Thanks, Liam887, Pilou, Idahoj and TIG for your quick replies.
I read in another forum of another modeler with a similar problem between SketchUp and Poser - his problem involved a large dome made of glass. I guess the transparency settings are really what causes most of the problems - these setting reveal any flaw a mesh will have.
To show you what I'm talking about - two tryout bowlshapes. The smooth one is over 40 MB in size, with a humungous amount of polygons, and the SU FollowMe tool chocking at it for over two hours; the other one has its faces clearly visible (DS4 render, high quality 3Delight using an Uberenvironment 2 light preset)
[xxl-img:3bew57q5]http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?&ACT=50&fid=5&aid=16004_0ZMjRlHHjHJcxad7Lnh7&board_id=1[/xxl-img:3bew57q5]
The second image shows the polygons on both of these models
[xxl-img:3bew57q5]http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?&ACT=50&fid=5&aid=16008_OYyP2rNPphEGF9rWqm97&board_id=1[/xxl-img:3bew57q5]
In Poser 4, the problem does not show up:
[xxl-img:3bew57q5]http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?&ACT=50&fid=41&aid=15956_T6EnVBiyXZ3R0VPnlxIf&board_id=1[/xxl-img:3bew57q5]
I'm first going for the cost-free solutions, and have downloaded Blender, Wings3D and MeshLab, to see what can be achieved there.From what I read about Artisan it should add some really powerful subdivision tools to SU, but I'm a bit short on dough right now, so that will be for the future.
I'd like to stick with SU for most of the initial modeling because of its ease of use.