www.3dstocktalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2

http://www.exchange3d.com/cubecart/index.php

http://www.fallingpixel.com/

http://www.flatpyramid.com/

http://www.westhomeplanners.com/

http://www ...

For me, wings3d was small and overrated. Five minutes after i tried it, it hit the recycle bin.

Blender's modeler (editmesh) was in comparison just fine.

Wings3D and Blender modelers were compared, from me, against the SketchUp modeler for some quick ArchViz work. I used SketchUp at the end ...

I am for the GPU render-farm, too.

For what purposes will you use that modeler?

Your main technical choices are:
- subdivision/polygon modeler;
- NURBS modeler;
- voxel modeler;
- combination from more than one choice of the above mentioned modelers;

I counted the choices so, because the different arts of modelers are good for ...