Over the years, I've dabbled in 3D modeling using various software and even had some of my designs printed through Shapeways. With plans to attend university at the year's end for a course in product design engineering, I'm eager to enhance my 3D modeling abilities in preparation. Could anyone suggest any free online courses on this topic? I'm willing to begin with the very fundamentals!
I know of no general courses, but for any particular 3-D design software program there are plenty of specific tutorials for specific design problems and how-to's. Youtube is probably the largest collection of such tutorials.
If you are looking for free and prolific search on you tube "3d printable object design with blender" With blender you can do hard modeling and soft modeling. Personally I use rhino as it was originally designed for jewelry making and I have used it for almost 20 yrs. I use a variety of other programs like meshmixer and online tools to fix issues with faces and edges.