Rhino is a great program but it is a 'traditional' CAD package with the need for you to learn the 'CAD way of thinking'. It works the same as most of the older CAD packages and you can get the feel for this by downloading a copy of Intellicad
Ian, can you please expand on this? In what ways do you see Rhino as
traditional? I have never used AutoCAD or Intellicad, but I have a
feeling from what I have observed that I can easily do some things
in Rhino that would be very difficult to do in either of these
traditional cad programs. One thing in particular is to directly
manipulate an object in 3d space by moving control points around, in
effect sculpting the object as if it were a piece of virtual clay.
I am posting this because I feel Rhino is a good starting point for
folks that want to learn 3d modeling. I dont want anyone to get
turned off by having them think that Rhino is some arcane old
fashioned CAD program. It is actually a powerful, intuitive tool that
is fairly easy to learn.
My advice for anyone looking to get started in 3d modeling is to
spend around $600 USD now for Rhino, learn how to model in this
powerful, modern program, and then when you feel that you need a
parametric solids modeler, spend the $5000 on SolidWorks (Or <
$1000 for Inovate by IronCAD).
-Tom Murray