Kittykat, if you're at least somewhat familiar with 3D Max, then the programs mentioned here should pose little difficulty beyond learning how each one like to do things.

As to modeling clothing, there are two programs that can do the rigging (bones). One is Poser, and the other is called Greenbriar I believe (at Daz3d). Check the Daz3d sight for their software and what each one can do. Carerra can also do rigging for Poser/Daz I believe but Hexagon can't. So with Hexagon, Anim8tor, Wings, Blender, Rhino, etc, you can make meshes that can be textured and imported into Daz, but you can't set them up with rigging so they will bend. Carerra, can do all the modeling as well as rigging I believe, or you can make your 3D object in, say, Wings, then use either Poser, or Greenbriar to do the rigging. If your making static objects for tubing you don't have to get too fancy. A freeware program will work just fine. There are forums here for Blender, Wings, and Rhino...you might try looking there for information and links. If you can't find any PM me and I'll find links for you...I don't have any in my bookmarks anymore since I rebuilt my pc.