I'll agree to that, they're definitely not cheap. I've done some surfacing in I-deas, CATIA v4 and Pro-E. Never used Rhino 3d to do anything. I just wish I had a 3D CAD model of 68' Fastback.
Mmmmmmmmm 3d CAD. I used to use I-DEAS and have made hundreds of 3d models and assemblies - the surfacing tools are just so powerful. Rapid prototyping is just too cool for words, Stereo Lithography has to be the best, and the resins used now don't suffer from aging quite as badly as the early stuff did.
Now I changed job and have to use crappy 2d AutoCAD. I hate it, and I hate Autodesk.
STL, IGES, STEP ...mmmmm geeky stuffffff (in a Homer voice).
I have a sample model printed for z-corp that is a fully functioning set of ball bearings. Now to convince the boss we need a $30,000 for the smallest z-corp printer. Lets see a building model of that detail made by an intern making $10 and hour times how many hours it would take him to produce that model the conventional way. I might be able to run some numbers and make a convincing case on this.
I have Rhino 3D 2 and I like its ease of use but it doesn't seem all that professional. I've done some proof of concept stuff for a suspension design I have in mind and I've half modelled a 1911 in detail, but not to accurate dimensions.
3D printers look very very nice - you could make thermoplastic moulds with the vacuum holes through them already, even with wierd paths that you could never actually drill. I like that you could model a chain all linked together and actually print it all linked up, with no joins! Ok that isn't practical nor really useful, but still.