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Review

From CAD User AEC Magazine  Vol 20 No 07 - JULY/AUGUST 2007

TurboCAD 14 Pro for Architects is a seriously useful tool that provides a cost-effective and easy-to-use bridge from 2D plan drawings to 3D modelling, writes David Chadwick

I have been trying to put together a 3D model of my barn for a couple of years now (you know how it is!) and have a number of different software packages available to me, including Revit, Sketchup and half a dozen mechanical packages. I now also have the latest version of TurboCAD -Release 14 Pro, the Architectural version - and after playing about with it for the past week or so, I am finally making barnstorming progress!

And it gets even better, as I've even been able to use my old drawings, scanned in from the hand-drawn originals and converted into AutoCAD DWG format, and opened up in TurboCAD. (I've even successfully loaded and modified 3D models from Google Earth's 3D Warehouse in TurboCAD!).

I've already got the barn walls set up in 3D, and now I have to start inserting windows, doors, stairs, and put on a roof. It's a pretty complex building - not many straight walls - and the doors and windows are all hand-built as well - but using TurboCAD's door and window modifying tools it will be a doddle. I can even assign a wide range of materials to any surface and, if I feel so inclined, create a bit of terrain to place it on!

TurboCAD has come a long way since I first started using it some six or seven years ago. It's an easy tool to use, and comes crammed with features. It has to be simple - its low cost has encouraged many thousands of amateur and occasional CAD users to buy it, the sort of people who haven't the time to go on extended courses to learn the software, or to go poring through reference manuals every time they want to use it. Its compatibility with AutoCAD, and with many other CAD formats, means that it is also a very effective way of adding CAD seats to companies on tight budgets!

Parametric Features
TurboCAD 14 introduces many new features, some in the standard version and even more in the Pro versions of the software, directed either at the Mechanical or Architectural ends of the market.

Visually, the software comes with a wide range of standard 2D and 3D drawing and modelling tools. These are accessed from top pull down menus, and side toolbars, and a full range of palettes on the right of the screen for setting materials, colours, hatch patterns and luminance, libraries of symbols and blocks, a design director and other functions.

Drawing and modelling is done in 2D or 3D directly on the workspace, and is supported by tools for manipulating the model, selecting viewing modes, and for setting the varying rendering or display modes. Quality rendering is actually provided by Lightworks which, when used in conjunction with the various luminance settings, can produce some high quality visualisations.

To speed up modelling sessions, right clicking after having selected a feature brings up a floating window with a full range of options available, including real-time property editing. For those who want to concentrate on its architectural features, a floating architectural toolbar provides instant access to wall creation and modification, door and window placement, roofs, stairs (in multiple styles) and even setting up schedules.
All features are fully parametric. Starting off with walls, right clicking on the symbol brings up the property box, enabling you to set the thickness and height. You can even elect to show end caps and mitres. The wall direction can be displayed to assist in applying materials, which can be done at the same time - applying brick or stone to the outside, and other material inside. Materials can be edited to fit the model, scaling them up or down, and specifying things like individual brick sizes for realism - even to the colour and thickness of the mortar.

Windows, doors and openings are inserted directly into the walls, parametrically, and slid into place, healing up the wall if they are subsequently removed. A wide range of types can be created from a library of basic shapes, and sized, rotated and applied with material, including various transparencies of glass. Users can even specify how much individual windows can be opened!
If you can't find the type of window or door you want, you can create your own openings, using the Edit Profile tool to design a custom shape, directly on the wall workplane, using polylines to lay out the shape of the door, and defining cutouts for door panels, which, when subsequently selected, can be converted to whatever material is required.

To create roofs, the workplane has to be set to the top of the walls. TurboCAD's tools for doing this are easily handled in an isometric view. Select by Facet and the x,y,z guide follows the cursor around the model till you get the plane you want. Laying out the roof is just as quick, even for complex shapes - the software automatically selects the correct ridge and valley lines.
Roofs can also be made for circular and irregular walls, created after converting closed polygons (another nice feature). It's not all splendiferous though, as I couldn't find a way to add materials - welsh slate, or Dutch tiles - in spite of the wealth of materials for the rest of the structure. I suspect that IMSI, the developers of TurboCAD, are beefing up the roof feature for the next issue.

STYLE MANAGER
Stairs are now fully parametric. Users can select from straight, multi-landing,
u-shaped and spiral, using the stairs property box to define treads and risers, and whether they should terminate with a tread, riser or landing. Stairs come with railings as well. And, if you want to go further in stair design, you can access Style Manager to change component details, such as tread and riser thicknesses, and nosing lengths, and add materials. Similarly with rail styles, but with quite a bit more detail to produce fairly complex rails, with balusters, guardrails, fixed posts and bottom rails.

The principal use of Style Manager, though, is for setting Schedule, Dimension and text styles. Version 14 comes with automatic generation of Window and Door Schedules - when a window or door is inserted, it automatically updates the schedule. Schedules are so easy to create. In Plan View, select Schedule and define the schedule spreadsheet size, then press shift, select each item that is to appear on the schedule, and click 'Finish'.
Dimension styles are as easy to set, using the Wall Dimension tool, allowing users to chain wall or window dimensions on a plan. Text styles are what you would expect them to be.

Conclusion
TurboCAD isn't ADT - yet. You can't produce detailed cross-sections of footings and other niceties that you would expect from a vastly more expensive product, and its walls can't be produced in all of the styles that the latter product would deliver. That's not a problem though, as users can utilise TurboCADs 3D capabilities to create building models, which can be converted automatically into paper space, and then to add whatever construction details are required using the software's rapid 2D drawing tools.
Now I've got back into it, this is one piece of software that isn't going straight back into the box after being reviewed!
www.avanquest.com

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