StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Any suggestions for a newb? My only requirements are that it's easy to get started with and is capable of exporting to .stl format. I've never done any 3D before, so I don't have any basis for comparison.

This will convert stuff to STL: http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

I suppose you can use blender, export to 3ds, and use that to convert to STL, but that's very messy... from what I can gatehr from the wiki article, STL is used for CAM- wouldn't you want to use a proper CAM app for that?

You could start by just messing around w/ Google's SketchUp.

I don't really require the precision of a real CAM application. STL format is for creating physical models using a 3D printer. My school acquired one of these printers this week, so I mainly want to see what kinds of things I can do with it.

In that case, perhaps the aforementioned software will do.

If you want to use blender you don´t need meshlab. Blender can export to .stl directly.
I´ve never tried it, so i don´t know if blender exports cleanly to .stl. If it doesn´t work and you want to export to meshlab i suggest exporting as .obj instead of .3ds. The 3ds format sucks. Obj is a lot cleaner.

You could also get a copy of Maya PLE. It´s free and since you only want to use it for school projects it´s legal.

Then there is Wings 3D which is a very good freeware modeller. I´m not sure if it exports to .stl but it surely exports to .obj.

3ds max exports to .stl very well. I have first hand experience with that and the exports were very clean. It´s a bit costly though, even if you get the students version. But maybe your school has it.

Don't get sketchup if you want to learn actual modeling. Sketchup is great, no doubt, but it is completely unlike blender/maya/3ds. It will be difficult to move from Sketchup to a proper modeling program. Trust me/