I’m new to 3D printing and have printed out quite few of the designs from thingiverse but now I want to start developing my own models. I was wondering what the best program to do that would be. Right now I’m thinking about using Autodesk Inventor, but I’ve seen a lot of people talk about using Blender and Rhino which I’m not familiar with.
Blender would be for “organic” modelling (they have a dvd/vod tutorial to use the 2.67+ 3D printing toolbox there : http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info_n.php?products_id=160 ).
For “architectural” / procedural modelling, you could use openscad ( http://www.openscad.org/ ) where you’ll describe your model instead of drawing it.
Blender gets my vote as well, although it’s not just for organic shapes.
Have a look at this great step-by-step tutorial - http://www.rab3d.com/tut_blender.php
You’ll learn plenty about the interface and the important shortcut keys.
There are loads of good tutorial videos on YouTube as well.
In addition to OpenSCAD (again, for parts, not art) you could try FreeCAD which is more GUI driven.
Tinker cad is easy and free, I also like sculptris.
I use SolidWorks which is very easy to learn but difficult to get a hand on because it is expensive. That being said, if you have a .edu email account you can get most of the Autodesk software for free. Autodesk Inventor is very similar to SW. They also have some more “organic” modeling software too.
Blender is not just for organic: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/12/22/modeling-a-building/
Beginner Blender tutorials: http://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-series/blender-basics-introduction-beginners/