What kind of work are you doing?
If you’re just doing mostly basic designs, lots of simple curve built surfaces, technical drawings, dimensioned drawings, I think Rhino is a great tool for the price.
If you are doing a lot of surfacing intensive work, lots of pulling CV’s and making variations of the same designs - then Alias is where it’s at. If the words “curvature continuity” aren’t in your vocab, then Rhino is IMO the best bang for the buck.
Mainly visualization but don’t want to be tied down to doing that forever hence was asking general questions about drafting. Have done zero drafting work recently.
If you’re just doing mostly basic designs, lots of simple curve built surfaces, technical drawings, dimensioned drawings, I think Rhino is a great tool for the price.
If you are doing a lot of surfacing intensive work, lots of pulling CV’s and making variations of the same designs - then Alias is where it’s at. If the words “curvature continuity” aren’t in your vocab, then Rhino is IMO the best bang for the buck.
I do complex looking designs with organic surfaces. The thing is that I do them in Maya using Polys with help of Maya Nurbs sometimes. Model like this car I could make in Maya no sweat (just as an example from google)-
Would Rhino give me the freedom to create such surfaces? I know they keep repeating that Saleen supercar was done in Rhino but personally I find that car an insult to the term “supercar” 
Most cars on the Rhino site are below average with few exceptions. I picked cars for example as cars can have some of the most complex surfaces found in ID.
If you want to do that level of modelling then you would definately want Alias. The fact that you use Maya means you’ll have a VERY low barrier of entry from CAD->Rendering. Alias also has an awesome realtime visualization functionality as long as you have the hardware to use it.
I think Rhino is great for students, but when you start thinking of complex surfaces like that, theres a lot of things that are tough to do cleanly in Maya with Polys/Sub D’s that work really well in Alias.
I’ve done a lot of work in Maya myself (including the obligitory car) and looking back at it, while I got a good shape and pretty renderings, the surface quality was junk and showed up very clearly in my reflections. (A highlight would jump from being smooth to being totally straight and cockeyed)
To testin2010 :
I agree with Cyberdemon, the Alias dimensioning and creation of blueprints (is it still correct to use this term ?) tools are IMO poor.
For example I never got used to the measuring tools : they just don’t snap as I want. I’ve used a workaround for ages : snapping a line, its length appears in real time then I delete it. Because as Cyb’d says the snapping is elaborate : you can snap to grid OR points OR curves/surfaces edges/isoparms with keyboard shortcuts. They are lots of those : all the combo possible between Shift/Ctrl/Alt and right/center/left mouse buttons. First month feels like you are learning guitar ! (Now the snapping has interface buttons on the screen top right too).
Anyway what I wanted to say is, from my experience, with complex shapes you use a workflow that simply doesn’t includes drafting.
You make a 3D file. Use it for rendering. Send it to the modelmaker. Send it to the manufacturer R&D. No need for 2D.
My advice would be :
As you already have Maya I guess ADSK may further increase interoperability so that’s nice for renderings. But not sure about this because the softwares ended in two differents departements (Manufacturing and entertainment). They seem more inclined to matching Showcase and Alias.
About the learning : I said somewhere else that the huge Help file is good. As boring as it could be read as much as you can of it. Everything is written down, somewhere in it. And if you managed to learn Maya you certainly can learn Studio.
And the usual advice : what are they using in your ecosystem ?
If the manufacturer you are aiming to work for uses 2D Autocad what I wrote doesn’t make sense.
Ultimately, as you said (e.g. Daniel Simon), your output will depend on your skills rather than your Alias or Rhino choice. So there is no bad choice ! 
At least you just have to choose between 2 softwares ! In entertainment how many are they ? Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage XSI, LightWave, Cinema4D, Modo, Blender…
Thanks for the posts. I picked Alias in the end. Something about Rhino was just not clicking for me. Being a Maya user Alias design just felt more right for my needs. So for next few months I will be sweating it out learning it. So far Alias had felt natural to me apart from “pick nothing” bull 
am looking to make a similar choice soon… anyone know the cost of Alias Design in the UK?
Probably muliply US price x 1.5 
Try this-
Strangely on my browser it shows no reseller under UK LOL Highly unlikely though.
I think there is no need for a reseller, you can buy direct :
Before choosing with or without support search how much is it now per year : it doesn’t comes cheap usually !
Interesting! It lets me choose UK and adds UPS international cost $47 but right at the bottom it says-
Important note: > With the exception of Training tools, all products and services on this site are licensed only for customers within the US, US territories, and Canada. These products and services cannot be purchased outside of these regions. > Training tools can be purchased and shipped worldwide. A physical shipping address is required for any orders which include a Subscription purchase. Do not use a P.O Box with a Subscription order.
So is that a wtf then? 
Been busy with work. I have another question, sometimes I get traditional clients asking for physical model of designs. I normally hand the 3d visuals with some basic measurments to a “friend” who makes the model in his workshop (I don’t have a workshop or I would make myself).
Anyway with Alias would I be able to hand the data to a shop to get a rough mockup made by CNC/Rapid Prototyping machine? What should I be aware of? Any pros and cons with regard to alias?
just thought i would throw some answers out there.
SNAPPING.
there are 3 cute little icons with a magnet on them near the upper right of the interface… those are the snapping icons. Point, Grid, and Curve.
SETTING SNAP INCREMENTS.
The Arrow next tool the snapping icons is the options. there you can find snapping segments, snap to center, snap to pivot points, intersections, etc.
No more rebuilding curves to snap to the 1/7th increments.
DRAFTING AND DIMENSIONS.
honestly, Rhino is better in the drafting department. its set-up more like AutoCad. Alias measurement and deviation tools are good but plotting is not so hot.
RAPID PROTOTYPING
this is great especially in 2010. (other versions work as well) There is now a EXPORT > RAPID PROTOTYPE… option that combines stitching, mesh conversion, and mesh wall thickness all into one tool. you can now even export a ZPR file for Z-corp. it supports color and textures as well.
SCULPTED SURFACES.
IMO Alias is hands down better at sculpting and controlling Curves, Surfaces and CVs. the entire software and construction history is built on the interactivity and immediate feedback.
BUYING IN THE UK.
http://www.majentasolutions.com/solutions/index.php?page=autodesk
Thanks for that info Evangelist.
UK price with vat = 8,144.80 USD for the base version 
For small business and one man shops that is a rip off. Why not let us buy directly from you? US price + UK vat. 4k in US but 8k in UK 
At that price should Alias not consider improving their dimensioning tools? Will there be future improvements made in the software or will Alias just milk it as is?
WOW. Vat is out of control. not sure how all of that works out in the end.
wish i could comment on the dimension tools. it is noted.
Well it’s not only the VAT that is killing it. It is Autodesk’s pricing system outside US as well.
£1 = 1.5 USD
Alias base version in US $4000 so £ equivalent would be £2652. Instead they have just changed $ symbol with £ symbol. Not only that they have actually increased the figure to £4652 Then add 15% UK VAT/tax it makes it £5350 ($8000USD).
In a fair world the UK price should have been £2652 + £400 (vat) = £3052 ($4600USD).
Not $8000 USD.
annoyingly, Mcneel are playing the same game - €995euro vs $995 USD for Rhino