21 best 3D modeling software

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There are options for different skill levels.

1. Autodesk 3ds Max

• Price: from $ 205 / month, with a free 30-day trial.
• Level: for professionals.
• Platform: Windows.

A powerful 3D modeling environment for the gaming, film, industrial and interior design industries. It allows you to create realistic models and volumetric animations of any level of detail, build the most complex scenes with thousands of objects, simulate various environments and particles, apply textures and perform ray-traced rendering in the built-in Arnold component.

2. Autodesk Maya

• Price: from $ 205 / month, 30-day free trial available.
• Level: for professionals.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS).

A popular environment for preparing 3D models, animations, simulations, rendering of complex scenes. Maya is used primarily by 3D designers and artists who create games, special effects and images for cinema. The program can simulate powerful explosions, realistic movement of clothes or hair, water surface with small waves or the flight of a bullet - there are special tools and modules for this.

3. Autodesk AutoCAD

• Price: from $ 210 / month, with a free 30-day trial.
• Level: for professionals.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

A computer-aided design system for creating 3D models and drawings. It is convenient to create complex projects in it, break them down into simple components, add designations, link them with real coordinates on the ground.

The program is widely used in construction, mechanical engineering and other industries. Startups and enthusiasts also create small models here for 3D printing or laser cutting. In addition, you can work with 3D scan results in AutoCAD.

4. DesignSpark Mechanical

• Price: is free.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platform: Windows.

A CAD environment inspired by AutoCAD. There are fewer possibilities here, but it is also easier to work in the program. Due to this, even those engineers who have no experience of interacting with similar software or traditional drawing machines will be able to create a three-dimensional model or adapt a finished project for their own needs. DesignSpark Mechanical is popular with 3D printing enthusiasts.

5. Blender

• Price: is free.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

An open source project for creating 3D graphics and 2D animations. Supports all the tools you need to develop from scratch - from modeling and sculpting to simulation, rendering, post-processing and video editing.

The program weighs less than 200 MB, while it has very decent features. So, there is even a particle-based hair system, tools for rigid and soft body dynamics, drawing textures on models, Python support for creating logic in games and automating tasks.

6. ArchiCAD

• Price: from 20 thousand rubles per month; there is a free trial - 30 days for commercial use or up to 2 years for students, teachers, educational institutions.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

Package for the design of buildings and structures. Allows you to create three-dimensional models of any complexity and divide them into parts for detailed study: for example, show a multi-storey building on the landscape, the layout of individual apartments, the interiors of rooms. Also, the results of the work can be uploaded to software for analysis - this will help you quickly find and eliminate design errors. Finally, ArchiCAD has tools for the automatic generation of documentation and visualization of projects.

7. SketchUP

• Price: from $ 119 per year, there are free versions for personal use and training.
• Level: for amateurs and beginners.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

A simple package for 3D modeling and architectural design. In it, you can sketch out a drawing of the future house in a few minutes, arrange furniture, decide on layouts and more. At the same time, SketchUP's capabilities are sufficient for industrial needs: the program is used in construction and architecture, landscape design and furniture creation, wood processing on machine tools and 3D printing.

8. Autodesk Fusion 360

• Price: from $ 60 per month; there is a free trial - 30 days of commercial use or 1 year for personal use.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

A comprehensive cloud package for CAD, CAM, CAE and PCB: computer-aided design, preparation of control programs for CNC machines, calculations, analysis and simulation of physical processes in three-dimensional space, creation of printed circuit boards. Allows you to design machines and mechanisms, to assemble 3D structures from parts, to represent ergonomic streamlined shapes using splines. Also supports solid modeling by extrusion, rotation, fillet and other familiar tools.

9. Cinema 4D

• Price: from 60 € / month, 14-day free trial available.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

This program was originally developed for motion design, modeling and animation for movies and games. But thanks to its simple interface and low system requirements, Cinema 4D has conquered the advertising world as well.

The program supports modeling, sculpting, drawing, creating compositions, tracking and animation, allows you to perform high-quality rendering, to implement unusual three-dimensional effects. Also in the environment, you can write code in Python, C ++ and not only, implement your own scripts, plugins and other tools.

10. Houdini

• Price: Houdini Core - from $ 1,995 per year; Houdini FX - from $ 4,495 per year; there is a free version of Houdini Apprentice for learning and hobbies.
• Level: for professionals.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

A large-scale software package for creating characters and scenes for films, television and video games, including in virtual reality. Its main difference is the built-in visual programming environment: to make modeling easier, you can compose code from blocks.

Houdini supports polygonal, spline and physics modeling, particles, voxels, and animation. The new version introduces procedural character generation, interactive brushes for drawing fabrics, wires and soft bodies, and fast rendering algorithms.

11. ZBrush

• Price: from $ 40 / month, with a free 30-day trial.
• Level: for professionals and amateurs.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

A program in which you can literally sculpt the desired 3D model. In general, no special knowledge is required to start, but at the same time ZBrush allows you to professionally design figures of people, animals and other objects, and then export them to create three-dimensional animations in other packages.

Models in ZBrush are made up of points that store 3D coordinates, as well as color, depth, orientation, and material. They will help you create a realistic object and paint it using textures and strokes. The program will automatically add natural shadows and highlights.

12. SculptGL

• Price: is free.
• Level: for lovers.
• Platform: web.

Online editor for sculpting objects from virtual clay. It attracts with simplicity and accessibility: all you need is a browser and some free time.

SculptGL has fewer possibilities than ZBrush, but it is also easier to work with. Here you can create an object from a prototype, for example a ball, divide the model into parts to edit each of them separately, apply textures, and render. The program is available in 10 languages, including Russian and English.

Try SculptGL →

13. Wings 3D

• Price: is free.
• Level: for lovers.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Open source environment for modeling and texturing. It is convenient to create realistic prototypes with it: for example, to present the customer with variants of character images in order to determine the concept and further work with it.

In Wings 3D, you can also write Erlang code for more accurate modeling. The environment does not support animation, so to create scenes in the dynamics of the figure, you will have to export to other software.

fourteen. FreeCAD

• Price: is free.
• Level: for lovers.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.

Parametric environment for technical modeling and computer-aided design. It is based on boundary representations, that is, models are shown using their boundaries. But you can also use polygonal meshes if you are more familiar with them.

Much of FreeCAD is written in Python. If you know this programming language, you can add features to expand the capabilities of the environment. There is also an add-on manager: in it you can enrich the choice of modules and macros for working in various fields - from architecture to projecting volumetric models onto a flat drawing.

15. Sweet Home 3D

• Price: is free.
• Level: for newbies.
• Platforms: web, Windows, macOS, Linux.

An open source program in which you can quickly create a new interior and view it from different angles. It is very important before renovation, redevelopment or even rearrangement of furniture.

In Sweet Home 3D you can create flat and volumetric floor plans, export them in various formats, generate videos for project presentation. Also, ready-made objects (furniture, appliances, and so on) are available on the official website.

Try Sweet Home 3D →

16. LEGO Digital Designer (LDD)

• Price: is free.
• Level: for professionals, amateurs and beginners.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

The program for creating any models and scenes from LEGO bricks. It will help you find the ideal shape and calculate the number of parts, so that you can then assemble the project from the designer.

The database contains ready-made blocks of different sizes, including parts of figures of people, trees, stairs, windows, doors and more. When creating a new model, you can choose Standard mode, Mindstorms (so that only parts from the sets of this series are available) or Extended (no restrictions on color and block types).

17. 3D Slash

• Price: from $ 2 per month, there is a free trial with limited features.
• Level: for newbies.
• Platforms: web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspbian.

A very easy and undemanding program for creating models from blocks. Allows you to quickly develop simple prototypes from scratch or from blanks, removing or adding individual fragments. Suitable for exploring the world of 3D-modeling, it will allow you to quickly sketch a three-dimensional scene or model - a prototype for printing on a 3D-printer, discussion and further improvement.

Try 3D Slash →

18. Paint 3D

• Price: is free.
• Level: for newbies.
• Platform: Windows.

A graphic editor that has been included in Windows 10 since 2017. But if for some reason you removed it from the OS or did not update the system, you can download it from the official website.

The program interface is extremely simple, and a set of tools will help you quickly create a simple shape, an inscription, and so on. You can also choose a ready-made object to use within the scene or modify. Finally, Paint 3D allows you to superimpose digital objects on a picture of the real world and get mixed reality.

19. Autodesk Tinkercad

• Price: is free.
• Level: for newbies.
• Platform: web.

The most simple and bright 3D editor designed for teaching 3D modeling. It's available online, so it doesn't matter the performance of your PC, no plugins or extensions need to be installed.

In the web application, you can create complex objects from simple primitives, generate figures for Minecraft. In addition, Tinkercad supports block programming like Scratch. You can create a sequence of ready-made blocks of code, and this algorithm will be used to create a model. The program also allows you to export your work for 3D printing or laser cutting. Finally, there are ready-made lessons and training plans - will be useful for teachers.

Go to Autodesk Tinkercad →

20. Autodesk Meshmixer

• Price: is free.
• Level: for amateurs and beginners.
• Platforms: Windows, macOS.

A popular package in which it is convenient to prepare mesh files, for example with extensions like.stl and.obj, for printing on a 3D printer. You can load ready-made models into the program and optimize them in order to achieve the maximum quality of the final figure.

Meshmixer allows you to improve the surface, create voids in the model to speed up printing, measure the shape of individual parts, perform transformations and more. In addition, you can analyze the object, find out its key parameters (thickness, stability, and others) and refine the shape before sending it to the 3D printer.

21. Autodesk ReCap Pro

• Price: from $ 20 / month, with a free 30-day trial.
• Level: for lovers.
• Platform: Windows.

Software for 3D scanning of objects and laser research of spaces. Allows you to install a camera or laser distance measuring device: they will scan the space, and you will receive an accurate 3D model for further work.

Autodesk ReCap Pro is used if they want to 3D print a real-world object, get a room diagram for interior planning, and improve the mechanism. The program also knows how to create three-dimensional landscapes from photos taken from drones.