# Anyone used turbocad ?



## ColeyS1 (2 Jul 2011)

Hi all,

Im just wondering if anyone has any experience in using turbocad ? I was recommended it as a more user-friendly (or easier to master) software.

I've been playing with sketchup for a while but have never really seemed to fully get to grips with it :-({|= Perhaps this might be worth a punt ?

Thanks

Simon


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## Jensmith (2 Jul 2011)

I used it quite a few years ago and it was fairly similar to the industry standard AutoCAD if less powerful. It's not really a 3D package though if that's what you want. 

I use AutoCAD at work for 2D plans but never tried much of the 3D capabilities. Found it very hard work tbh.


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## SketchUp Guru (2 Jul 2011)

I'd never talk anyone out of buying and learning to use a CAD program and if that's what they want to do but if it's just coming to grips with SketchUp, I would be willing to help you out. Maybe you just need someone to help you get on the right track.


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## mailee (2 Jul 2011)

I used to use Turbocad for 2D plans but found it hard work. I tried Sketchup and never looked back....so much easier and simple 3D too. I would hang on in there with Sketchup it is worth it. :wink:


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## Shultzy (3 Jul 2011)

I used Turbocad for years as well until I found Sketchup. So much easier to make a 3D objects and the number of different materials made me change to Sketchup. Keep persevering and ask for advice, its well worth the effort.


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## ColeyS1 (10 Jul 2011)

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice,

I spent the majority of evenings last week, reading, reading and reading a little more. Although i had no spectacular results i was pretty pleased with the progress. Push,pull follow me tool etc 8) :-"  The thing i found easy to grasp was by watching there own how-to videos- then pausing and replicating it myself. Think i got to video 4 ( the chair one ) and my fun quickly ended - No more copy this videos 

Are there any other places where i can find step by step videos, allowing me to pause and do myself. 

I managed to draw a window cill to the correct profile,pull to the correct length, then label as a component- so far my proudest achievement with sketchup 8) 

Thanks

Simon


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## SketchUp Guru (10 Jul 2011)

Simon,

I'll admit that as a woodworker, that chair demo is a bit of a disappointment although it does get its point across. You can draw in a subtractive method as if you are hacking the chair out of a big hunk of wood, you can use additive methods like you're making it out of bits of clay that will get fused together or you can draw all the parts as separate components as I almost always do.

As to other videos, I don't know of any _good ones_ that are done so you can watch a little and draw a little. I do know of some not so good ones. There's the SketchUp for Dummies book which is pretty good for starting out.

I've done a number of videos showing how to do things in SketchUp but they don't tend to be the watch then draw sorts of things. Still, you may find some of them useful. You can see a project done start to finish here and here. They move right along so they aren't really tutorials but I do talk about what I'm doing and why as I draw. there's lots of other stuff on the blog that you may find useful. 

If you want to see how to use a certain tool or draw something specific you could drop me a PM. I could demonstrate for you 'live.'


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## ColeyS1 (10 Jul 2011)

Dave, i kind of enjoyed the chair one- felt i was making progress by actually achieving a finished model.

The rest of the videos seemed to focus more on specific functions instead of showing how to use them one after the other to create a finished model. 
I've opened all your links into new tabs and will read them in depth when i have a spare moment. If its possible i'd quite like to know how you would go about drawing a window. Im hoping once i've drawn it properly it would be easy to edit (keep sections the same size) by just altering the overall size- does that make sense ?for example- i could change a 1metre square window to a 2metre square window, without having to start from scratch.

I've tried to copypaste my sketchup image of the window but for some reason its not playing ball #-o 

................................................This moment is where i usually give up for a few months :lol: 












Not this time though  

So i got as far as drawing the cill using push pull etc. Then saved as component. From what ive read this is where most people go wrong ? 
After that i thought the jambs should be next (58 x 12 rebate for a sash) but i couldnt get it to work as a component. I was imagining the next task would be to flip it somehow for the other side. 
Lastly, the top of the window- had no idea how to go about doing this.

Thought that would have been a good place to start. Once i was able to do that easily, i would have tried to draw in the sash- maybe even get it to show it hinged open/closed. 

Lastly i was going to try pasting grain on it, but after failing at stage 2 i gave up :roll: #-o 

Any help greatly appreciated. Im happy being able to draw the cill as it should be- just without the other components, its pretty much worthless.

thanks again

Simon


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## SketchUp Guru (10 Jul 2011)

Simon,

I can honestly say I've never seen a SketchUp model displayed that way.  It actually looks kind of nice. Another way would be File>Export>2D...

Would you send me your SKP file so I can see exactly what you've done? I'll PM you with my e-mail address.


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## ColeyS1 (10 Jul 2011)

Dave R":2ixfpuc7 said:


> Simon,
> 
> I can honestly say I've never seen a SketchUp model displayed that way.  It actually looks kind of nice. Another way would be File>Export>2D...
> 
> Would you send me your SKP file so I can see exactly what you've done? I'll PM you with my e-mail address.



:lol: I kept trying and trying to figure out how to do it- glanced over at my phone camera, then took a double take and spotted my other camera a bit further. - Pretty groundbreaking stuff hey Dave !? 8) 

I'll just sort out the email

thanks 

Simon


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## SketchUp Guru (10 Jul 2011)

Let's see if this will help.





Your cill component is fine although I rotated it so the front of the window aligns with the red axis. I also moved it so the front left corner is at the origin. I find it best to start at the origin and work out.. That way if you want to choose the standard front view, you'll get what you expect. I then drew the geometry for the jamb. You must do this *without* opening the cill component for editing. For this example I just left it short. I made the jamb a component by selecting all of its geometry (triple click on it with Selection tool) and pressing G to Create Component. You can see I've copied the two components into the back ground and separated them to show they are two different components.





Copy the jamb component to the opposite end using Move. Hit Ctrl (Option on Mac) to invoke the Copy function. I preselected the jamb before getting the Move tool then I grabbed the component by the lower back right corner and move the copy over so that corner corresponds to the top back right corner of the cill. Remember to grab components by logical points with the Move tool. It makes accurately moving them or their copy, much easier.





Right click on the jamb component and choose Flip Along>Component's Red. Since the component has not been rotated after it was created, its axes are aligned with the global axes which you can see while you're working. Flipping is the "mirror" command in SketchUp. You can also do it with the Scale tool but that's for another time.





The cill and jambs are now in place. You'll see this is very much like the process I showed in the video of the fern stand model. And, just as with the fern stand, once a piece of two are in place, all the rest of the model is drawn relative to the pieces that are already drawn.

FWIW, to draw the jamb, I orbited around to the left end. With the Line tool I traced the top of the cill and continued upward to create the left face. then I used Push/Pull to give it thickness. I waited until after I had given it thickness before I drew a vertical line for the thicker bit at the back and then I pulled that out a little farther.


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## ColeyS1 (10 Jul 2011)

I appreciate the time you've taken to explain this Dave. Instead of trying a window, i'll try to draw your fern stand. Im failing on such a basic thing with the stand i'll start a new thread :wink:


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## urbanarcher (14 Sep 2011)

hey simon i tried turbo cad and hated it I've experience with autocad and found a program called doublecad that was much better and more like autocad to use. i wouldn't really be using this for 3d work i would probably use double cad for the 2d work in woodwork and sketchup to create a 3d representation. I do still like a pencil and paper tho works for 2d and 3d if used correctly. :shock:


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## SketchUp Guru (14 Sep 2011)

I'd forgotten about DoubleCAD. Thanks for reminding me.

Don't see much point in using two different applications to make both 2D and 3D illustrations when it could be done in one.


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## MickCheese (15 Sep 2011)

I used TurboCad a few years ago and got bored very quickly. Just not intuitive.

Mick


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## Mark A (15 Sep 2011)

I'm officially qualified to use Autodesk Inventor, but strangely can't get my head round Sketch Up. Unfortunately Inventor is meant to be about £5000 so I'm stuck with t'other one!


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## SketchUp Guru (15 Sep 2011)

Mark, if you want to learn to use SketchUp, you might find it helpful to get some training from a Google-authorized trainer. I just happen to know a guy who has his ATC (Authorized Trainer Certification) and is available for training. It won't cost much, either. If that's something you'd be interested in, drop me a PM.


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## cmwatt (15 Sep 2011)

mark aspin":ltcdmasg said:


> I'm officially qualified to use Autodesk Inventor, but strangely can't get my head round Sketch Up. Unfortunately Inventor is meant to be about £5000 so I'm stuck with t'other one!



Hehe, I'm in a similar situation! I can do this with AutoCAD:




Render7 by Craig Watt, on Flickr

but never really got to grips with SketchUp! I would love to learn it though, because I think it would be a lot quicker for some things. The above has taken me many hours over months. :shock:


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## SketchUp Guru (16 Sep 2011)

Craig, that's a nice looking render. Usually the stuff I see from AutoCAD is shown in isometric rather than perspective views. Isometric views are kind of grating to me. My comment to Mark would apply to you as well. 

By the way, can you, in ACAD, make drawings that look more like they've been drawn by hand? Similar to this which of course was done in SketchUp. I'm asking because I don't know.










I like that I can go from rough hand-drawn looking to photo realistic from the same SketchUp file if I want. I'm also enjoying making my own hand drawn line styles which is dead simple.


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## cmwatt (16 Sep 2011)

Thanks Dave. I think you can add certain effects in AutoCAD Architecture (which is what I'm using just now), but i've never done it nor know how to. I know Autodesk do a product called "Impression" which specifically lets you change line styles to pencil/pen etc, add pantone maker effects etc.

I like what you do with Sketchup btw, seems you've mastered it! There was someone like that in my architecture course, that could create whole streets in sketchup in a few days, always amazed me how quick that kind of stuff could be done. I think I've got a lot quicker in AutoCAD too now though, since they've incorporated some of the features from Sketchup since Autodesk bought it over.


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## SketchUp Guru (16 Sep 2011)

Craig, 

Thank you for the compliments. I do manage to get what I need done in SU.

FWIW, AutoDesk did not buy SketchUp. It's still owned by Google. Autodesk might have "borrowed" from SketchUp, though.

Let me know if you want to have some help learning SketchUp.


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## trumpetmonkey (21 Oct 2011)

I'm interested in this thread, and a few people have confirmed my suspicions that TurboCAD is not worth the hassle - so far I have also found it not intuitive - for example so difficult to navigate to different views in 3D compared to sketchup where I am constantly whizzing around the model with ease. Everything takes me wat longer in Turbocad and I don't know if it's worth the effort tying to learn it better.

So I am thinking of getting Sketchup Pro, but can I get an honest assessment of both it's strong points and limitations?

For example, what extra tools do you get compared to the basic sketchup? Is it better for organic curved shapes? What is it still lacking compared to much more expensive programs?


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## DonJohnson (21 Oct 2011)

No one yet seems to have mentioned the excellent - free - tutorials provided by Jos P Leh at *http://www.srww.com/google-sketchup.htm*.

As perhaps a typical experience, I looked at Sketchup, thought it was wonderful compared with Autocad and other programs I had used before retiring. Then I tried to do more than just create basic shapes, etc., and found it was not quite so easy to learn as I progressed. (Objects didn't do what I wanted, and kept 'sticking' to others, or changing their shapes unexpectedly)

I have approached most other routes to becoming as self-trained computer analyst/programmer/manager using a 'suck it and see' way, with books and lots of trial and error, but this time I just got very frustrated, and cast Sketchup aside.

Some time later, I saw a reference to the tutorials mentioned above, and thought I would give it one last try. The tutorials can be downloaded onto your own PC, so can be run 'offline' and stopped/started/re-run without continued use of the 'net, which was the first good point. (Download them in the background whilst doing something else!)

I took my time and worked through the tutorials starting from the basics, and quickly realised where I had previously made life difficult for myself. As Joe says, 'As soon as a part takes 3D shape make it a component' - and possibly put it on its own layer as well. It takes but a few moments to do so (hardest part is thinking of a name) but the reward is that parts can be manipulated/copied/edited easily - and they do what you expect. Suddenly I 'got' Sketchup, and started to make real progress.

I won't pretend that you don't have to spend some time following the tutorials - and practising on something new (I found with computer programming that you have to set yourself a 'real' task and try to solve it to get anywhere with a new language), but this would be true of Autocad or any other program.

Joe's tutorials are videos of him actually using Sketchup (I found *Jing* as a result of this) and he has left in the odd error and necessary correction so you also see how to do things 'wrong' as well as 'right', which is very comforting - especially when you get more experienced and can see that he has pressed the wrong button before he does! He has a pleasant teaching voice and manner, which makes learning quite enjoyable.

I cannot recommend these tutorials enough, they would be worth paying a lot of money for - but then I would probably have never bothered with them if I'd had to pay for them before using them.

If you want to get to better grips with Sketchup, I suggest that you give them a look.


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