As the title says what are peoples opinions on free 3D modelling and rendering packages. I am a design engineer who uses UG NX5 on a daily basis and have used many different 3D modelling packages in the past IDEAS, Solidworks etc, but these have either been through work or from other sources . I am after a free 3D modelling package, preferably a CAD based package, primarily for modelling custom motorcycle parts but also having a dabble with some PC bits and bobs. Wife's profession precludes me from using certain 'sources' so free would be great. Any suggestions, recommendations would be welcome.
Google sketchup for modeling and Kerkythea for rendering. It's what most on this forum will suggest for free modeling/rendering programs
Sketchup is different to your average CAD software though, far more limited but more intuitive. It's biggest problem is the way it handles curves and exports models making it incompatible to most machines like cncs. Also Kerythea might be free, but it's **** if used with Sketchup. Sorry guys, but it's true. I gave up on this software long ago. The results might be okay for a free software, but the rendering times are ridiulous, again due to the way curves are handled. There's Blender of course, it's the most well known and probably best freeware 3D modelling software out there. It's no CAD software though, but there are a few plugins that add quite a few features. Bought by Microsoft and released for free True Space was intended as a direct competitor to google's Sketchup. It's a full blown modelling suite including organic modelling, animation, tools for game creation and many other useful features, but I found it really counter intuitive. People who know what they're doing get some great results from the software though. TrueSpace is one of Microsoft's common mistakes: They saw the success of one of their competitor's software and wanted a share of the profits. So they made a checklist what everyone was missing in Sketchup like organic modelling, rendering or oganic modelling and totally missed the point: Sketchup is no software for professionals but for home users who want to plan their new flat. Due to it's control sheme that is so different and easier to master than most professional software more and more architects use it for quick drafts of their ideas as they can produce rough sketches very very fast and the graphics thend to be good enough for early presentations.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have had a look at Blender and will check out True Space. I think as a CAD user I am probably going to look at that type of program as I want to be able to generate detailed drawings from my 3D models and assemblies. I'll let you know if I find anything suitable.
