From a napkin to a 3D model every product development starts with an idea. Time, money and expertise is required to bring that idea to a marketable product. With the fantastic renaissance of innovation creating professional looking design with a little help is now easier and cheaper. Knowing your product inside out is very necessary. Putting initial pieces together gives you an idea about manufacturing details and also about speaking with professionals’ investors. It takes a little time to build and master the software but costs are less than that of a development firm. 

A number of companies have spawned and acquired hacker collectives as well. Thingiverse.com  even feature their homemade designs on their site which includes toy cars to salt and pepper shakers to robotic arms, with more ease and collaboration DIY modelling today acts almost as a natural prelude to prototyping. To know more about this aspect, follow this link:  http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/how-to-develop-a-prototype.html