I agree with Dennis. Like him ... I've tried a lot of 3d modelers ... and AC3D does what I need (creating geometry for VRML scenes) in 95% of the cases ... and it is *easy* to learn. And for my VRML it gives very clean code.
AC3D is a static modeler, not an animator. Several years ago I told Andy it would be nice to have animation capabilities, but on reflection, I think that might be a huge task. Most of the VRML animations I want to create I do in VRMLPad which while not a WYSIWYG set up does have nice auto-complete routines.
In terms of support ... well I think Dennis was being modest ... he has created some interesting plugins. Since they all are designed for V5, I have no experience of how well they work, but from the way Dennis seems so meticulous about how he uses AC3D and the fact he updates his plugins regularly ... I get the feeling they probably work very well
There are other plugins including a .mesh export for OGRE and a plugin that will take a 2d greyscale image and create a 3D terrain (not tried either of these).
My only complaint would be the Boolean operations which I have detailed elsewhere, but there are some workarounds .... and maybe with the upcoming V6 they will be fixed ... *keeps fingers crossed* ...
http://www.ac3d.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1233
If you are new to 3d ... AC3D is probably a good place to start at a pretty cheap price. And is window layout (though not the functionality) is very similar to Lightwave and 3dMax ... if you decided to spend the big bucks somewhere down the road ;-)
griff