Design software

Looking for relatively simple 3d design package for my wood/metals art studio. Need ability to design, develop prints/build instructions, and render designs for customers. My work is typically not overly complex - lots of curves and incorporates elements of wood, glass, clay & metals in a single piece. Currently using adobe on an iMac. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Don’t really know what type of work you do, but if it is generally pretty geometric. There is this off-brand solid modeling program “Alibre Design” that is super cheap and easy to use.

Thanks for info. Will look at how it runs on boot camp on a mac.

Rhino sounds alright for you, or even Illustrator

Rhino is ideal for complex curvaceous shapes. IronCAD is probably the best parametric 3D modeler for more mechanical designs and you can get it real cheap at CAD International but you have to have an address in Australia or New Zealand! check out applecad.com for a list of CAD stuff that works on the Mac natively

Just another thought. RealCAD would probably be ideal as it is easy to learn and use and has rendering built in.

RISA -3D and WoodWorks® for wood design may be useful for the design of all-wood buildings as well as hybrid structures of wood and other materials