Attached Link: http://www.dvgarage.com

One of the best modelers I found for cheap money that is cross platform is the Electric Image Universe 2.9 from dvgarage. I got it and love it. Beats the daylights out of any other modeler in that price range --- $199. The only downside is that it doesn't export in anything that you would be able to use directly, it exports in .fac format (and some industrial formats), but if you get the Play Amorphium 1.0 off ebay for $6, you can open a fac and convert to obj, etc. The CD set comes with lots of training videos that are just fantastic to get started.