general 3D Modeling/CAD Programs?

[LiraCrown 1,807]

Hay, whats up?

 

Anyone with experience in 3D modeling have any program advice for simple to use and free (or at least relatively inexpensive) modeling software?

I've poked around in Blender some but it's really way more then what I need it for. Also started messing around in FreeCAD and it might work alright but I havn't played with it much yet.

 

What I need is something that can make simple geometry fairly easily and allows me to be very accurate, like type in where I want points to go within fractions of an inch accurate and can export in STL. I'm pretty sure most of these programs do export STL as it's pretty standard, but thats fairly important for my purposes.

 

What I'd like is something thats as easy to lay down points as using illustrator, just with the included z axis. But that may be optimistic. (That said I think Illustrator has a few CAD plugins out there, but I'm not sure about their functionalities and the ones I have seen are a bit on the pricey side as far as I'm considered.)

 

I'm not looking to animate with this or anything, think more engineering and designing. Mostly if not entirely static models.

 

 

Any advice form experience?

[Humphrey 49]

If you are a student, you can get almost all Autodesk modeling programs for free. Personally I prefer 3ds max for modelling and Auto CAD for Engineering design. If you want more professional softwares or licenses for commercial uses, I am afraid thT there isn't any.

[CheeryFox 23,811]

If you are a student, you can get almost all Autodesk modeling programs for free. Personally I prefer 3ds max for modelling and Auto CAD for Engineering design. If you want more professional softwares or licenses for commercial uses, I am afraid thT there isn't any.

 

^ I would go with this. There's all sorts of tutorials for engineering and design. But the free stuff is seemingly determinate.