Another building question

I see all kinds of things that people can build.......elephants, animals, boats, motorcycles............etc.
Are all these started with basic shapes from the building menu then add textures and scripts? or........
Can you build something in a 3D program like Micrografx and import it?
Just curious.........

i think you got it right the first time. you build stuff using those basic shapes and also manipulating and reshaping those into new shapes. each shape has different things you can change to make new shapes.

another thing you can do is add detail with textures. if you want to make an instrument panel for a spaceship or car think about doing it with a texture of an instrument panel instead of using all those shapes. it's cheaper and doesn't slow things down as much. good for everybody.

As far as I know, there is no way to import 3D models or meshes into SL. One can dream, though...