wrote:

For 3D stuff: SolidWorks. The GUI was designed by someone that had
actually used a modern GUI (Gnome/KDE/OS X/Win9x) for more than a week,
unlike AutoCAD. (To be fair, none of this stuff _existed_ when AutoCAD
started up.) I started out with being kind of able to drive a 2D CAD
program but with no experience in SolidWorks. I ran through a couple of
the tutorials that came with it and just played around with it in
general and got fairly good at it within a couple of weeks.
Disadvantage is that it's somewhat expensive, unless you can somehow
qualify for the educational version. http://www.solidworks.com/

The OP should also consider Alibre. They have a free version that is
full-featured, limited only as to number of parts, some of the import
export formats, and some features of engineering drawings, but
includes full modeling capabilities. The OP can work with this to
decide if a solid modeler is what he wants, and then decide on
solidworks, alibre's full version, etc. The free version is at
http://www.alibre.com/products/xpres...ss_for_all.asp
--
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