[the906]

Sorry for jumping a reply on this reply, its not connected but all the other reply buttons are missing?..

Go check out the architecture/industrial design realm. Paper mockups, foldable concepts, foam, clay, legos....there are a myriad of techniques to create the physical form.

Then if its electornic you have arduino/sparkcore/etc. etc. Sooo many ways that you can move through, whether its purely visual, 3d printing, etc.

Really I'd say don't jump into the 3D modeling environment. Jump into clay/foam/blocks/glue/crafting. Spend a little time there first, then get into the more precise realm. You'll thank yourself later. Iterate and develop, its the sort of thing the creators of NEST did.