Comment Re:sounds like 2 programs (Score 1) 218
for 3d Prinitng go with Blender or 3dsmax. For your CNC machinery, use solidworks. Unfortuantley they are 2 different kettles of fish that probably require 2 different softwares to get the most benefit out of it.
Blender or 3dsmax will allow more free-form modelling techniques and diversity, and theres plenty of tutorials you can learn. Output to a 3d printer is easy. no CNC data though, these programs arent a solid modelling engine.
Solidworks is more mechanical design if you need to create CNC data for you mill which solidworks provides because of its solid modelling engine. You might be able to also output to STL from solidworks to 3d printer also, however you are then limited with a mechanical engineering application rather than a product designed 3d package if you want more organic models.
I agree with you here. Blender is getting _very_ good these days. And with the more recent changes like Cycles (for previewing "realistic" materials) and Dyntopo for sculpting, I think that blender is an amazing tool.
For real world proof, here is a ring that was made in blender (with some zbrush) and 3d printed:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?278857-The-Ring-of-the-Monkey-Pirate-King
I would imagine that he could have used blender dyntopo, but if you already have a nice toolset, you might as well use it. If you frequent the blenderartists forums, you will start to learn that even blender users tend to use a variety of tools.
