maya, baby.

Precision in maya?

Not sure about that

FormZ (version 4 or maybe 4.8 or 5 is out)

as precise as you want to be.

Nothing else really beats it, and you cant really model stuff you dont understand how it works/might stand up/what the geometry is, so it doesnt suffer as much from blobitecture syndrome

For industrial and mechanical design use Cobalt, it's a parametric modeler. That private spaceship thing was designed on it.

For architectural applications I second FormZ.

Cinema 4D XL,
kicks arse

geta cheap pc...i had to cave in. nothing beats 3dsmax for precision and rhino for the quick blob...

otherwise, i can only advice you against cinema 4d, it's incredibly complex to learn!

form z. it wins hands down
even though mine still runs in classic
pc is poop!
and they even do cheap macs too
and big macs
for the hungry

FormZ doe win for architecture and accuracy.

Max sucks for accuracy (it's what I am using everyday now) but the rendering and animation are superb.

Cinema is the one that would compete on Max's level and it's almost cheap in comparison. From everything I've read, it's one of the easier ones to learn.

Lightwave too.