Whats a good 3d modeling software to use? I have a Prusa i3 and I’m a noob at creating 3d models.
TinkerCAD is fairly easy to use but somewhat simplistic.
OnShape is awesome, free professional grade 3D. Basically SolidWorks, for free.
Blender will melt your brain.
Fusion 360 is great for free. I use solidworks daily but it’s not by any means cheap. For printing models I would try fusion and see how you like it.
I tried several apps and finally ended up with sketchup. You need a plugin for exporting to stl, but it’s easy to install over the integrated plugin manager.
OnShape is a good zero install solution. https://www.onshape.com/
Another vote for OnShape, they have great videos on how to use it on their site.
Fusion360 is an alternative. Sketchup is known to product bad files. Freecad has a steep learning curve and isn’t intuitive. Openscad is great if you like programming.
It really depends on the type of object too, cad is good for mechanical, then you have mesh modeling programs for artwork.
Open source options:
- Freecad http://freecadweb.org for technical drawings in 3d.
- Blender is artwork option
For both, there are plenty of tutorials.
It’s interesting that everyone assumes that you’re not prepared to pay anything? I use Rhino, which cost money, but is good. Anything that’s nice and flexible has a pretty steep learning curve, so I decided to go for something decent and only navigate that learning curve once.
I’m a fan of https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software
Works a bit like sketch-up, without making messed up meshes, or blowing up in your face.
I use Autodesk 123d design. It’s free and there are dozens of tutorials on youtube on how to get started.
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Consider OpeSCAD as well. Probably easiest for things that are mostly combinations of squares and cylinders and spheres (a lot of things I need are). I like OpenSCAD for a lot of things because it’s more like software. I can have variables for anything/everything (overall width, length, height, width of walls, distance of holes and walls from other edges, holes, or walls, etc.). It appeals to my programming and mathematical and indecisive sides. 
@Jeff_Tucker How accurate are the prints to the designs using Autodesk? It looks interesting and how easy is it to learn?
@Mark_Wheadon I don’t mind paying if it’s worth it and has good tutorials to learn the software. How’s the functionality of Rhino and what are the pros and cons of it from your perspective?
@Stephanie_A I’m gonna take a look into Onshape first and I’ll check back in with yall on how it works for me. Thanks
@Nate_Bee You can get pretty accurate with Autodesk 123d design, but also depends on the print quality of your 3d printer.
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@Nate_Bee Difficult to say really as I don’t have extensive experience of many other packages. I started using 123D Design and thats pretty good, but I noticed that a lot of the designs I admired had been done in Rhino and so started to look at that. Rhino is one of those apps that, for the most part, if you can’t do something then it’s because you don’t know how rather than it’s not doable, which is not the case with 123D Design. Biggest plus of Rhino? The use of layers, so you can keep a sense of order with more complex projects. Biggest minus? You can’t select objects in a write-protected layer, making the write-protect useless and making it all too easy to accidentally modify your master object rather than the copy you thought you had. I’ve lost many hours of work like that over the last year or so.
@Nate_Bee Oh and I should say, rhino lets you type commands and parameters at it, so you don’t have to keep searching though myriad menus. Just start to type the command and it starts to auto-complete – it’s a very powerful interface which takes some learning but is then quick and efficient to use.
So far I’m liking Onshape a lot. Great tutorials. Feeling comfortable about learning to use it at this point.