Turbo Cad Designer 2D/3D

Was mentioning to the wife the other day that I wish I had a program for drawing furniture that I want to make. Today she brings me home this Turbo Cad. I open the box and there are two cd's, one for floor plans and the other for decks. No instructions. Whoever she talked to at Sams Club said this would do what I want. Will it? I'm not expecting anything real fancy from a cheap program. Any hints on where to start for drawing a cabinet or a table ect.? Thanks a bunch for any help.

Reply to
Paul O.
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Sound's like a keeper of a wife to me. All you have to do know is to redirect her buying habits to woodworking tools or machinery.

I haven't used the program, but a friend of mine likes it and has designed some nice looking woodworking projects with it.

Reply to
Upscale

Can't speak to the decks program, but if it is IMSI FloorPlan 3D, that program will not help you draw furniture. It is a very helpful program for laying out rooms or if you are re-designing the kitchen and trying to visualize how various cabinet configurations will look, but it won't help you draw furniture.

Turbocad 10.5 has 3D options and allows one to draw furniture stick by stick. It is somewhat time-consuming, but also allows you to view the resultant drawing in 3D.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety Army General Richard Cody +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reply to
Mark & Juanita

The primary money for the cheapo CAD companies is to sell dumbed down versions for small projects around the house. And these are NOT real CAD programs. But they all do sell stand alone programs. And you can buy tutorials with them as well as symbol libraries.

I used to use Turbo CAD and had to do a project where I had to get a number of people up and running on it. It was a nightmare. Not intuitive at all.

Since then I have migrated to CAD Pro. It was easier to learn. They too have a bunch of cheapie "moron" programs. But the real CAD program is very robust and I bought it with the tutorials. Which made it easier to learm both for my self and the others I was working with.

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you can make furniture drewings with it. I use it to make drawings for gym equipment.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

1) Docs for the program are likely on the CD itself as either a tutorial or help files. Most programs these days are that way. Gone are the days of printed manuals save for the occasional "Quick Start" guide. 2) Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! "Whoever she talked to at Sams Club said this would do what I want." Last I looked Sam's Club was NOT a computer software distributor. Not to say that this won't do what you want, I really don't know since I haven't used the program but I wonder how many "drafting" programs they carry? Oh? Just one? When all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail. 3) Give it a try. If it doesn't work, take it back (along with the wife so she can point out the software expert) and watch as the manager bitch slaps him/her silly.
Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

There are 3 versions of Turbocad, Designer, Deluxe and Pro. I am a long time Pro user. Designer is the most basic of the three but will do what you want, and do it well. They have always been (a bit!) short on documentation but there is lots of help available. Go here:

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is the most active CAD forum on the net and it is dedicated to Turbocad. Also here:
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site of Don Cheke. He has written many tutorials for various versions of Turbocad. Many have gotten their start with these. There is quite a learning curve (true with all CAD programs) but once mastered, anything is posible.

Reply to
CW

Can you do 3D drawing in it? I checked their website out, but it doesn't seem to be mentioned.

thanks, Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Cooper

Jeff:

I am looking for the same capabilities. 3D modeling would be very nice for furniture.

Their web site _implies_ 3D modeling -- but it never describes the tools. It looks like marketing hyperbole to me. I suspect that the apparent 3D models are actually imported sketches or photos. It would be nice to know though...

Since it includes something called "Paintpro" I can assume that they would also let you assume that a drawing was a plan...

Reply to
WillR

"Jeff Cooper" wrote

I don't think so. I haven't got that far. But probably not.

I just needed something I could hand to a metal fabricator to build something. It works quite well.

I know that 3 D is good for certain things. But anyboedywho is familiar with drawings can usually picture the item in 3-D from the 2-d drawings. At least I can.

And it was more intuitive to learn for me and others. Which is why I went with it.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

I've used TurboCAD Pro in the past to design kitchen cabinets. It's a bit of a learning curve to draw in 3D, but it's so nice to be able to verify that everything fits together before you cut anything. I won't do any major projects without designing them up first. The only mistake I've made so far, construction-wise that is :-), is when I deviated from plan.

I've been looking for an alternative for TurboCAD because their upgrade policy bites. It seems like major versions are comming out at the rate of at least once a year and at $200 a pop for an upgrade that gets a little expensive for me. There's also no real incentive to upgrade. I stopped at version 6.5 and they're at 11.0 now. It'll cost me the same amount to upgrade from 6.5 to 11.0 as it would from 10.0 to 11.0.

Also, since I run Gentto Linux as my native OS at home, getting a Windows program to run is a bit of a PITA.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Cooper

I use TurboCad version 7.1. It has 3D capabilities, but I haven't used them. From a cursory look, those capabilities seem to be mostly extrusions of 2D constructions. Cubes from rectangles, cylinders from circles, that sort of thing.

Don't take that as gospel, others with more experience using the stuff may well prove me wrong.

Reply to
lgb

Jeff:

Appreciate the response.

I have windows and Linux -- so no problem.

I will look at the latest version when I find their web site

If there is an alternative ...

Reply to
WillR

Planning is worth the time. I use version 11.

Try Autocad sometime. You'll realize how good Imsi is treating you.

That they are.

With version 6.5, it will cost you $300.00 to upgrade. Going from V10 to V11 cost me $99.00. Compare to Autodesk. If you had a version of their software that far back, you would not get an upgrade price. Full retail.

Reply to
CW

Version 7.1 was (is) a good one. Try getting into the 3D a bit more. There is not much you can't model with it.

Reply to
CW

How much different is it than version 10? I've got 10 and am debating upgrading -- I just barely upgraded to 10 from version 8 and found it had some improved features in the 3D realm, especially as far as 3D dimensions and some other features.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety Army General Richard Cody +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reply to
Mark & Juanita

I'll admit I hadn't checked their upgrade pricing lately. I was thinking of the last upgrade offer I got from IMSI that was to get v10 for $200.

I'll whine about the price :-), but I'll still probably upgrade late this year as soon as I finish the kitchen and want to start a new project.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Cooper

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Reply to
CW

You won't be disapointed.

Reply to
CW

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