As a newbie, I have only used Google Sketchup.  Has anyone got
drawing experience with Blender?http://www.blender.org/
Kevin in Denver

I mucked w/ it a few years ago as far as I remember it's a push/pull
type of modeling program. Start w/ a block and sub-divide the faces
and then push/pull the nodes to make shapes. [rinse and repeat as
needed to produce your model in the detail req'd] It's great for modeling
artistic stuff, but a bit light on the dimensional and more rigid shape
control of the more 'industrial' type modeling software suites.

Fwiw

Jarrett