Railworks America

I've looked through this section of the forum and other related sections on other forum sites, but all the tutorials I've found are either outdated by a few years, or contain bunches of dead links.

I find this software as dead horse like GMax.
I tried it earlier but later switched to Blender.
You can get all kind of Blender tutorials but for 3DC they are not many.
Blender have more advantages than 3DC.

I'll have to give Blender a try.

Yea... give Blender a try. With the newer 2.80 interface, it is more intuitive than earlier versions. I don't believe a Railworks exporter is out yet for 2.80, but hopefully it will be out soon. If you want to export to Railworks right away, you'll need Blender v2.79. In all seriousness though, I wouldn't worry about exporting right away. Just take your time and learn how to model with Blender. There are a ton of video tutorials out on YouTube. I personally like BlenderGuru's tutorials. Becoming proficient in modeling is a long term commitment, and takes lots of practice. I would start with a simple house, or some other type of building. But once you get past the initial learning curve of modeling, UV unwrapping, and texturing... it is a lot of fun... and becomes an art form unto itself. I created the below using Blender v2.80, PhotoShop Elements, and Substance Painter. Just started with an idea and few reference photos.

Currently Blender 2.79.7 is most recent release of Blender 2.79 series with which BRIAGE Exporter for RailWorks is present, available at http://jujumatic.free.fr
Since Blender Render option is removed from 2.8x series, this exporter works only till 2.79.7

For 2.8x series it is work in progress.
I have been informed that for 2.8x series there will be IGS importer also and other cool features!

The UV unwrap procedure, the mysterious hierarchy debacle (to me, as I have no clue in how to arrange the items so that they are a child), and the export issues are what deter me from trying with Blender.

Unfortunately, I am under the assumption that I am a slow learner in some aspects at least, and just becoming familiar with very basic functions will take me a while.

The thing about Blender is that it can be a slow go at first. But if you keep at it, you will have "that moment" where everything clicks into place and you will just get it.

I worked with 3DCanvas for several years, and Blender for several more. Blender is far superior, and easier to use.