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Tools

There are a bunch of tools out there to help you get started on making meshes. Here is a brief list.

3D Modeling Programs

Blender

Blender is THE free open-source 3D modeling program.

Pros

• Free!
• Open-source!
• Frequent Releases
• Fast to use once you get used to it
• Excellent Exporter: [1]
• Excellent Tutorials: [2]

Cons

• Hard to learn if you've used other 3D programs
• Makes learning other 3D programs hard

3DS Max

3DS is Autodesk's 3D program.

Pros

• Amazing feature list
• Incredible exporter: [3]
• Many many many many tutorials all over the web
• There is a free student version.

Cons

• It costs $3495
• No Linux version
• No OSX version

AC3D

Inivis Limited's 3D program

Pros

• Very easy to learn
• good feature list
• Ogre Mesh Exporter
  

Cons

• Not for free
  

Google SketchUp

Google's free, easy to use 3D CAD program

Pros

• Easy to use
• Free
• Good Tutorials
• Good Exporter [4]

Cons

• Polygon monster
• FPS Killer
• Other 3D modelers will point and laugh at you for using it.
  • and throw rocks
    • and steal your lunch money
• No Linux version (and don't even think about running it with Wine)
• Really, really, really bad at textures. Phenomenally bad, in fact.

Conversion Programs

Typically an exporter will give you an XML file. This is where the OGRE Command Line Tools come in. [5] To use these in the most basic way, drag XML files onto the OGREXMLConverter to create meshes and vice versa.