Polygons? Sub-d? NURBS? Solids? How should we be modeling? Truth is, what ever gets the job done faster and is easier. There is nothing that says that you need to stick to one, either. Polygons are probably the simplest to learn, but can fall short when you try to carve out complex booleans, or need to generatively change the topology of a model.
NURBS and Solid modelers however, are great at both those eyes of things. (NURBS is an acronym that stands for “Non-uniform rational basis splines”, how the geometry is described mathematically).
The initial response to NURBS and Solid modeling applications is that they are difficult to learn. Certainly this was true years ago. Today there are some great tools that have truly modernized modeling workflows when working with NURBS or solid geometry. Applications such as fusion 360, and MoI 3D (Moment of inspiration) to quickly name a couple.
If you have never worked with NURBS before, Arrimus 3D published a nice comparison between working with NURBS in MoI 3D. It is pretty clear from the demonstration where NURBS and solids can excel.
MoI 3D has a great polygon mesh exporter. This allows you to use it as a supplemental modeling tool to the one you are currently using. The export routine generates clean and crisp N-Gon polygon meshes from CAD NURBS models, that you can continue to work on in your main application. The modeling tool was developed to be a fast modeler for designers and artists, not technical people. As a bonus, it’s not that expensive either.
