Can anybody recommend a program for 3d models?

I am used to solidworks so something close to that would be preferable.

 

blender is free, just my opinion but the interface and workflow is very annoying

3ds max isn't free but has an industry standard workflow and its a very professional easy to use program and will do anything you need it to.

 

I love blender I'm gonna eventually try out 3dsmax though

 

Blender 3D is open source freeware, as said above, and matches or exceeds the general capacity of Max or Maya. The downside is that it has a learning curve like a brick wall. It's powerful if you can learn to use it, but you'd have to commit to it to get to that point.

Max is a professional standard solution, however a standard license can run in the thousands of dollars. There are also pirated versions lurking in places, however I wouldn't advise illegally acquiring software which you plan on using for something like a BeamNG.Drive mod. You may be able to acquire some form of student version of Max legally, however I am not aware of how you would go about trying for one of those.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any programs for game-engine style modeling that would provide a Solidworks-esque workflow.
Your best bet would be to take a look at a program like Blender, as there's no monetary commitment to obtain it legally. If Blender proves too difficult you could look into acquiring a copy of Max or some other more mainstream workflow solution.

 

Blender is a very good modeler, but If you're looking to by a professional program, I would suggest Modo. It's what I use and it's reasonably priced. I've used a few different modeling programs and I think as far as modeling and UV mapping is concerned, is the best I've used so far. Once you get into it and would like to get into other types of modeling, ZBrush would be a good investment as well. It's still one of the strangest modeling programs I've ever used, but for what it can do, no other program can touch it.

 

Cinema4D is also pretty nice in my opinion, but Blender can do the same... I dont see a realy big difference between the learning curves but that are personal opinions anyway.
Zbrush however is another dimension and the other programs dont even come close to it, then again it has different main purposes (conceptual work, organic bodys) and so is also a little less user friendly on some projects (hard surface modeling) imo, but still has amazing abilities in this area too.
Overall i think nobody can tell you which of alll those you will prefer, you will have to test out and see how you like them.

 

Zbrush isn't really appropriate for creating game-engine models unless you are running the model out of Zbrush and into another program for poly reduction in the final model. The issue is that poly-sculpting tools like Zbrush will generally produce very high-poly models, which are far too large for a game like BeamNG.Drive.

 

uhm... Zbrush has multiple different ways for poly-reduction and even more than one option to retopologize your mesh with automatic functions that let you control the desired outcoming topology. For example with this http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/topology/zremesher/ , but there are many more very powerfull ways to control your topology, you could for example just draw new polygroups onto the surface, take shading edges as indicators or even enforce the topology to keep absolute loops all the time.

But i never said you should or would be doing good to use Zbrush to create the final model for a game like beamNG even if Zbrush is appropriate to handle the task, as long you know how to get the desired result...

OP asked for 3d programs in general and did not mention any further purpose so i suggested what i rate the best.
If you start a new project, even if it is a car, and you dont know how it should look from the start, zbrush can be a great advantage, even in time/work questions.
As you can sculpt conceptual designs extremly fast while keeping perfectly looking hard surfaces, you could even go the other way around and make the retopolizing your main work, after you had way less work modeling point by point.
Furthermore does Zbrush offer a very powerfull Boolean/Merge function that can be used to basicaly merge or cut any object out or into another one, or even multiple ones within parts of a second. Other programs struggle quite a bit with that on same polygon ammount and even often fail completly. This function is very handy and allows fast work while working with the shadowbox or basic primitives you did cut up. I think this is realy a personal question of workflows you are used to and prefer.

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=10916786

Autodesk(3dsmax) page for students.

 

By far the most capable all rounder 3d software is 3DS max.

It has a clean interphase, excellent support + a huge range of importers/exporters as standard and an incredible array of simple to use tools.
It also displays the hotkeys as you do stuff using the buttons which makes it incredibly easy to increase your modelling speed.

 

Can anyone point out a good walkthrough on doing cars in 3dsMax that fits the way they should be done for this game?

 

Try out SketchUp8: http://dl.trimble.com/sketchup/gsu8/FW-3-0-16846-EN.exe its free.

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Try out SketchUp8: http://dl.trimble.com/sketchup/gsu8/FW-3-0-16846-EN.exe its free.

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Try out SketchUp8: http://dl.trimble.com/sketchup/gsu8/FW-3-0-16846-EN.exe its free.

 

Try out only hitting submit once

It also sucks for vehicle modelling and game modding.

 

Dont you download Sketchup! -.-
Instead have a look for the meaning of the word sketch, there is a reason this program is called like that.
Its nice to throw together something fast, but if you search a program on purpose and plan to invest time on learning you should decide for a better one that offers more options in all areas, sketchup is a pathetic joke against the others imo.

 

I already have 3dsMax 2014 and have been working with that and would prefer to stick with it as it is considered the top of the class in 3d modelers.

Ooops wrong thread... my bad

 

I just started with modeling recently and at the moment, my program of choice is Blender. I like the interaction and design (visually) of Blender. It didn't take me too long to discover the core functions that I need to use, and the wiki is a great source for learning operations and hot-keys (Youtube is a great help as well). Plus it's free . The menu layout can be confusing at times though.

I have used 3D Studio Max before on school computers. Blender had my favor in first impressions because it seemed quicker and more natural. With 3D Studio Max it took me a while even just to find out that I had to convert a primitive into an editable mesh before I could start menipulating vertices, I still haven't learned hot-keys yet. I am a little biased in this area though because I have spent much more time with Blender on my home computer.

As others have said, all we can offer are suggestions, you just have to try some different programs and find the one that suits you.

 

Have you tried using Catia? It's like SolidWorks.

 

... and is also a CAD-Software which is in no way appropriate for creating models for this game. You need a program that supports polygonal modeling, CAD-Software doesn't support that in most cases.