Just wanted to mention. This was also true for me --> " I tried both Gmax and TSM before settling with 3DC"

I used 3DC for all of my work up until 2020 or so. It worked. (Had really weird ideas about user interfaces just like Blender) BUT, the creator abandoned it. He tried making a better user interface a few times and in my opinion, failed badly. When the program started showing its age by 1) crashing more and more often 2) forgetting I had a registration key and going back to FREEWARE mode constantly 3) having issues reading files that it had actually created... I gave up... and went to Blender. After some false starts with 2.79 and earlier, I suddenly could do work with the NEW user interface we now see in Blender.

Blender is where to start if you are just getting started. Worth every minute you spend with it.

To me, Sketchup is a sad joke. It is NOT ideal for creating Game Assets.