What Scenery Creator Is Best For NL2?

What do people that incorporate a lot of scene objects in their NL2 packages have to say about the program they use? I'm going to start creating my own soon and I thought I would look for recommendations. I'm fairly confident in my ability to figure out how to use any 3D program but I don't know if certain ones work better for use in NL2. It doesn't need to be very fancy. OR, if there is prime location to download public packages with footers, queue stuff, paths, various fences, etc., send me that way. I want to make my own coaster name sign too, though.

[Blase Rhine]

Personally I use Sketchup and Blender (barely as I am learning). Sketchup is a bit much to deal with and you can find yourself rage quitting a lot if you don't know how to use it correctly I would recommend learning Blender (it has a pretty steep learning curve but is worth it in the long run) and if all else fails begin modeling with sketchup. Hope this helps!

SketchUp is good for buildings or general ease of use (textures are literally painted on). Blender is good for key-frame animations, anything that requires curve or array modifiers, objects that might need you to modify extensive geometry quickly, UV mapping (SketchUp can also do that but I think you need to download a plug-in), or advanced object material acrobatics that go over my head at this time. Applying textures is not as intuitive as SU.

[mkingy]

I use sketch up - I've found some fairly easy methods to make handrails, steps etc. It works for me because I don't have the spare time to learn blender and sketch up to me is very intuitive (It's quite similar to CAD such as autocad and microstation I feel).

Is there a solid free/trial version of Sketchup that can do the basics?

[Paradox]

Blender is completely free and on steam.

I use Sketchup, it was very easy to pick up from watching a video tutorial.
Blender seems a bit more complicated but is a much more powerful program. Also I have learned that Blender is much better from a performance standpoint because of the way Sketchup exports the models.