Meshmixer

Meshmixer is a lightweight 3D modeling software developed by Autodesk that should be in every maker’s toolbox. As the software’s website puts it, it’s a “Swiss Army Knife” for 3D objects that allows you to manipulate, add to, splice, merge models, and more, with ease.

The program is mostly used to tweak, repair, or optimize existing 3D models, but also has sculpting and solid modeling tools built in. The tool selection is simple but offers enough variety to get you intimately familiar with the tools you’ll need for either form of 3D modeling.

Since Meshmixer is tailor-made for 3D printing, not only can you design and repair 3D models in the program but also add support structures, orient models, and use Meshmixer’s variety of unique optimization tools to prepare your design for printing.

There might be a slightly steeper learning curve with Meshmixer in some places compared to software made especially for beginners, but there’s a manual by Autodesk to learn any unfamiliar terminology and get your footing. The program is a little dated at this point and not being updated, but it’s completely free and will always come in handy – so you can’t really go wrong. While the latest Windows version is available for download on their website, the macOS version is unfortunately no longer available due to a “security issue” in the installer but can be downloaded from third-party websites.