New Productivity Features for TurboCAD 2019

This week, Robert Berry, TurboCAD Business Development and Sales, talked about the latest release of the company’s TurboCAD 2019 line, including Platinum, Professional, Deluxe and Designer versions for Windows® desktop PCs.

TurboCAD 2019 includes over three dozen new and improved features.

TurboCAD Deluxe 2019 includes a whole range of PDF tools: Import PDF as vector graphics, and retails at about $200. Above Deluxe is the Professional product that has all features except the ACIS solid modeling engine that is found only in the Platinum version.

One valuable feature is a 3D print check for 3D printing, that allows you to check holes in the model. “Often when 3D models are taken off the 3D printer they may have an error,” said Berry. “You can choose the STL format, and the product has a setup option to do a 3D print check. It offers you different sizes, and warns you of a problem. You can save it and open the STL file, and do a draft render, look at it in an isometric view, and do a rotation of it. Then you can remove the hole and save it under a new name and it will give you a report, letting you know there is no longer a hole.”

Another new feature is the ability to create like a Format Painter but happens before you draw anything. This allows you to base future entities on an existing entity, instead of changing the layer according to a wall you are on, for example. This changes your drawing management.

What was available already was Format Painter, which allowed you to copy formats onto a wall after you’ve drawn the entity, but the new feature allows you to copy the format before you have changed the entity. It speeds productivity, and once your settings are right you can base all your drawings on it.

Another tool is Select Similar. in the selection tools there is Similar, allowing you to select an entity and then select something similar to that entity. Then it selects everything of that type. It will ask you to select blocks or all the same type of blocks, so you can select everything similar to that and make a change globally to all those entities, with some kind of brush pen.

Three additional Blend types have been added to the Fillet Edges tool – G2 Continuous Curvature, Fixed Width and Three Face. If you are doing 3D filleting of the edges, you used the standard one that used to be available and picked that edge select fillet edge and change the size and then hit finish. “Now when I do equal radius, I can make it one millimeter, choose that edge, hit finish,” said Berry. “We look at it from the side, and different views. Three Face blend and a curvature continuous blend are good for people with a need for reflective bends.”

In the 2019 version, there has been a lot of improvement done in the BIM palette. There are  improvements importing and exporting IFC files, a better database in and out of the IFC format, and bringing in BIM.

A new ribbon interface allows you to resize a drawing, and change icons in a restricted space, “You can see icons and the text, if you think constructions are more important that texts, use constructions as you need them,” said Berry. “This is a nice way of making maximum use of the interface space and is important when talking about support for 4K monitors. There are also interface toggles, UI interface toggle, and you can reduce it to see how it actually looks.”

As everyone has a different monitor and resolution, this will give you a really workable interface no matter what your monitor is.

An overview of these new and improved features include:

Usability & Interface

• Customizable Ribbon Interface – In 2019, users can now Add and Rename Tools, Groups and Tabs.  In addition, Tabs may be hidden or renamed, manually created XML Config files can be directly imported into TurboCAD, and UI Themes are full supported in the Ribbon.
• 4K Monitor Support– With new, scalable vector icons, TurboCAD is now fully optimized for 4K monitors. Through dynamic sliders, toolbar icons, the User Interface and other icons in other part of the UI can be resized to optimize readability on higher resolution displays.
• Named View Enhancements – New functionality has been added where users now have the option of associating Layer Sets with Named Views, giving users a much better way to manage Layers Sets.

2D Drafting and Editing

• Construct Similar Tool– A new tool which takes properties from a referenced object and applies these to the construction of the next object.  This tool provides a fast and efficient method to assign object properties such as line fonts, dimension styles, and wall properties with a single click.
• Remove Overlapping Entities – This new ‘overkill’ tool allows the user to eliminate overlapping lines and arcs, thereby allowing for the simplification of drawings by removing duplicate, redundant entities.
• Select by Similar Tool– A powerful new tool that allows you to select any 2D or 3D object type or a Block and then find all occurrences of that in the drawing.  Very detailed selections can be made that include parameters such as pen color and style, brush color and style, layer, even the selected object’s coordinate system. A great tool to use in conjunction with making further global changes to that selected object.
• Pick-Point-Hatch Improvement – This Hatching tool now works with gaps in 2D objects. For example,  trying to fill an area bounded by a Polyline, when there are gaps in the Polyline.  Improvements to pick-point also apply to ADT objects (Walls, Doors and Windows), allowing to similarly fill in gaps between these objects.

3D Drawing, Modeling, and Editing

• Blend Tool Improvements– Three additional Blend types have been added to the Fillet Edges tool – G2 Continuous Curvature, Fixed Width and Three Face.
• Sheet Metal Improvements– A new Property have been added to the Flange Sheet tool – Draft Angle.  Also,  several new options have been added to the Inspector bar when using this tool – Start and End Offset, Start and End Angle.  Improvements have also been made to the Unbend tool – accuracy improvements to the Unbend and the ability track progress of this ACIS^® operation and interrupt it if desired results are not seen.
• Extrude Improvements– Users can now select flat 3D polylines or 3D curves for Surface Extrude tools such as Revolve. Also, 3D Curve and Curve (2D) are now separate tools. 

Architectural

• Array and Copy tool Improvements, performance enhancements for ADT Objects– Architectural Desktop (ADT) objects can now be completely and accurately used with Copy and Linear Array copy tools.   For example, the Array Fit Linear now takes into account all of the properties of the ADT object being copied, including Work Plane, Layer, Materials, etc. Previously, this tool could create only one roof object. Now, multiple objects may be created.  In addition, the overall processing of all ADT objects in a drawing, including the House Wizard, has been significantly sped up.
• BIM Tool Enhancements – Data collection of IFC files has been improved, the BIM Palette now shows the BIM file structure, and the BIM tool and BIM Palette’s UI’s have now been more tightly integrated, making these architectural modeling parts of TurboCAD easier to use.

Photorealistic Rendering and Visualization

• New LightWorks^®rendering engine and Sun and Sky Shader – The LightWorks rendering engine has been upgraded to v9.3. New properties “sun dir by geo-location” and “dir by geo-location” added to “Sky” and “Sun” shaders correspondingly.
• RedSDK to LightWorks Porting– Older, RedSDK rendered images are now more automatically, accurately and completely converted to a LightWorks rendered image.

File Support / Interoperability

• AutoCAD 2019 Compatibility Improvements– TurboCAD 2019 now fully supports AutoCAD DWG, DXF and DWF file formats.
• STL File Improvements – A new 3D Print Check option has been added when exporting an STL file.   This tool checks a part for the following common topological errors such as: non manifold edges, duplicated and collapsed facets, open edges, shells and more.  The Print Check tool also displays geometry information such as extents, number of facets/vertices, area, and volume. When saving an STL file, the user is given the option of performing a print check on the 3D model
• New FBX File Filter for 3D Animation software.

Availability and Pricing

TurboCAD Platinum 2019 is now available for $1,499.99 USD for a full, permanent license, $499.99/year for an annual subscription, TurboCAD Professional for $999.99, TurboCAD Deluxe for $199.99, and TurboCAD Designer for $59.99.

For more information, download a 15-day trial, or to upgrade online, please visit www.TurboCAD.com or call IMSI Design at 1.800.833.8082 (+1.415.483.8000).

Tags: 3D, 3D printing, AEC, architects, architecture, BIM, building, building design, building information modeling, CAD, collaboration, construction, design, engineering, engineers, infrastructure, TurboCAD

Categories: 2D, 3D, 3D PDF, 3D printing, AEC, AECCafe, apps, architecture, BIM, building information modeling, collaboration, construction, construction project management, engineering, IFC, project management, sustainable design

This entry was posted on Friday, May 31st, 2019 at 8:33 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.