Hello all, I meant "Is Sketch up any good for making jewelry?" I'm taking my next step into 3D printing jewelry and was wondering if Sketch up pro is a good program to use? I've tried Blender but had trouble figuring it out. Are there any other free or inexpensive programs that are fairly easy to learn? I'm not ready to invest over $1000.00 until I know the program won't just sit there because I don't get it. LOL. Please help. Thank you, KaP
Can't speak for SketchUp, but you might want to download the latest beta version of Blender 2.8, the GUI is a bit more intuitive than previous versions. If you are still struggling with it, see if Fusion 360 is still free for hobbyist. I used it prior to Blender, if I remember correctly, it was pretty ok. I still prefer Blender tho because of all the free add-ons you can find online.
As long as your piece is not too organic in nature, Sketchup works great! I have two jewelry clients I draw for and thats the only program I use. Its great at doing "hard edged" type stuff but kind of tough to make it do a lot of organic, compound curvy things without a lot of pre-thought and a few good free plug-ins.
If you're still looking for programs then I personally use Rhino (for the more precise stuff) and Zbrush for the more organic stuff.
If you try blender again, be sure to include the free jewelry add-on and 3D printing add-on. There are some good blender tutorials on You-Tube.