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[DPRG] TurboCad
Subject: [DPRG] TurboCad
From: Chuck McManis
cmcmanis at mcmanis.com
Date: Thu Jan 3 22:02:27 CST 2008
At 11:36 PM 12/29/2007, Ed Paradis wrote:
>Hi Everyone,
>
>I checked the archives and it looks like there were a few people with
>TurboCad experience. Is anyone using the latest version? You can get
>the 2D package for $30 after rebate at Fry's. I'm also noticing on
>their website that they have a Mac version...
>
>Anyone have any experience with inexpensive CAD tools?
So the Mac version is a just a repackaged viacad.
I've used TurbCAD Professional since about version 4 (its currently
up to version 14.2). And I'm always not sure if I can recommend it.
So here is the deal, IMSI has undergone a number of "rebirths". Its
currently "owned" by a holding company which bought out the assets
just before version 14 shipped. For a long time the odd numbered
versions were ok and the even numbered versions were real dogs. My
favorite versions have been 9.5 and 11.2 (which I currently use). I
didn't upgrade to 12 because all of the complaints, then IMSI sort of
went out of business and came out with 14 (a bug-fixed version 12)
and they split out the "architectural" commands and the "mechanical"
commands into extra add-ons. So I'd have to say is that TurboCAD is a
program that is sold cheaply because it has never been worth its list
price. Its a $100 - $150 CAD program, not a $600 CAD program which it
wants to be.
Development these days is done in Russia and the corporate offices in
Northern California mostly just take orders. There is a an active
community forum at forums.imsisoft.com.
That being said, once you get the hang of it it can be a perfectly
reasonable CAD program, its suffers from people who are doing lots of
fancy renders getting more attention (Its not good for a CAD program
to think its a Modelling program) and it can't do ANSI dimensioning
so you might have to hand annotate your drawings if you're sending
them out to be built.
>I'd like to be able to generate g-codes for a router in the future.
>Anyone have input or advice in this area?
Well there is an add-on for TurboCAD called TurboCADCAM which
converts turboCAD files into G-code.
>I've found some open-source software to go from DXF to g-code:
>http://www.dakeng.com/ace.html
>
>While the router I'm building could make 3D shapes, I'm really
>interested in 2D applications: PCB routing and laser cutting. This
>means a lot of the open source tools centered around 3D design aren't
>really appropriate. I've been using Google Sketchup, which is fun to
>use but not terribly useful.
>
>Qcad has a code available, but I've not built it yet:
>http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_downloads.html
>PythonCAD is a cad tool written in ... python: http://www.pythoncad.org/
>
>Feel free to email me off list with long opinions. :)
I'm wondering about this as well as I've got the pieces to upgrade my
Mill to 4 axis CNC and I'm trying to figure out the best way to pursue that.
--Chuck
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