3d in Photoshop or Dedicated 3d Software?

I would like to know if you would use (or if you use) the 3d feature in Photoshop or maybe you happen to use a dedicated 3d software like Cinema4d or Autocad

The 3D features in the latest release of Photoshop CS 6 Extended are greatly improved over previous releases. The entire UI has been overhauled, and the renderer (Ray Tracer) is better and faster than before—however, rendering is still slower than in Cinema 4D (my "3D" goto app). They have made it much simpler for someone to make 3D text (great for posters, etc) and 3D Extrusions have replaced Repso, Repo... Repoussé—oh, and the 3D is not longer modal and it's also semi-non-destructive so that you can do things like change the font, color, etc.

If you're making or adding 3D Text to a design Photoshop CS 6 Extended now offers a competitive edge for not having to jump to Cinema 4D or your 3D app of choice. It's also good for making materials to use in 2D composition—like having your own stock image maker... or another cool filter for making textures... which I've been missing since Kai's Power Tools went away so long ago (no offense Alien Skin).

It can also load/import models/meshes/materials and you can paint on materials/textures, however it is NOT a modeling application. Sure, you can do some cool stuff with it, but it's limited in what you can do—you cannot really select points/polys anywhere and just move them around. Oh, it also works with Vanishing Point to set the horizon of your 3D scene with relation to a 2D "background" image and 3D also works with the Timeline so you can do some cool short things, like Rack-Focus on a logo, or rotate a logo for an animated GIF.

All-in-all, almost all designers have Photoshop and a great many of them have Extended with the 3D. You can also use the 3D to do traditional 2D Transforms in a non-destructive manor, like adding perspective to an image (after making it into a 3D Postcard)—you can even set the camera focus and depth-of-field for a "in-camera" depth blur.

If you are doing generalized things with 3D then Photoshop Extended will be a good thing to use, however, if you want to model and rig a 3D character, then Cinema 4D or Maya would be a better choice (but you'll have to have a copy of Photoshop anyway, so you might as well get Extended—which comes with their (Adobe) new Creative Cloud subscription thing.

Photoshop.com's 3D page has a link to Photoshop Dimensions (eMagazine) that focuses only on 3D in Photoshop and the first edition is free and talks about all the changes in Photoshop CS 6 Extended. http://www.photoshop...ts/photoshop/3d
While you're there, if you have Photoshop CS 6 Extended already, they have Scenes, Materials and IBLs (Image Based Lights) you can download as well—for free.

I hope this helps. Cheers and good luck!