3D visualization is very important now a days . Specially after the release of some of the best 3D modeling software's in the late 80's and in the beginning of 90's .
Because of these 3D modeling software's life has become lot more easy and companies are doing there work more quickly by the help of 3D draftsmen. Now lets head towards our 3D software's list without wasting any time .
Blender is an open source 3D modeling software which means its free . Blender has a better UI than rest of the 3D modeling software's. Blender has some video editing features like after effects.
Blender was initially released in 1995 by Blender Foundation. Not an industry standard but will be in coming days.
Support:
The update frequency of blender is amazing they really fix bugs very quickly there are lots of free addons available for blender and more are coming its recent version has been released recently in October which is realy excited. It has a very active community on the web you will easily get 100's of free tutorials on YouTube.
Modeling:
If you want a 3D modeling software for game creation , animation , Machine modeling or Architectural [Interior exterior designing ] purposes than blender is the first choice . It has builtin addon for tree creation so its good for modeling natural scenes or you can place these trees in your Architectural visualization.
Lighting:
Lighting setup in blender is quite time consuming but it will save your pocket because blender can do what a non-free addon can do like blender can produce same results as V-Ray or Octane-Render just you need the right skills to use the blender lighting setup which includes Point light , Spot light , Sun light and the best one area light .
Texturing:
Blender has a wide range of texturing options like UV-unwrapping or Smart wrapping and can really show the real depth of the textures.
Rendering:
It has a very good sample based rendering environment and a very powerful render engine called cycles render engine it has both CPU and GPU support. Produces brilliant renders without third-party addons.
3D maya full name Autodesk Maya often called just 'Maya' is a product of Autodesk Inc . It was initially released in 1998. It is a subscription based software which means is not free but Autodesk offers an student version for free.
Support:
Maya has 24/24 hours support from its management . Its tutorials are available on the Autodesk site and YouTube . Regular bug fix power full addons available.
Modeling:
Excellent modeling usually Maya is used for animation creation and movie making but it can be handy in other stuff also.
Lighting:
Lighting is pretty good in Maya but if you need industry standard lighting setup you need to buy third party addons like V-Ray or Octane-Render.
Texturing:
Maya has good texturing options like UV-unwrapping supports depth texturing .
Rendering:
For Maya Autodesk inc offers an online rendering option which is really good if your renders are time consuming its like those big render farms but free. Beside it Maya itself has good rendering engine.
3D Max formally known as 3D studio Max is a product of Autodesk inc and it was initially released in 1990.
3D max is widely used in Architectural firms.
Support:
3D Max has a very good support quick bug fixes and quick release of new features but it is not freely available for commercial use . Instead you can get a student version for learning or for your own personal use . Good import and export support for other Architectural software's like Autocad.
Modeling:
Excellent modeling features available for House , building or interior exterior modeling works like already builtin different kind of stairs and rails are there which reduces time and you can model approximately by importing Autocad files.
Lighting:
Good lighting but as told above in almost every Autodesk software you need external lighting engines for industry standard results.
Texturing:
Brilliant texturing which can be used easily in all models . Many texturing styles available.
Rendering:
Rendering in 3ds max is good but best with external render engines .
The plus point for all the products of Autodesk inc is that they offer cloud rendering which is quite handy in bigger rendering projects.
No.4 [Google Sketchup]
Google Sketchup currently known as Sketchup is a great 3D modeling software . It was initially released in 2007 as a general purpose 3D modeling software but recently it got superb attention by Industries of different fields like Civil Engineering Mechanical and Architectural
Support:
It has really very fast support which is brilliant. It is new in the market but still managed seek a very good attention from the industries that means it can secure the number one position in the race of 3D modeling software's in coming future.
Modeling:
Very good and easy to understand modeling features which can produce tremendous results if used wisely . Moreover Sketchup has managed to built a very active community on the web like there are sites where there are free 3D models available for use like Doors , windows , trees , stairs .
Lighting:
Brilliant lighting setup available in sketchup and also free lighting engines are available which is good for those who don't want to put heavy loads on their pockets in this matter .
Texturing:
Like other 3D modeling software's above , Sketchup has all the features required for texturing . Actually i ranked it after 3D max and Maya because it isn't available for free for students. And it has less tutorials on the web then these two may be because its not very old in the market.
Rendering:
Rendering is made easy in sketchup because of the availability of free render engines like Kerkythea which is a standalone rendering solution with ray-tracing and other lighting supports.
Autocad is the oldest product of Autodesk . Its is really hard to learn by your own because it is based on poly lines and there are so many commands for simple tasks like a single line is drawn by the L or Line command . It is a very accurate software. It is generally know for Architectural works.
Autocad was initially released in December 1982 by Autodesk inc.
Support:
Really very active support making it to work with the latest industry standard software's.
Modeling:
As i told you above that its more a command based software which works generally on commands which be a plus point for and a negative point for others because through we don't need to go here and there in the software just type the command and feature is in front of you while autocad also has visual selection option so it totally depends which method you want to use
Autocad normally work with solids instead of meshes but there is an option for the user to work with meshes and personally i don't like working with meshes in autocad because it crashes a lot. And doesn't produce realistic meshes.
Lighting:
Good lighting specially sun and location system which lets you set the sun lighting according to the area you are living in. External lighting engines available like Octane and Vray .
Material and texturing:
Autocad has a builtin library of materials which let you create realistic looks .
For texturing you need to add external texture created in Photoshop or something like that .
Rendering:
Rendering in autocad is really very quick may be because of solids being used in it .
It has also cloud render support by autodesk which let you render bigger and time consuming renders.
These software's are ranked on my personal opinion and it isn't necessary that the software i ranked first will be the first for everyone difference of opinion exists so please avoid harsh comments.
