If your budget allows snag yourself a Prusa. They're very well made, and Jeff Prusa more or less invented the modern 3D Printer. Creality makes fine printers, but you'll spend more time maintaining it than actually printing. I have an Ender 3 V2 and wish I had saved up to get a better printer. I don't have any personal experience with other brands.

You'll need to use a CAD program to make models. TinkerCAD is a great free option. You'll also need to "slice" that model up for printing using a slicer. I personally use PrusaSlicer, but there are others as well.

If you're asking these kinds of questions that tells me you're brand new to all of this. I recommend checking out Thomas Salanderer, CNC Kitchen, and Teaching Tech on YouTube. They're all great at explaining the minutiae of this hobby.

Edit: Do yourself a huge favour and get a model with a self-levelling bed, or at the very least a bed-level probe.

I went with a Prusa Mini and I can recommend the brand albeit at a higher price point.

From what I’ve heard from others the main pitfall for someone staring out is not getting an auto-bed levelling sensor.

For slicing Prusa slicer is fantastic and you can get profiles for many printers.

For print monitoring OctoPrint and OctoApp are my go to.

With your budget, the typical "entry point" into the hobby would most likely be any machine from the Chinese brands like Anycubic, Creality, Sovol etc. Those machines work OK, but it's very likely that you'll find some quirks that annoy you which leads to tinkering and printing (or buying) replacement parts and upgrades. But it also helps to further understand how the printer works, which can help down the line.

"Tinker-free" printers that just work and will do so for many 100 hours (like the printers by Prusa) are more expensive upfront but don't require constant "babysitting".

Regarding software, there's a plethora of programs that can be used. To name a few, we have the open source group (OpenSCAD, FreeCAD), the 'free' group (Fusion 360, SolidEdge), the web-based group (TinkerCAD, OnShape) and many more. Try them out and pick whichever suit you.

I'll stick to the software side of things as I haven't been in the market for an FDM printer in a couple years.

Software wise Blender is absolutely amazing, especially being free. I'd recommend it for any modeling that isn't a mechanical design.

Fusion 360 is also amazing, but mostly for practical physical designs. Get the hobbyist license and it's free. You'll thank yourself later for diving into Fusion 360 earlier rather than later.

You can use TinkerCad for simple little designs if you'd like but it's really limited.

Sovol SV06 on sale for $219 seems to currently be the best cheap printer. It has all the features that Creality's best designed printer (Ender 3 S1) has and it's still $100 cheaper. In addition the SV06 has an all-metal hotend which allows you to print higher temp filaments, like PETG etc, but if you're only going to print PLA that's not necessary.

Don't trust anyone who recommends a brand when it comes to cheap Chinese printers :) Most of the companies have made both some OK models and some straight garbage models.

Hey! I highly recommend the AnyCubic Vyper - it has a decent sized build volume, automatic bed leveling (though it can be a bit problematic), a magnetic build plate, and Bowden extruder. I've had mine for about a year now (had a RepRap for many years before) & I love it.

I don't do much designing, but TinkerCad is fairly simple & worked for most things I wanted to model. Always worth searching online first though; I usually use Thingiverse & Printables.

In terms of software, there are plenty of options but I use Fusion 360 for anything CAD. It is a professional tool that you can use for free for personal use. Blender works well for more artistic things, or organic shapes, and is also free.

In terms of hardware, I don't have enough knowledge or experience to help you. I'm running a Creality CR-10 V3 and very happy with the results, but I'm not sure it is your ideal printer.

What you should definitely do is figure out what kind of materials you want to use, and how large you want the print bed to be. Those are going to influence your choice a lot, and it will help someone with more knowledge to recommend something 😀

3D modeling and 3D printing are 2 different hobies and both have one thing in common, THEY LEECH LOADS OF TIME 🤣 Just saying, it doesnt need to be bad, I like it! But if you are beginner maybe start with only one.

Why first fdm, then resin? If you want resin printer just go that path. Resin is good for miniatures while filaments are better for mechanical properties and bigger size. Fdm is faster, but still extremely slow. For 20x20x20 cm model you need like 1 day or more to complete. Get something that supports klipper firmware, like ender (probably most cheap printers) and expect extra cost on upgrades.

For 3D modeling software you can chose open source Blender if you want to create sculptures or art thingies. Blender can do much more, but for mechanical parts you need CAD. You can make simple objects in any free software, like fusion or freecad. If you want proper CAD get solidworks. Super expensive for home users unless you can get it for free somehow, but loads of guides everywhere since its kinda industry standard.

I know you are looking for exact 3D printer models (hopefully others will cover that), but you might find this useful. GL

I've been printing with my ender 3 for >200h now, and I've been happy with it. If possible get the Neo version. It has most of the features that people add to their printers later on, like auto bed leveling.

The tinkering part that people talk about in regards to the ender 3 seems to be an artifact from non Neo versions, as those are missing auto bed leveling and as such require more fiddling to get printing well. Also the non neo printers had plastic tension arms that would break over time.

So far my ender 3 neo has failed 2 prints, one when I originally configured the z-offset to be too high and the initial layer wouldn't stick. Other time was some layer shifts due to me leaving the x axis belt too loose. In total I've spent maybe 3 hours fiddling with my printer and mostly it's left alone, doing it's thing.

I would look for a printed (fdm or resin) that has a big and active commnutiy behind, maybe and Ender for FDM and Anycubic for resin

As for the software, there is a lot of options. Freecad and OpenScad are good (Openscad can be a little harder). I used moi3d (the demo version) and I found it really nice and easy, but it is nor free or open. But it has a free demo with full features (only time limited).

My advice is to get the best printer within your budget. Remember that printers usually have additional costs- especially the low-cost models like creality printers.

Solid choices to look at are the Prusa mk4s, uktimakers are also a solid choice.

I would suggest before getting a creality look for the number of upgrades catered to them- and then realize that’s because that’s what people generally find important to upgrade.

They’re not always necessary (angle supports, for example) but in general, crealities will need new extruded gears and hot end, if it doesn’t come with ABL, then a bl touch (and probably a new board,). This is in addition to the printable upgrades (like part cooling ducts,).

Generally anything in the price range of an ender 3 is going to need some love. Which, might have some arguments for as a learning curve… but that learning curve is not as gentle as with other printers. You might save a little, but you will out grow them quickly.

Regardless, stay with it! My dad described 3d printers as feeling like it did with very early computers and his Commodore 64. (Aka very exciting.). Of you need help reach out - this is a great group, there’s also the prusa forums (and repository for stls,)

I would go with an Ender 3 variant as they are very popular and community support for them will be plentiful. Also, spare parts will be easy to get. For 3D design, I would start with something simple like Tinkercad and then maybe move to OnShape or Fusion 360 (both are free for hobbyists)

Just to add my experience to the mix, I bought a cheap Ender 3 to see if I liked the hobby. Didn't want to go whole hog on kit until I had a sense of it. I've found tinkering with the printer and making improvements and adjustments to be rewarding and a great use of my free time.

I don't know what the conventional wisdom is in the 3d printing community on buying used gear, but I'd bet you could find something used at a pretty good discount that might need just a little bit of love. & not sure about where you live, but here, some public libraries have printers and printing courses, could be a good way to get your feet wet & see what aspects of the tech are important to you.