I just have to add aother point of view on this:
I find it easier to learn blender then 3dsmax. I tried 3dsmax for 8 months and couldn't really 'understand' the autodesk logic. Always a lot of unneeded travelling around to get a basic stuff done.
I just started learning blender and it makes a lot more sense to me. You just have a more fluid and faster way to get at every tool, to model, easy shortcuts,... (I don't say max doesn't have shortcuts or can't do it but as a newbie I found Blender a lot easier/accessible to understand the basics and start using it.) Also what helps is that with blender almost everything is free, the software, add-ons, tutorials,... while 3dsmax is clearly more expensive, the software itself, almost all the add-ons are commercial, good tutorials also, models,...
But and this is a big adantage for 3dsmax; It's THE industry standard-> you have a tool or plugin for everything, really everything you could think of. Also if you're looking for a job, you will have more chances to find one with 3dsmax then blender.
Also another thing that is awesome in 3dsmax: it opens sketchup files flawlessly! Just do everything in sketchup and add detail in 3dsmax. But after a while I found out I prefer doing most I can in the same software so this was no extra value any more (For me at least). Also like said previously; you don't build a 3dsmax (or blender) model the same way you do in sketchup. So I prefer an all around app and for this Blender is clearly stronger. The software is getting more and more features with every update while letting you choose which features you want to use so it doesn't load all the unneeded add-ons which makes it a lot more responsive then 3dsmax (even on a crap computer). You can do video editing,camera tracking, easy (really easy) Uv-mapping, fluid simulation, physics, softbodies, cloth, ... whatever all included for free in the same Blender package. You stay for all this in the same environnement and you don't have to pay 100s of euros for every plugin and update.
Also Blender is not getting trouble of the inside concurrents. If you look at the autodesk products you see that they could at least delete half of their softwares and put the needed feautures in the staying half of softwares. But if they do this they will loose money so they don't. You will buy one software and not 2. What I'm tryng to say is that Blender will never limit it's developpment on one useful tool because it's already in aother software of the same company. So it makes for me more sense then 3dsmax, Blender is build by users themseles. You get a free update every couple of months with blender whith a lot of new features in different domains while 3dsmax focuses not on what the users need but what will let them earn more money.
Ok I stop here for now because otherwise I will make a lot of ennemies but just like earthmover said, use every software for its strength, don't try to do everything in quad in sketchup, it's really difficult and it has not so much sense, if you really want quads take a look at 3dsmax, Blender, Maya, whatever,... and find the one that suits you. Don't take everything you read on forums about softwares seriously, just try it yourself! Everyone told me blender is difficult, learn 3dsmax! I did and I lost 8 months trying to fit to a software that really doesn't fit me.
