| | |
|
|
TurboCAD Pro 17 Electronic Download
Professional 2D & 3D CAD Software | TurboCAD Pro is advanced, general purpose CAD software for 2D design, drafting, detailing, and 3D modeling that appeals to professionals spanning numerous mechanical and architectural disciplines, Included are 2D geometric and dimensional constraints, 3D solid and surface modeling, photorealistic rendering and lighting controls, and extensive CAD and graphics file interoperability. TurboCAD Pro advances productivity with tools that allow for design, modification, presentation, and documentation in an integrated fashion. And because we know that most people use a number of tools or collaborate with others frequently, TurboCAD Pro is designed to provide excellent workflow to and from other applications.
What's new in 17
Description
The most affordable CAD application for collaborative 3D design, drafting, and detailing — just got better!
Improved speed & productivity.
Fast ROI from immediate productivity gains. Improved tools with better usability, and new GPU-accelerated wireframe renders.
Fast GPU-Accelerated wireframe rendering.
Render up to 60 times faster! The speed increases in wireframe are dramatically better (requires a supported GPU-based graphics card).
Smoother zooming, panning, and orbiting. We've included technology from Redway3D® that provides a GPU-accelerated 2D and wireframe display mode (Redsdk). Your your larger files will pan and scroll smoothly. Zooming in and out is dramatically faster on larger files.
Build bigger models. With the speed increases offered by the GPU-accelerated wireframe mode, TurboCAD Pro 17 now supports working with larger models than previous versions.
Improved tools and better stability.
Many improvements to existing features. We listened to our customers and have focused as much on making existing functionality work better as we did on adding new powerful features.
Easier, and more powerful layer management. Design Director simplifies layer management, and new layer filter support (.DWG compatible) lets you manage large, complex drawings with ease.
Better user experience.
Fewer clicks than before. Double-click on text, or M-text to enter edit mode. Edit blocks and groups in place.
Less setup to do. New and improved templates set tool default values to more commonly used settings. Paper spaces can be copied with all settings from one drawing to another.
Easily create 2D vector drawings from 3D models. Viewports can be exploded creating flat 2D views.
Powerful Tools.
Let your creativity flow, and draw what before you could only imagine. Improved mechanical and architectural tools, better parametric tools, and five new solid pattern tools.
Rapidly create parametric patterns from ACIS solids.
(Platinum only.) New possibilities are available with 3D patterns. Five new pattern tools allow for 3D shapes that couldn’t easily be drawn before. These include patterns applied to spheres and cylinders, radial patterns, 3D arrays, or patterns along a curve.
(Platinum only.) Rapidly design mechanical parts with repetitive structures. Arrayed patterns such as ventilation holes, keypad designs, and more can be designed and merged with other objects.
Architectural design that is more robust than ever.
(Platinum only.) Create any style of door or window easily. AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) compatible Door and Window Muntins expand your options for parametrically creating the exact object types for your design.
(Platinum only.) Create precise shapes for your walls. Now with both custom top and bottom wall modifiers.
Floor plans design is faster than ever before. The improved wall tool allows definition of intelligent relationships between walls to link or not link, clean or remain separate, in any combination.
New and improved power tools add specificity.
(Platinum only.) Geometric Tolerances enable precision in communication. The completely rewritten tolerances tool provides specific instructions on production tolerances and is .DWG compatible.
Parametric Parts can be easily created. Drawn parts can be made into reusable parametric parts with a more robust part wizard.
Scripted Parametric Parts have more power. Additional commands and mathematical functions allow for more designs to be parametrically created via script.
Better communication with multi-leaders. One callout for multiple parts provides for clear communication.
Greater Interoperability.
Better data exchange, and protection of your IP. Improved file filters, new versions, and more capabilities.
New versions let you communicate and collaborate with others.
Work with the latest AutoCAD® files. We’ve added support for .DWG 2010 file format so that you can collaborate with people using even the latest Autodesk® software versions.
Better SketchUp™ workflow. Our .SKP import is quite good, the export has been improved, and now we have added COLLADA (.DAE) export support, and include instances so that blocks and architectural objects will be read by SketchUp as components. So now you can use TurboCAD as a great way to translate dozens of file formats, including .DWG with ACA extensions, and get them into SketchUp.
Powerful ways to integrate your designs.
More powerful Xrefs. We’ve added Xref clipping for dozens of file formats. We’ve also allowed binding of Xrefs, which can then be exploded and edited. Xref layers are easier to manage, even with layer filters.
Keep the intelligence of SketchUp Dynamic Components. We’ve included a development feature that is still in Beta mode: a .SKP import option (off by default) that will convert some dynamic components into TurboCAD Parametric
Parts.
It's time to upgrade!
The new TurboCAD Pro 17 is revved up and ready to go, offering new tools, improved speed, and greater interoperability. Here’s just a sample of what you have to look forward to:
Up to 60 times faster wireframe display with GPU-acceleration for smooth zooming, panning, and rotating large files!
AutoCAD® .DWG 2010 file support
Five new pattern tools (Platinum only)
Door and Window Muntins support
Improved Xrefs: XClip support and Xref layer management
Layer Set management improvements and Layer Filter
Better Google™ SketchUp™ workflow with COLLADA improvements
Use the navigation on the left to explore the new features and improvements, or view and print a PDF comparison chart of What's New Since v16. Return to this page to purchase.
With TurboCAD Pro 17 we have eliminated the Architectural and Mechanical Editions. The features of both products are bundled in the Pro Platinum edition. For a limited time, if you upgrade to Pro Platinum, you will receive the new Drawing Compare plug-in FREE with your upgrade (a $125 value).
When you are ready to purchase, get the upgrade on this page, and add Platinum to your cart!
2D Drafting & Detailing
An important aspect of any CAD tool is its 2D drafting and detailing capabilities. With the majority of all CAD projects ending in 2D drawings, 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 dimensioned and annotated rapidly.
Different visual styles allow for materials, fills, even transparent fills and gradients to be used to add effects and visual clarity. Lines and custom line styles allow for color 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 color and true color support
custom brush style editor for combining colors, gradients, hatches, and transparency
TurboCAD also includes 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 parameterized ortho angular system
9 types of construction line geometry
There are many more tools to aid in the drafting and detailing functions, among them all the capabilities for quickly and easily creating views and viewports of any size and shape. There are extensive paper space and printing capabilities. Marker and Schedule tools, leaders, multi-leaders, dimension tools, and symbols content. See additional information on the next several pages with Drafting Palette, Parametric Constraints, Annotation, and Symbols.
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.
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 recognized so that individual parts may be separately hatched or include different line weights and color.
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.
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, colored, or have its line weight and style adjusted as needed, with separate controls for visible and hidden line.
A significant productivity enhancement was made with version 17: Drafting Palette items may be locked, essentially caching them until unlocked. This allows modeling 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 recognize.
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.
Parametric Constraints
Parametric Drawing
Parametric drawing provides precision and productivity. You have greater control to enforce design intent, and may very quickly modify a design by using geometric and dimensional constraints. The Calculator Palette allows you to set values to driving dimensions, including formulaic relationships between objects, and using any of the functions shown in the image at right.
Rapid Revision Productivity
Often referred to as variational sketching, a constraints system allows you to enjoy greater control and productivity, empowering 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 DCM constraint manager from Siemens Industry Software Limited — This is the same trusted engine used by far more expensive design platforms such as AutoCAD®, Autodesk Inventor®; by Dassault Systems for CATIA and SolidWorks®; by Siemens Industry Software Limited for NX and Solid Edge; and by think3® for thinkdesign.
Annotation
The output of any design project in CAD 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 Library
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. This means, for example, that a favorite collection of .SKP components may be used and loaded this way.
TurboCAD Pro comes complete with a number of sample symbols as well as a much larger collection of 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 iformation 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.
Now with v17 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. For more information on this option see the File Interop page.
Documentation for the Parametric Parts Manager has been greatly enhanced in version 17, with excellent support for creating and using parts on the TurboCAD Community Forums.
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’ 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 Modeling
TurboCAD® Pro supports both surface and solid modeling, 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 modeling 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, color, 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 utilizes 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 our 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 colors (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.
Lighting & Materials
Materials
TurboCAD Pro includes a robust material editor, and numerous shaders to create materials and their finishes with a real-time preview that is available even on a selection from the model instead of just a simple cube or sphere (also available). When creating or altering materials there are extensive descriptions of each shader in the dialog window to simplify each step.
There are over 500 materials available immediately, with access to hundreds of brand name custom Colors, Materials, and Effects via the LightWork Design Archive. Some TurboCAD materials are bitmap based textures, others are procedural materials, which means that the pattern is calculated so that it does not repeat in a tiling manner.
Bitmap textures may be brought into TurboCAD and used as material textures, including support for objects with alpha channel transparency. This can be useful for entourage, or landscaping and a 2D image of a tree can render much faster than a high-polygon 3D modeled tree with each leaf being calculated separately.
Lighting & Luminances
There is also robust support for lighting and luminances. Lights are OpenGL based, are quick to add and use, but are more limited in their options than Luminances (see below). Lights may be added with a click, and their properties adjusted in the Design Director, which also enables creating light sets that can be turned on or off as a group.
Light types include:
Ambient
Directional Light — has an origin and a direction, providing an infinite light that does not fade with distance
Headlight — provides a Directional Light sourced at the camera source sot that it is always illuminating from the user's vantage point
Point — provides light equally from all directions
Spot Light — provides a directional light eminating from a point and projecting in a cone
Sky Light — a simple directional light source that simulates outdoor sunlight
Each light has many different properties that can be managed, including the color; intensity; fall-off; shadow softness; and more. Some that are directional specific may include properties such as the beam sharpness, penubra, and umbra (the angle of the cone of light and the darkness in the center of the beam, useful for flashlights).
Luminances include advanced lighting properties that can be assigned to the whole model, or to specific objects within the model. Any number of lights may be combined, so that an Ambient luminance may be used, then augmented by other lights and luminances. Luminances include:
Ambient — illuminates all surfaces equally, regardless of orientation
Area &mdash simulates a luminous surface
Area Goniometric — combines both area light and goniometric properties
Area Sky — limited Sky light covering the light that passes through portals such as a window or door
Distant — illuminates consistently, is directional and parallel
Eye — sourced at the view point
Goniometric — directed light defined by an .ies file (a text-based file) often provided by lighting manufacturers for their bulbs or fixtures
Point — emanates from a single point in all directions
Projector — projects a graphic image onto a solid object based on a raster image file, and which is often combined with environmental dust or fog to catch the beam as at the cinema
Simple Environment — lights a scene based on an environmental map such as an HDR image, or even a .jpg or .png file
Simple Sky — lights the model based on a uniformly bright hemispherical dome
Sky — light that simulates a sky light providing soft and natural shadows and is modeled as a hemisphere of infinite radious and positioned above the center of the model
Spot — provides directional light that is consstrained to a cone
Sun — projects a spot light from a very distant point to simulate outdoor sunlighting, and which, when combined with Sky lights provides a realistic rendering effect
With each light and luminance there are numerous properties. Combine them effectively and the possiblities are endless. Create natural lighting for various conditions, artificial lighting to simulate any environment necessary, or mood lighting to emphasize elements of a design and provide an impact. Lighting is a very powerful element in the design communication process.
Artistic Rendering
TurboCAD Pro includes a Render Styles Manager with preset configurations for many types of renders, including artistic styles and photorealistic styles. The artistic styles are called Sketch Renders.
Among the Sketch Styles are:
Cartoon
Color Wash
Color Contour
Gray Contour
Hatch
Hand Drawn
Ink Print
Lines and Color Fill
Lines and Shadow
Mosaic
Oil Painting
Rough Pencil
Soft Pencil
Stipple
By selecting the Advanced Render view, entering the camera properties, and selecting Sketch, each of the styles listed above are available with a single click.
Photorealistic Rendering
TurboCAD® Pro provides extensive support for photorealistic rendering. After adding lighting, luminances, materials and their finishes, there are several standard render modes. Draft, Quality, and Advanced.
TurboCAD includes a Render Styles Manager with preset configurations for many types of renders and includes a quick method for setting depth of field, for example, or overall luminance properties based on weather conditions including Clear Sky, Cloudy, Hazy, Overcast, Twilight Clear, Twilight Hazy, Night Full Moon, and many others.
When performing a quality render TurboCAD has the advantage of being able to precalculate many variables in order to more quickly render than typical for ray tracing. The advanced render mode includes controls for dozens of settings should you choose to use them. It is a fully-featured rendering application built directly into TurboCAD.
TurboCAD photorealistic rendering is based on the LightWorks engine from Lightwork Design, long a leader in photorealistic rendering. The rendering includes advanced ray-traced biased rendering techniques.
Among the many features available:
Ambient Occlusion
Global Illumination
Final Gathering
Alpha-channel transparency support
Volumetrics, including fog, ground fog, dust, and more
Parametric Cloud environments
HDR image or basic raster image background environments
Depth of Field
Render lines, hidden lines
Shadow Catcher
Flat, Gouraud, Phong, Flat OpenGL, Smooth OpenGL, Raytrace Preview, Raytrace Full, and Radiosity render modes
Render to file, up to 16,000 x 16,000 pixels
External References (Xrefs)
External References (Xrefs)
All of the file formats that may be opened and imported, with the exception of bitmap images, may be used as an external reference (Xref). More than 15 of the 3D formats that may be used as an Xref also work with the Drafting Palette. This combination means that the model may be designed in one application, and the views, sections, elevations, and floorplans will be updated when the original model is changed. The designer may continue to work in SketchUp, AutoCAD, or SolidWorks®, for example, while the drafting continues in TurboCAD.
In version 17 Xref support has gone further than before, with complete control over layers in the Xref, even when controlled through the new Layer Filter function in the Design Director palette. Support for binding an Xref in the document has been added, so that the geometry is converted into a block within the drawing. Once an Xref has been bound it may then be exploded to create simple geometry.
Another new feature is support for the drawing variable $VIZRETAIN which defines how changes will be applied when the Xref is reloaded. Drawings can be saved with Xrefs in .TCW, .2CD, or .DWG format, with those Xref properties maintained – although the .DWG will recognize only another .DWG as an Xref if opened in an application other than TurboCAD or DoubleCAD.
The addition of an XClip command make working with external references much more fruitfull. Simply define the boundaries of the region to define the portion of the Xref to incorporate in the drawing.
File Interop
TurboCAD® Pro includes support for dozens of file formats, making it an excellent part of almost all the most common workflows between partners, contractors, and others. Open, import, 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), and .2CD (DoubleCAD™); vector formats include .SVG and a newly updated .EPS; raster formats include .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, .PNG, .TIF, and more. TurboCAD reads and writes .DWG and .DXF files from R14 through 2010 (newly supported in TurboCAD 17) including AutoCAD® Architecture extensions.
This broad range of file formats helps to maintain your intellectual property investment supporting older files, models, and parts. It also makes it easy to access parts from vendors or posted on model exchange sites like the Google™ 3D Warehouse.
In version 17, TurboCAD has improved the .DWG filter as well as the COLLADA (.DAE) export. When saving to COLLADA there is a Setup option to Save Blocks and Layers. If the application that imports the .DAE file supports COLLADA Instancing (currently SketchUp v7.1 does), then block definitions will be maintained. If exporting blocks is selected, then the exporter first turns the entire model into a block, which will also convert all architectural objects into blocks as well. This makes it a great way to bring AutoCAD® Architecture based .DWG files into SketchUp, or to kick-start any SketchUp project by creating the basic architectural geometry quickly and precisely by using TurboCAD parametric architectural tools, such as the walls, windows, doors, and stairs.
Batch File Converter
TurboCAD Pro also includes a powerful Batch File Converter utility. With this utility you may select files of one type and convert them to any of the file formats we support for saving. This includes converting a dozen .DWG files to .png, or converting .2CD to .DXF 2003 format files – all in one step.
Database Connect
TurboCAD supports setting up a data link to a data source (ODBC database, Excel, CSV, SQL, Access, Oracle, and more) on either your local machine or company network. Since the data source remains outside of TurboCAD, the drawing file size is not affected which maintains performance.
Reference data in a TurboCAD table as well as data associated to objects. The CAD file automatically updates with changes to the external database. This improves bill of material handling, real time pricing, and more.
Software Developers' Kit
TurboCAD Pro includes a Software Developers' Kit (SDK) that provides the capabilities to extend the functionality of the application. This includes the ability to develop new tools, functions, and behaviors for use in TurboCAD Pro. Custom routines that are performed on a regular basis can now be automated. Specific tools for vertical applications can be created and added. Even commercial plug-in applications may be developed and sold.
TurboCAD Pro includes a number of special tools that were created as SDK examples. They can be found under the Add-Ons menu.
Documentation for the SDK has been updated. It includes support and samples of functions for the following environments:
VB Script
VB6
VB.net 2008
Visual C++
C# 2008
and Delphi
System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements:
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 Color (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:
NVIDIA chipsets
1.GeForce 8 Series
2.GeForce 9 Series
3.GeForce GTX Series
AMD ATI chipsets
4.R600 family
5.R700 family
INTEL chipsets
6.GMA 4000 family
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.
|
| |
Sale price: $199.95