dwg opens quite well in Rhino; however linetype-scales, dimensions and notations can differ from Autocad. But that concerns the 2D output, not the 3D geometry.
There is a topic on architectural offices that have ditched Autocad completely in favour of Rhino.
I think the biggest difference between Rhino / V-Ray and Max / V-Ray is that with Max / V-Ray you still need AutoCAD for your CAD work leading up to the modeling and rendering. With Rhino / V-Ray you can do the whole project from drafting to modeling to rendering without ever having to leave your base application.
And that means with Max / V-Ray you’re paying for two licenses from Autodesk, year in and year out.
3DS + Vray are more Stable at this moment. You have more tutorials and people sharing Vray inside 3DS then Vray for Rhino. This is for the moment. Although Vray for Rhino is growing well…
From my view between VfR and Vf3dsmax is a large gap. In comparison VfR is more at toy level and very buggy. Using VfR3 is more like beta testing, since there is no testing of the beta testers group anymore.
The 3dsmax version is matured, stable and at pro level. You are free to choose between simple/advanced/expert UI. At VfR you are limited to something between simple and advanced. A lot of options a kicked out.
The last VfR3.6 makes some hope that the developing will be better, but the last year wasn’t a good time. I suppose so a half or one year more is needed to make it stable like VfR2.
I agree…
But like VfR 2 there never was a stable version at all.
That is why piss me off. And perhaps we should test other render engine softwares. More mature ones.
Just my opinion though.
Hmm, all days I use VfR2 because the stability. If VfR2 isn’t stable … what is VfR3.x?
But for me there is no real alternative for my VfR use. Vray look, speed and universality are great. So, only I can hope the next releases will change the quality of the plugin.
(OK, the quality of the unbiased engines is great, but the interior render speed is a problem for me. OK, there is the super fast Enscape, but there I miss layered materials and some other features like object animation support. So, I end with a set of tools - VfR2/Octane/Enscape.)
Micha,
Maybe you should give a try to Unreal Engine + Datasmith. My experience with both VfR 3.4 and 3.6 is great and I would never go back to VfR 2.
And as alphadog278 mentioned one year ago, due to the financial aspect and workflow hurdles, using 3ds max just for rendering Rhino models should be very last resort. With both V-Rays at 3.6 there should hopefully be no reason at all today. Okay, animation tools in Rhino are not enough, but this could improve when V-Ray for Grasshopper gets animation support.
Jonas
I deal exclusively with architectural visualization and product, more than other still images, I do not design, except in rare cases.
Obviously rhino and vray for rhino are my reference software and I would prefer to stay within the same software for the whole process.
Until a month ago, I was tempted to go to max, after having tested it, both with vray and with corona, I realized that not only max is focused on visualization and animation but the amount of plug in dedicated to architectural visualization simplify and speed up work significantly.
the price of the operation made me give up 
Vray 3.6 for rhino is a huge step forward, I am able to make photorealistic renderings exactly identical to what I would do with max at the cost of spending more time getting the same result.
I waste time to convert the library elements and reconstruct all the materials, to distribute vegetation effectively, etc…all aspects that in max are carried out with dedicated plug ins.
So the reality is that on rhino, as long as the user base that is dedicated to professional rendering will remain limited, there will be no one who will decide to create specific plug-ins for those who make high-level architectural visualization, v-ray is not the problem, even if it can be improved.
we will have to make do.
I agree completely. I’ve heard (and can see from your website) that V-Ray in Rhino is very powerful, but for someone with less experience it is almost impossible to start out with it, because of the lack of example scenes when compared to 3DSmax.