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If your a student Autodesk has several programs that can be downloaded free with a 3 year licence. These are full version professional programs. I would recommend downloading Inventor Professional which I have, this is a $6,000 program. The only thing different on the student versions is that any drawings you print will have "this drawing was created with a academic version of Inventor". The text is outside the border of the title block / drawing sheet where it could be trimmed off. This program will read and write .stl 3d files as well as .dxf for 2d files and would work perfect with both the Stl Importer and Dxf Importer.
Here is a link to the Autodesk download site:
http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software
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Thanks mcQ. Being that there seems to be so many software options out there, and many have a hefty price tag, I'm a big fan of "try before you buy". But with extensive programs such as these, any trial period less than a few months isn't adequate unless you have a lot of extra time to devote to learning the program. So I love when software offers unlimited time or even a 3-year license such as Autodesk is doing here.
It is most likely going to take some while for me to try out and make a choice on which 3D modeling/AutoCad application to go with. It was a lot easier in my Web & Graphic Design field in which the Adobe products are pretty much the industry standard--therefore not only excellent software but the software knowledge/skills that are most sort after by potential employers. That's what I'm pretty much going for: software that does everything I need it to, does it well, doesn't have too steep a learning curve (or at least "feels right" to me), and the working knowledge of is very marketable...and I know, that's a tall order. That's why I am so appreciative of everyone's input, suggestions, and feedback.
Thanks again.
Mike
