Flat out, hands down, the best modeler for the money is Rhino. I've ben using since 2001, and havn't looked back. It will do anything you need, architectural, automotive, charcter design. It's basically a really friendly 3D Cad program, and is as accurate as you need. You can model real world objects in Rhino, it's used in everything from automotive design, deisgning buildings, industrial design, many, many products are deisgned using Rhino.. And nomuse is right, there really is no "best", it all depends on what you need and expect form a program. For many people, Rhino is way overkill, for some it's not enough. Cinema has very good modeling tools, not quite as intricate as Rhino's, since it's not a Cad based app, but still very good. I have very mixed feelings on Amapi. Not worth the money, it's almost as much as Rhino.