Microsoft, which acquired Caligari, has recently made the new version of trueSpace (v7.6) available for FREE. you can now build high-resolution 3-D models for use in games, on your web site, in Virtual Earth and in other projects using this free high-powered software. the software, documentation, and video tutorials are all free as well., along with the community forums. registration is required to download the software and get access to the forums, but that’s hardly any effort for getting TrueSpace for free when it used to be sold for $599.

Get it from http://www.caligari.com/.

Also, check out the post from the Virtual Earth Team Blog on how to integrate your 3-D models with Virtual Earth.