I'm trying to teach myself 3D modeling and play around with some 3D printing projects. There are so many options that I'm not sure where to begin. It seems like blendr is the most popular but isn't the best option for beginners. Any thoughts?
If you want something really simple, try out Paint 3D (comes with latest Windows 10), allows 3D Printing and import of other professional models through Remix 3D
Agreed this is the absolute easiest
Tinkercad is by far your best bet if you are starting out. It’s a free online solid modeler designed for 3D printing. It exports directly in .stl format and because it’s a solid modeler eliminates issues with boundary edges and holes in the mesh automatically. More advanced and I would go with fusion 360. For serious power use I would use Solidworks.
Actual 3D modeling expert here. Don't bother with blender. The learning curve is steep, and even if you're an expert, it's still a total piece of shit. Ignore any anecdotal evidence anyone might bring up about it, nobody uses blender in triple-A products. I've never tried Paint 3D, as someone else mentioned, but if it's easy to use, try it out. Solidworks is nice, but has a steep learning curve and will have far more options than you'll use. I strongly recommend 3ds Max. The learning curve is steep, due to a high skill cap, but for simple things, you'll get buy with YouTube tutorials. More importantly, you won't waste your time learning how to use it if you want to continue learning more about it. 3ds Max has a free educational version, with the only limitation being that you can't use it for commercial purposes (there's an unemployed or something like that as an option when it asks for your school on the Autodesk site, if you aren't in school) and it allows you to export to STL format.
Solidworks Certified Expert here. I suggest TinkerCAD shortly followed by Fusion360. Both are free to use for hobbyists and students unlike SolidWorks. Fusion has top quality to the point tutorials on their official YouTube channel and a lot of project based learning materials on their official website. There is a great community for Fusion 360 on Facebook and for 3d printing, best starter printer is MP Select Mini. Let me know if you need any help to get started. I can gladly help.
I prefer the ultimaker3 for FDM printing and the EDENJET 360 for really high detail prints. Wanhao has a really cheap FDM printer that performs very well with a couple of cheap mods.
Fusion 360 is a good place to start. It offers a lot of value for free. I would suggest understand the nuances of designing for 3D print cause a lot of people only try grab and print. Creating custom 3D models for printing needs you to either model in NURBS and convert to STL or do it in polygons(Maya, Blender).
Autocad?