TurboCAD 17 Professional

If you can dream it, TurboCAD can design it

TurboCAD Pro includes all the basic drawing and modification tools needed to draw nearly anything you can imagine. TurboCAD Pro's powerful tools for 2D or 3D design include;

• 2D parametric constraints
• 3D solid and surface modelling
• Robust photorealistic rendering ray tracing
• Lighting and materials
• Extensive CAD and graphics file interoperability.

Easily share your designs with support for different file formats

Because we know that in most design projects a number of people can use different tools and programs, TurboCAD Pro is designed to provide excellent workflow to and from other applications making collaboration and sharing your work as easy as ever.

Open, insert, or embed up to 35 file formats and export up to 28, including;

• .DWG
• .DXF
• .SKP (Google™ SketchUp™)
• .3DM (Rhinoceros®)
• .3DS (Autodesk® 3ds Max®)
• IGES
• STEP
• .OBJ
• COLLADA (.DAE – export)

Vector formats including;

• .EPS and .SVG

Raster formats including;

• .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, .PNG, .TIF, and more.

TurboCAD Pro reads and writes .DWG and .DXF files from R14 through 2010 including AutoCAD® Architecture extensions. This broad range of support helps to maintain your intellectual property investment by supporting older files, models, and parts.

2D Drafting and Detailing

An important aspect of any CAD software programe is its 2D drafting and detailing capabilities. As the majority of all CAD projects end in a 2D drawing, the ability to create or open a 3D design and rapidly and effectively create those 2D drawings is of critical importance.

TurboCAD Pro excels in its 2D capabilities.

The ability to explode viewports makes it easy to create flat 2D vector drawings from any view of the model. The Drafting Palette creates associative views, sections, and detailed views with a single click – even from an Xref. These object views can be quickly and easily dimensioned and annotated.

Different visual styles allow for materials, fills, even transparent fills and gradients to be used to add effects and clarity to the drawing. Lines and custom line styles allow for colour or width by layer. Polyline segments may have differing starting and ending line widths.

But it all begins with fundamental drawing tools. And in that regard TurboCAD Pro is rich.

There are:

• 14 basic line tools including irregular polygons, perpendicular, parallel, and tangent lines
• 8 double line tools (but there are also self-healing architectural wall tools)
• 8 multiline tools including polyline and polygon tools
• 11 circle tools including 3 methods for drawing ellipses
• 13 arc tools including tangencies, point fitting methods, and 3 elliptical arcs
• 5 point tools from dots to crosses and even stars
• 6 curve tools including Bezier, freehand sketch, and convert to curve
• Index colour and true colour support
• Custom brush style editor for combining colours, gradients, hatches, and transparency

TurboCAD also includes several drawing aides. These include:

• 13 basic object snaps with controllable Osnap priority including parametric Divide By segment snaps
• Extended ortho and apparent intersection for geometric aids
• A fully parametric grid
• Easily parameterised ortho angular system
• 9 types of construction line geometry

There are many more tools to aid in the drafting and detailing functions, including the capability to quickly and easily create views and viewports of any size and shape. There are also extensive paper space and printing capabilities, as well as Marker and Schedule tools, leaders, multi-leaders, dimension tools, and symbols content.

The TurboCAD Pro Drafting Palette

The Drafting Palette is one of the most powerful features for advanced drafting and detailing in TurboCAD Pro.

It works with solid or surface models, turning 3D designs into associative 2D manufacturing or construction drawings, even when working on an Xref. This means your sectional views and elevations in Layout (Paper Space) will update automatically as the model changes.

Mechanical Design

For mechanical design this means parts and assemblies can have all standard views, 2D or 3D sections, and detailed views chosen by selection; or created as a derivative of an existing view.

Dimensions for solid model objects are associative too so they update automatically and scale correctly in Paper Space. And geometry is recognised so that individual parts may be separately hatched or include different line weights and colour.

The solid model engine works with SAT objects in AutoCAD .DWG files, objects created with any 3D ACIS® Modeler, or saved in IGES or STEP format.

Architectural Design

For architectural design, a 3D model from SketchUp (.SKP), Rhinoceros® (.3dm), AutoCAD Architecture (.DWG), or other application may be used to create elevations, floorplans, sections, even detailed views, all of which are associative to changes in the model.

With every section, each element may be hatched, coloured, or have its line weight and style adjusted as needed, with separate controls for visible and hidden line.

New in Version 17!

A significant productivity improvement was made with version 17. Drafting Palette items may be locked, essentially caching them until unlocked. This allows modelling to continue at speed – particularly important with larger models that have numerous sections, elevations, and views. Each section may be regenerated individually or all simultaneously.

There are more than 15 file formats for 3D models supported by TurboCAD Pro that may be opened directly, imported, or included via Xref that the Drafting Palette will recognise.

All of this makes TurboCAD Pro a fabulous drafting and detailing companion to numerous other 3D design applications if your work involves collaboration with others using diverse software.

Working with Parametric Constraints

Parametric drawing provides incredible precision and improved productivity. It provides greater control to enforce design intent, and allows you to very quickly modify a design by using geometric and dimensional constraints.

Rapid Revision Productivity

Often referred to as variational sketching, a constraints system allows you to enjoy greater control and productivity, freeing up your creativity. You will get more done, create part families faster, incorporate red-line changes more quickly, and have the flexibility to evaluate different designs with ease. This last point is important in 2D design work: look at what-if scenarios the way you would update a spreadsheet. See the movement of linkages simply by changing a driving dimension.

Geometric Constraints

Geometric constraints determine the relationship of two pieces of geometry with each other.

TurboCAD® Pro supports the following geometric constraints:

• Point to point coincident
• Point to line coincident
• Parallel
• Perpendicular
• Tangential
• Concentric
• Symmetrical
• Horizontal
• Vertical

Dimensional Constraints

Dimensional constraints determine the size of geometric entities. TurboCAD Pro supports the following dimensional constraints:

• Equal radius
• Equal length
• Equal distance
• Distance
• Length
• Angle

The autoconstrain feature will attach all possible constraints to a selection, or set autoconstrain ON while drawing and relationships will be added as you go. All standard dimension types may be used as driving dimensions. These features allow for dramatic productivity gains when drafting or making revisions.

Proven Technology

This valuable TurboCAD Pro feature includes the D-Cubed™ 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager (2D DCM) from Siemens PLM Software. This is the same trusted engine used by far more expensive design platforms such as AutoCAD® 2010, Autodesk Inventor®; by Dassault Systems for CATIA and SolidWorks®; by Siemens PLM Software for Solid Edge; and by think3® for thinkdesign.

Annotation

The output of any CAD design project typically involves rendered views, 2D construction drawings, database reports, attribute extraction, and other elements of communication. TurboCAD Pro includes tools necessary to rapidly create, document, and annotate your designs.

The Drafting Palette accelerates creating Views, Sections, Elevations, Floorplans, and Detail Views in numerous display styles.

Traditional Viewports are also powerful in TurboCAD: associative to the model, easy to align, Visual Styles are easy to manage for separate Hidden Line, Draft, or Quality rendered modes. Custom Viewport shapes may be used: simply create a Viewport and update its boundary using any closed Polyline. Manage Viewport specific properties such as layer visibility and dozens of other properties.

You will find numerous points of productivity enhancement in TurboCAD Pro that will help you rapidly document your design and communicate effectively.

TurboCAD Pro includes a full range of Dimension types that are style driven. There are also basic Tables, Text, and Multi-Text tools as expected. With TurboCAD Pro 17 there is new support of multi-leaders that also round-trip with DWG.

And tables can be tied to external database sources. Any ODBC supported database may be connected, and reports may be generated with custom fields for bills of material, parts lists, and more. Xref support allows your tables and parts lists to automatically synch with external data sources for added efficiency.

Dimensions have a very large number of properties associated with them including whether they are associative or not, whether leaders should be fixed horizontal, based on splines, use arrowheads, custom arrowheads, and much, much more.

Any number of Dimension Styles may be created to provide distinction. Additionally there are separate styles definitions specifically for the AEC Dimension Tool, and for MultiLeaders. Most tools also work on either an end-to-end selection, are one-click based on an object segment, or are defined by a single object like and arc or circle.

Basic dimension types include:

• Orthogonal
• Parallel
• Distance
• Rotated
• Datum
• Baseline
• Continuous
• Incremental
• Angular
• Radius
• Diameter
• Quick — which adds a collection of dimensions to a selection
• Smart — which chooses the appropriate dimension for the object selected

The Dimension tool also includes:

• Leader
• MultiLeader
• Tolerance

Dimension scaling in Viewports within a paper space is automatic. The dimension is shown in a paper scaling as it is dragged into position, it is then converted as the mouse is released to place the dimension. Units may be specified in Scientific, Decimal, Engineering, Architectural, Fraction, or Surveyor formats. Alternate units may also be shown providing the dimension for example in both metric and imperial values.

Symbols & Parts

Symbols and parts, like Blocks and groups, are a valuable part of any CAD application. While Blocks and Groups are internal to a drawing, library items are external files.

Generally, symbols are stored in a file, and categories of symbols are stored in Windows directories that can be loaded as separate libraries. Any vector drawing that may be read by TurboCAD can be used as a symbol, not simply .TCW files.

TurboCAD Pro comes complete with a number of sample symbols as well as a much larger collection of parametric parts.

Parametric Parts

The parts are also kept in libraries and are accessed like symbols. The difference is that these parts are parametrically driven. Those parameters may also be revised after they have been inserted in the drawing. Parametric Parts may be created with the Parametric Parts Manager.

Examples of these parts include desks whose length, or number of drawers, can be changed; bookshelves whose height, width, and number of shelves may be changed; and varieties of nuts, bolts, fittings, doors, windows, and more.

Special Symbols

TurboCAD Pro also includes a several special symbols used in certain types of annotation that help in communicating with manufacturers. They include the Weld Symbol, Surface Roughness Symbol, Geometric Tolerance Symbol, and Adhesive Symbol.

Technically the Weld Symbol, Surface Roughness Symbol, and Geometric Tolerance Symbol are among the Special Tools section, but the output are parametric, editable symbols.

• The Adhesive Symbol is a parametric part (.PPM, see Parametric Parts Manager) and is therefore also an editable parametric 2D symbol.
• The Weld Symbol communicates finish, contour, depth of chamfer root penetration, groove angle and more.
• The Geometric Tolerance Symbol provides information about allowable deviations of form, profile, orientation, location, and runout of a feature.
• The Surface Roughness symbol communicates the type of roughness, the minimum and maximum heights, waviness, and more.
• The Adhesive Symbol is a fully parametric part that may be adjusted through the Selection Info Palette. It includes dozens of parameters for the Surface Preparation, Application Method, Cure Method, Adhesive Physical Form, and Adhesive Technology Family.

Parametric Parts Manager

The TurboCAD® Pro Parametric Parts Manager allows you to create and consume parts that remain parametrically controlled even after insertion in the drawing. They are a bit like a 3D dynamic block, an AutoCAD® dynamic block, or a SketchUp™ dynamic component.

The key difference is that parametric parts (.PPM files) may be defined using a text description (script). The script defines the structure, editable properties, and outputs that result in a parametrically editable part.

There is also a method to draw variably constrained parts and convert them to parametric parts using a wizard. This dramatically simplifies creating simple .PPM objects that don’t need the full power of all the functions available in scripted parts.

With TurboCAD Version 17 there is even a bit of "beta" functionality to allow you to open a SketchUp file that contains Dynamic Components and have them be converted into parametric parts.

Because the parts can be saved individually, like a symbol, libraries of .PPM objects can be created, shared, and reused from project to project.

Simple examples could be to create a dynamic picket fence, or balustrade. Designing furniture of different lengths or seating configurations: chairs with or without arms, couches or tables of 6 or 8 foot lengths, bookshelves with different configurations. Mechanical parts that come in differing sizes and configurations may also be easy to design.

Another use for .PPM objects is to create 2D symbols. Imagine in landscape architecture if you had plants with a different appearance for different seasons, or for different growth sizes at 1 year, 5 years, and 15 years size. The uses are endless!

3D Modelling

TurboCAD® Pro supports both surface and solid modelling, and includes tools built on the 3D ACIS® Modeler (ACIS) from Spatial. It is the same engine used in 350 applications with more than 1.5 million seats worldwide, so you know you will have a standard format for interoperability.

TurboCAD Pro now uses v20 of ACIS for realistic, complex 3D object creation. This latest update is faster and more reliable than ever.

Information for objects include data crucial for engineers, such as Volume, Moment of Inertia, Center of Gravity, Surface Area, and more.

Solid modelling editing and modification tools include:

• Several Rail, Sweep, and Revolve functions
• Facet and Edge modifiers
• Extrusions and Lofts of Compound Profiles
• Face-To-Face Lofting and Branch Lofting
• Sectioning, Slicing, and Boolean operations

TurboCAD Pro supports Profile Editing, whereby a 2D profile, once created, can be used to drive the creation of a 3D object. In this way the shape of the 3D object may continue to be driven by the 2D object which may itself be driven by Constraints and Driving Dimensions through the Calculator Palette.

TurobCAD Pro also maintains a history by enabling the Part Tree. With this feature you may return to any procedural step in your design and make modifications without losing subsequent work. Think of it as a bit like a selective UNDO.

Design Director

The TurboCAD® Pro Design Director is a palette that provides advanced controls for Layers, Layer Filters, creating Layer Sets, setting and saving Work Planes, controlling Named Views, and more. In particular, it streamlines work, enhancing productivity.

Layer management from the Design Director palette is fast and easy. It can remain always open, and provides numerous powerful tools for managing visibility, colour, line widths, line styles, and more.

Beyond standard layer management, using Layer Filters allows for quickly selecting all layers with any number of criteria as wild cards. For example, one filter can turn on visibility of only layers with “2ndFloor” included, and another with “Wall” as part of the name. DoubleCAD also reads Layer Filters from other .DWG files so that working across applications is smooth. A powerful element of Layer Filters is that they work beyond file naming to include selecting layers by line style, pen width, print style, and more.

Layer Sets also can be created, and using either of these features lets you quickly change the visibility of large groups of layers with a single click. These filters and layer sets even include layers within Externally Referenced files, such as a .SKP, .DWG, or another .TCW file.

Applications such as TurboCAD and AutoCAD® require an understanding of work planes and how to easily switch between work planes as an import part in productivity. Now you can simply set the User Coordinate System (UCS) by selecting a facet (one of 9 ways to set the UCS now), then save the UCS by name to a table in the Design Director, and from then on you can easily switch between different workplanes by selecting from a named list.

Another setting within the Design Director is control over the Named Views. Easily jump between views with a single click when the design director is open. Combine this with the power of setting the UCS and setting the 3D View by the Current UCS, and you can set perfectly aligned views to any workplane in the model.

These are just a few of the productivity advantages the Design Director palette provides.

Rendering

TurboCAD Pro provides several render modes in which to work, or present your designs. New to TurboCAD Pro 17 is technology from Redway3D® providing a wireframe render mode that utilises the power of supported on-board GPU or graphics boards. (Most boards and GPUs should be supported, see system requirements for more information.) This Redsdk render mode provides up to 60x speed improvements on CPU-based rendering when panning, zooming, and orbiting. It also provides smoother movement. It is most noticeable on larger models, whether 2D or 3D as long as they are viewed in wireframe mode. (For more on the Redsdk wireframe rendering mode see System Requirements).

Render modes available include:

• Wireframe, GDI
• Wireframe, Redsdk - GPU accelerated
• Hidden Line - for clean views and annotation
• Draft - a shaded mode without materials, but using colours (see image at right)
• Quality - high quality photorealistic rendering
• Advanced - all options available including Render Styles

Some of the effects may also be combined, such as adding Hidden Line renders to a Photorealistic Rendering. It is a simple change of render options.

TurboCAD Pro includes the Lightworks v7.9 rendering engine from Lightwork Design. Because TurboCAD Pro pre-calculates the rendered geometry (all tessellation calculations are performed as you model), Photorealistic Rendering is significantly accelerated compared to similar ray-traced renderers.

Minimum:

• Pentium® IV Processor
• Microsoft® Windows® XP with 512 MB RAM
• Windows Vista or Windows 7 with 1024 MB RAM
• 300 MB of free hard disk space
• Super VGA (1024 x768) display
• High Colour (16 bit) graphics support
• 4X DVD-ROM drive

Recommended:

Your experience with TurboCAD will be greatly enhanced with a newer generation, higher speed CPU, 2-4 GB RAM, and larger display resolution and graphics support.

An optional GPU-accelerated wireframe render mode (based on Redsdk technology from Redway3D®) requires a supported graphic processing unit (either a chip on the board, or on a video card). The latest video drivers are typically required. Newer boards with more power and VRAM generally provide greater performance. To determine if your video card or personal computer uses is likely compatible refer to your System Specifications, or contact the manufacturer of your video card and see if it uses one of the following video chipsets:

Windows Vista and Windows 7 Aero display mode causes interference with the Redsdk GPU-accelerated display mode. If you select this option TurboCAD will turn Aero mode off for that session. It affects only the transparency of the application window border.

For advice on the best TurboCAD product for your needs call Paul Tracey on 01962 835 081 (1), or e-mail ptracey@avanquest.co.uk.