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drawing plan using turbocad

Old 12-28-2003, 07:58 PM
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parabellum
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Default drawing plan using turbocad

Let's see if I can figure out Turbocad and draw a plan before the free trial period is over.

outlines are in, so just have to refine shapes.
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Old 12-28-2003, 08:12 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

I found the $40.00 Turbo CAD V9.2 under the tree. I have not used any type of CAD software since Model CAD 15 years ago. I was able to draw up a fuse and landing gear for a Ugly stick type of plane. I was on another forum and a nice guy is going to send me his set of 2D and 3Dmanuals. I keep plugging away trying to figure out how to use all of the buttons and different arch, circles, vectors. I have yet to figure out how to copy and rotate an object to make a gear with the teeth or spokes.

Dru.
Old 12-28-2003, 08:40 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

I was wondering what functions are taken out on Turbocad deluxe version compare to turbocad professional?

I find it ironic that IMSI manages to make it impossible to import native desingcad files into turbocad and vice versa. have to use dwg or other format.

for some reason designcad import bitmap images at full resolution where as turbocad import bitmaps at screen res, make it impossible to zoom in to trace fine details.
am I missing something here? or turbocad is just that way?
Old 12-28-2003, 09:17 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Without a side by side comparison of the bitmap imports you may be comparing apples to oranges. To import with fine lines the original image has to have fine lines. My Turbocad imports scanned images to the same resolution that I originally scan them at. If the lines are too thick for easy tracing it is because the paper image the scan was taken from is also thiick lined. I've done a fine lined paper image for tracing and the resulting lines in Turbocad made for easy tracing within reason. Remember that to show the fine lines you're talking about the file size must be very large as well. Another indicator of the image quality.

blvdbuzzard, what you are looking for is the Radial Array copy tool. If you go to the Mirror button on the side tool bar (assuming normal layout of the toolbars) and click and hold on that the whole tool flyout bar will open and you can move along and select the Radial Copy tool. From there follow the prompts on the comman line to do what you need. When I use that tool I just ignore the pointer once engaged and TAB to each of the data inputs on the command line so the numbers go in just as I wish. Note that with this tool you set up the number of radial copies, the angle of roation between copies and the rotation of the copies.
Old 12-28-2003, 11:14 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

HHi All,
I thought I would just put my two cents in here. I have TurboCad V7 Pro, and I have already designed an Me 410 and am part way through a F3F bipe. I have found all of the functionality I need in this release and I suspect it is only better in V8 and V9, which I found no reason ot upgrade to , since I do my 3D modelling in Solidworks. I use the included Correl bitmap to vecotr converter extensively, then I trace needed lines over the scaled image - works great for me, it takes me a long time to design a ship, but it is me, not Turbocad

I might not be the best or most knowlegable source for questions for using Turbocad, but I did start all my designs from 3 view bitmaps from print

Good luck!

Joe Finkelstine
Old 12-29-2003, 10:47 AM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

I have a total of three and one half hours of pushing buttons on 9.2. That is not a lot of time to play with some new software.

BMatthews I knew it could do it but just could not find the right button. The box only had the CD and no book with it so I am just feeling around in the dark right now. The simple tutorials they have are way to basic. They show you how to draw a line, circle, square and a rectangle. The basic editing they show is not very help full either. It would be like showing you how to press the buttons on a key board.

This program is so much better then the oldModel CAD.

Dru.
Old 12-29-2003, 02:12 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

I'm trying to set fine snap grid and coarse visible grid.
how do you do that?
I can only create snap grid and visible grid to be of same intervals.

------------------------------------------

figured out. frequency was the answer.

I thought spacing and frequency ment the same thing.
Old 12-29-2003, 02:27 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Hi Parebellum,
Keep in mind, I have V7 pro, so your menus may be a bit different than mine

To set a coarse visible grid, go to options - drawing setup and there are two menus for grid set up - one being advanced. You can get pretty fancy on grid visibility and density with this. - Keep in mind that this setup does not effect snap aperture. IMHO,The snap does not generally work best via a grid I would suggest that you think of it as an object snap. The first thing to setup is the snap aperture in the preferences dialog (also under options) this is effectively a diameter (or radius, I forget) that sets how far the snap function will look for a given entity/object you set the snap command to. For example, when you set snap to a vertex, the vertex must lie within the circle whose diameter (radius) is centered at the cursor location to be picked.

You can of course set the cursor to snap to the grid, which I do on occasion, but I find snapping to end points, mid-points, arc centers, etc., far more useful than a snap grid. I have never tried to set a grid of different visible density than the snap grid, so I don't know if that will work. In designing 3 ships so far, I don't remember setting my snap to a grid at all, but I did learn the key shortcuts for snap to vertex, arc center, etc. very well!

Hope that helps
Old 12-29-2003, 04:10 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Snap to grid if fine for some things but for MUCH more control look up SEKE (Single Entry Keyboard Equivalent I think) and learn to use the single key snap commands. I use the SEKE's more than I do the anything else. The mouse is just to direct the end point into the area so I can SEKE the elements to the grid or each other. It's this snap ability that makes any CAD so powerful.
Old 12-29-2003, 06:41 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

hey all,

got turbocad 8.1 cheap from a closing software store, i messed with designcad, autocad, correl draw, and IMHO, turbo is the easiest, at least from my limited experience that is. I have dozens upon dozens of .bmp, .jpeg, .gif files i would love to trace,import,transfer into turbocad but have not figured out how. do you guys know how,where i could get info on this???
when i first started with cading, the snaps made a lot of things easier, but some times harder too, no doing it by hand, no good old eraser widow i can select and erase at will, had to get use to modifing the lines and not "drawing" them, but i'll still learnin.
being able to accuratlly draw my ideas is a wonderful thing, if i could only get a cnc, 6 axis, liquid cooled, mill lathe dealy i'd really be happy

ROB of Rob & Chuck aka the twins
Old 12-29-2003, 07:08 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

i think its insert/pictures/from file



if there is an other way, I would like to hear.
Old 12-30-2003, 12:46 AM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

ok, here is the comparison.

same image of 2000x500 pixels has been imported to both cad.
upon magnification, you can clearly resolve 1 pixel thick lines on designcad, but not on turbocad.

I'm using insert/picture/from file

---------------------------

well, this forum crops images to width of 800 , but you can simply create images with two 1 pixel thick lines 1 pixel apart and test it.
the image has to be big though, like 2000 pixel wide.
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Old 12-30-2003, 10:41 AM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Hi All,
I guess my thoughts here on incorporating pictures into TurboCad depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I started with a magazine that had a 3 view of a historical airplane from WWII that I wanted to design and build. So, I scanned the magazine into a computer file ( resulting in a 600 DPI Black and white TIFF file) and that was my starting point. Now, one of the basic problems for us RC's in doing this is scaling the image to the size we need. I like 1/5 scale war-birds, and this ususally results in an airplane about 90" in wingspan. The average 3 view in a magazine are typically 1/72 scale, so I am usually scaling drawings in the 10X-20X range ( final scale depends on lots of things). If I just attempt to scale a tiff ( or any other raster image) I get a few problems. One is that the thickness of lines becomes a major problem for tracing. In a raster image, when you scale up, everything scales, including the thickness of lines - this is a big problem for my use. The second issue that arrizes is the loss of connectivity - On the original drawing a complex geometry will often be obliterated when you scale it up - think about zooming into an image on the web - you start to see the image is made up of "blocks" - well, by scaling up, this "blocking" effect can become so large as to make it difficult to reconstruct the original intent of the geometry. - To get around this, I use a utility included with Turbocad V7 from Correl. It is a utility that converts raster files like Tiff to vector files like DXF. Since DXF is a vector file, both of my primary problems go away when I scale. Lines stay 1 pixel wide no matter how file is scaled, and circles and such generally maintain their shape and intent. So, instead of importing an image, I convert the image to dxf and then import the dxf file. I then place the DXF file on a layer I call Outline, protect it and use it as reference to draw my actual structure on other edit layers. My use is specialized, so this might not apply to you, but the two uses I have seen are the one I use, and people who take an image and "burn" it into another medium, such as a wood plaque. I have not actually attempted that (primarily because laser CNC machines are very, very expensive and out of this tinkerer's budget!)

Hope this helps - feel free to ask more questions if I left anyone confused

Joe Finkelstine
Old 12-30-2003, 01:00 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

could you specify for me where that function is located in the menu?

tia
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Old 12-30-2003, 01:13 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Hi Parabellum,
If I read your qeustion corectly, you are asking where the convert raster to vector menu pick is located. Well, unfortunately, it is not in Turbocad itself. (again keeping in mind I have V7 and things probably changed in V8 or V9) On my installation disk is a utility included from the makers of Corel called Corel OCR-trace. I think it is originally intended for OCR work, but it does good raster to vector conversions. It is a seperate intall on my V7 disk
Old 12-30-2003, 08:12 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

I am glad I come to this forum. I have been playing with importing and converting from other formats. I have a couple of JPEG's that Turbocad will not open. If I open them, them copy to it to a new folder Turbocad will open it. I still have not found out how to get Turbocad to read a Adobbe files and I have the free version and I can not save it as another format.

Alan over on the CNCZONE has sent me his used 2D and 3D manuals for Turbocad. It is going to cost me a totla of $9.00 for these manual. I have been reading the free manual you can down load from IMSI. It is 271 pages so I dont think I will be printing it out.

The more I play with it the more I am impressed with what it can do for the price.


Dru.
Old 12-30-2003, 10:33 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

JPEG do have numerous sub formats, some of which some software doesn't know how to handle.

for my bitmap format conversion, I use Paintshop Pro.
PSP will open and save virtually any bitmap format that's available out there.

http://www.jasc.com/

they have version 8 now. should handle anything and everything, as long as
they are bitmap (raster,pixel thingy)

but I use version 4, much compacter version, fast to load, don't have to register. you can find it somewhere on the web.

for 3D files, I recommand Deep Exploration by

http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/index.htm

again, virtually handles any 3D formats available out there, nice 3d viewer too.
open and save 3d files of all sorts. even opens files inside zip file! amazing!


I Don't know about 2D vector drawing converters though.


and what do you mean by adobe files?
pdf? if so, I know the solution.
Old 12-31-2003, 11:32 AM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Yep. My fingers got in front of the brain and it came Adobbe instead of PDF. I have heard that the $400.00 version has all of the other formats included.

I have found that this TurboCAD will be costing me lots of paper and ink. I have printed 5 plans that were atleast 30 pages of 8.5X11 inch paper. I am having fun with this program. I printed out a design that looked like a Reno Mustang. It was the first thing I have been able to draw that looked like something other then a Spiro-Graph image. I found the edit node function by pure dumb luck.

Dru.
Old 12-31-2003, 02:37 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Glow...1377393/tm.htm

I have described a method of extracting vector data from pdf and save it as dxf.

It is not very simple, but reasonably tolerable and useable method, and
all the sharewares are free!.

-------------------------------

btw, is there way to modify multiple nodes at once with turbocad?
I can only modify one node at a time right now, and can't figure out how to
select multiple nodes and move them at the same time.
multiple nodes of multiple elements.
Old 12-31-2003, 03:54 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

Dru and Parabellum, check out Post #7 for a Top Ten list of TurboCAD hints I did in [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1284982/mpage_1/key_turbocad/anchor/tm.htm#1284982]THIS THREAD[/link] .

The Node Edit really pays off when you're working with multi point objects. I use it extensively for adjusting curves. Another hint. When it's time to edit the curves you can break them up into diagonal segments using the Split Entity tool. This comes in handy so you can alter the canopy without affecting the rear deck. Or the upper fuselage line without affecting the nose shape or whatever. I do a lot of sailplane design doodles and the nose, upper fuselage and fin all start as one smooth curve. But to edit it I find it's helpful to break 'em up after the initial shaping.
Old 12-31-2003, 08:27 PM
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Default RE: drawing plan using turbocad

BMatews. Thanks for the tips. Right now I am just a cave man beating on a piano with this program. I did get the 2D and 3D manuals from Alan over on CNCzone. I am finding TurboCAD does more then I thought it would.

Dru.

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