Rick, Maya PLE is free so they put the watermark in the renders so you can't use the same software for commercial work that others are buying for X amount of dollars. Not an insult, just a smart marketing campaign. Use PLE to learn Maya, then go buy it when you're good at it. Better to try it for free and decide you don't like it then to spen thousands on it and then decide you don't want it.


Ra1Der... To early to give any real C&C, but as for the shape, use a cylinder with one side flattend, then use the Booleans Difference or Intersection tool. I forget which will give the cut like that, but try both. One will work. Also, make sure you pick what you're going to cut first, then the block you're going to use to cut with.