I've done most of my rendering work using an archaic combination of AutoCAD 13 (yes, 13!) and a program integrated into it called Accurender. I got it years ago when it was all I could afford, and things like 3D Studio were thousands of dollars. Like a Kenyan marathon runner who runs barefoot, I've gotten very good at working with this primitive tooling, and although I eventually purchased 3DS Max for supplemental work, I never took the time to learn the better program.
Same with Solidworks. I was red-hot on ProEngineer on a Sun system back at Stanford, but the interface for Solidworks is completely different, and I need to train myself to use it if I'm going to be any good at it.
In short, I'm the guy who drives a Masarati to go to the grocery store while I take my comfortable old heap out on the freeway. That needs to change.
Geek Speak » in reply to What are you going to design?
Step one: Learning to use the software.