By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
TurboCAD Professional Version 12, released earlier this year by its new/old vendor IMSI/Design, keeps faith with its users by continuing the steady pace of innovation that has come to be this product’s hallmark. While version 11 focused on the needs of mechanical designers, version 12 tweaks those features in favor of more emphasis on architectural design.
TurboCAD’s niche in the market is to be the alternative to AutoCAD LT. It does so by staying price-competitive with LT while offering an expanded feature set including 3D design tools, something not available in LT.
I knew this program well around version 5, when I wrote a book about it. I have not been a regular user since. But it didn’t take long to get back to speed on the program, and to try some of its new features. The first thing I noticed is the new Tools palette, which organizes the program’s toolbars by function. Indicators show more precisely where tool palettes will dock.
The program has become quite context sensitive, quite often eliminating the need to request a specific tool. For the tools you use regularly, you can choose three different display modes: icons only, icons with small prompts, and icons with full prompts.
IMSI/Design introduced constraints as a drafting tool in the last release, and I really like them. Normally they are considered for mechanical drafting tool, but I can see plenty of reason to use them in other disciplines. New in this release is patterned constraints; when the user applies a patterned constraint, it becomes possible to subsequently change all instances of the patterned feature by modifying a single instance.
The visualization capabilities are improved, with the addition of the LightWorks 7.5 rendering engine with Archive support. Users can assign material properties to individual facets of the same object and preview blends before committing to them. Rendered views are easy to move, rotate, and zoom.
As an alternative to an industry standard, TurboCAD works hard to be as compatible and as interoperable as possible. IMSI/Design is a member of the Open Design Alliance, and uses the alliance’s file libraries for Autodesk DWG and DXF and Bentley MicroStation DGN support. Other supported file formats include DesignCAD DCD, 3DS, IGES, STEP, PNG, GIF, PDF, DWF and STL. TurboCAD’s PDF export features allows users to export paper spaces, including rendered Viewports, customize PDF fonts, True Type, SHX, paper widths, and paper heights sections.
This version of TurboCAD is available in three forms. The Professional Edition is the upgrade to the previous release. There is a specialized “Mechanical Pack” and an “Architectural Pack” that includes parametric window and door designs, a profile editing tool for customizing windows and doors, and an upgraded architectural tutorial that takes the user through the process of creating a set of house plans.
Behind the new version is a new ownership team. IMSI/Design is a spinoff from the former IMSI Software, which has renamed itself as Broadcaster.com. An investor group led bought out the TurboCAD and other design products, and kept the IMSI name.
TurboCAD Professional Version 12 has a suggested retail price of $895, with an extra $69 for a “pack.” Subset editions are also available: TurboCAD Designer 2D is $29 and TurboCAD Deluxe (with basic 3D features) is $99.
Technorati Tags: TurboCAD IMSI CAD architectural 2D 3D constraints parametric AutoCAD LT Broadcaster.com Open Design Alliance DWG PDF design 3DS STEP STL AEC SHX TrueType BIM