ToolTalk: Taking a look at TurboCAD 2022 latest features

TurboCAD® 2022 is the latest release of IMSI’s comprehensive professional 2D/3D CAD software for MS Windows. It includes hundreds of drawing tools, an optional AutoCAD®-like 2D drafting interface with command line and dynamic input cursor, 3D modeling tools, photorealistic rendering, and extensive file importing and exporting support.

IMSI Design President, Bob Mayer tells us:

TurboCAD is a large product with many features aimed at a variety of markets. The new 2022 edition is packed with new and improved features. Here we look at some of the additions and improvements that architects and designers are likely to enjoy. Please note that not all features detailed below are available in all TurboCAD 2022 packages.

Architectural features

NEW: AEC grid Keep Label Value (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

A new property called ‘’Keep label value” has been added to the AEC Grids. The new option adds the ability to save the axis name without changing it, regardless of the order of the axes in the grid. With this option enabled, users can automatically move the axis to any position without having to rename it.

NEW: AEC Radial Grid (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum & Professional packages only)

A new AEC Grid, “Radial Grid,” has been added to the Architecture menu. This Radial grid is a new tool that makes it easy to align other radial architectural objects in the drawing, such as curved walls and columns.

NEW: Slab Edge Styles support (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum & Professional packages only)

A new category called “Slab Edge Styles” has been added to the Style Manager. Now users can edit the slab edge styles via a new edit mode. Using edge styles, you can specify dimensions, such as the overhang length and the orientation and angle of the edges. Users can also specify a fascia and soffit for the edge style. With this new feature, it is now possible to edit slab edge style by activating the “Edge Style” option in the edit mode.

IMPROVED: Roof tools (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional and Deluxe Software packages only)

A new local menu option called “Overhang” has been added to the Roof tools. Users can now edit overhangs for each side of the roof.

IMPROVED: Wall, window, and door tools (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

A new local menu option, “Anchor to AEC Grid” has been added to the walls, windows, and doors. When this option is enabled, the ends of the architectural object anchor to the AEC grid. The end position of the object changes in accordance with edits made to the AEC grid.

Performance, user interface, and usability features

NEW: Undo Manager Palette (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

A new Palette, “Undo Manager Palette,” has been added to the list of palettes. The palette displays all the steps performed and allows users to switch back and forth. The step breakdown allows users to switch from one drawing state to another with a single click bypassing intermediate states.

IMPROVED: Render Studio Enhancement (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum Only)

Render Studio Enhancements include user interface scale support and Advanced Render dialog updates.

NEW: Search Option for Drawing and Program – new feature (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

A new Search bar has been added to both the “Program Setup” and “Drawing Setup” dialog boxes. This allows users to find the various options contained in each dialog. The search bar makes it easy for the users to search for different options available in whole Drawing Setup or Program Setup dialog boxes, rather than having to hunt for them manually.

IMPROVED: Keyboard Report Enhancement (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

A few enhancements have been made to the “Keyboard Report”. These include automatic row highlighting on mouse hover, local menu description, and command icons for Default (dark) and Classic (light) themes being added to the report.

2D Drafting and Annotation

NEW: Ability to interrupt Wireframe GDI draw (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

TurboCAD now has the ability to interrupt native GDI draw by pressing the “Escape” key. This is very helpful when editing a large drawing. Previously, without this ability to interrupt, the user would have to wait to finish a GDI draw after each action. A Progress Indicator has also been added.

Smart Dimension Tool – improved feature (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

The Smart Dimensioning tool is now fully associative between Model and Paper spaces. Changes made to a Smart Dimension in Model Spaces will automatically be updated inside of any Viewport in Paper space which includes that Smart Dimension.

3D Design and Modeling features

NEW: Selector has a new “Keep Size” option (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum & Professional packages only)

A new option, “Keep Size,” has been added to the 2D and 3D Selector’s Local Menu. When enabled, this option scales the distances between the selected objects without scaling the objects themselves.

NEW: Program Setup, Preferences Options has a new option “Highlight selection in renders” (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional and Deluxe packages)

A new option, “Highlight selection in renders,” has been added to the Preferences of Program Setup. This option allows the user to disable drawing of the selected objects in all camera modes, except GDI modes (Wireframe\Native Wireframe and Hidden Line\Hidden Line). Enabling this option can cut down on render time and allow for a more accurate selection of objects to be rendered.

NEW: Toggle Selection Highlighting (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional and Deluxe packages only)

A new menu item, “Toggle Selection Highlighting,” has been added to the Program Setup menu. It’s a toggle option that turns on/off the “Highlight selection in renders” option in the Preferences menu. This option is a convenient and the fastest way to turn on/off Selection Highlighting Option available in the Program setup menu.

NEW: TurboCAD Content Server Palette (All TurboCAD 2022 packages)

This is a newly introduced Palette in TurboCAD 2022, which gives users access to over 700,000+ files. The user is shown the directory structure on the server and can Drag n Drop the files directly into the TC drawing.

NEW: Associative Intersections (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

 

A new local menu option, “Associative Intersections,” has been added to the Intersection tool. If this option is enabled, the intersection curves created get associated with the 3D objects. That is, with the movement of the intersecting objects, the intersecting curves get updated accordingly.

Associative sections – new feature (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

The Architectural Grid is a new tool that makes it easier to align other architectural objects in the drawing, such as walls and columns. Users can also import rectangular grids from DWG drawings and can change the properties of the grid and bubble representation via the Selection Info palette.

NEW: Surface on Face: has a new “Offset” option (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

A new local menu option entitled “Offset” has been added to the Surface on Face tool. This defines the offset of the surface from the object. When the surface is being created, users have the option to create it with a positive or negative offset from the source object.

IMPROVED: Selection Information Palette Highlight (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional and Deluxe packages only)

Selection Information’s Highlight option functionality has been improved. If only one object is selected, then such a highlight is meaningless and potentially harmful. Therefore, highlight selection would not work if only one object is selected.

IMPROVED: Updated ACIS® Solid Modeling Engine (Booleans, blends, shelling (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

The core of TurboCAD Platinum is driven by the ACIS 2022 solid modeling geometry engine from Dassault Systems. ACIS is a robust modeling engine that supports wireframe, surface/NURB, solids, direct face editing, and numerous feature operations such as Booleans, blends, shells, and warping. TurboCAD 2022 updates to the underlying solid modeling engine offer improvements to the following features:

• Multithreading
• Booleans
• Constant and Variable Radius Blends
• Direct Face Operations
• Shelling

Rendering and Visualization features

NEW: TurboLux (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional and Deluxe packages)

TurboLux is a state-of-the-art rendering engine which exploits Physically Based Rendering (PBR) techniques. PBR models light and materials based on the laws of physics, accurately simulating the flow of light, resulting in eye-popping images of photographic quality.

Support for PBR-compatible Materials for TurboCAD is included in the 2022 release, with over 800, fully-editable TurboLux materials in the TurboCAD Materials Palette. PBR Materials extend the traditional color mapping with normal, metallic, roughness, and height maps. Combined with shaders for matte, glossy, glass, car paint, and metal, these new materials enable renderings to look more realistic by simulating real-world imperfections such as scratches, roughness, smudges, or noise.

TurboLux uses OpenCL and/or CUDA to run on any number of CPUs or Nvidia-based GPUs that are available on your machine. This highly optimized rendering layer provides performance that scales nearly linearly with the number of available computing devices. Using this high-performance device layer, TurboLux extracts the most out of your computer’s available hardware, which results in faster, higher-quality rendered images.

IMPROVED: Visualize Render

Visualize Render has been improved with several new additions including:

1. Cutting Plane – new feature (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

Dynamic Cut Plane has been implemented for Visualize Render. Three pre-defined cut planes (XY, YZ, XZ) have been added to the Drawing Setup and Dynamic Cut Plane options. Ability to hatch section contours has also been added to the Dynamic Cut Plane Drawing Setup options.

Users can now use Dynamic Cut Plane while in Draft render. The 3 cut planes introduced (XY, YZ, XZ) make it easy to define the specific plane for the dynamic cut. The settings added to the Drawing Setup window help the user to select different filling pattern styles for the cut plane.

2 Auto Update Current View – improved feature (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional & Deluxe packages)

A new option, “Auto update current view,” has been added to the Draft Render in Camera Properties. When this option is enabled, the dialog parameter changes are immediately applied to the active window. Previously, the changes were applied only when clicking the “OK” button after selecting the options. But with this new option, the user is able to have immediate results when selecting/deselecting different options before even clicking the “OK” button.

3. Visual Styles Settings – improved feature (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional & Deluxe packages)

Visual Style Settings have been added to the named views. New draft rendering visual styles have been added to the Camera Properties -, X-Ray, Conceptual, Shades of Gray.

4. Camera Extended Parameters – new feature (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum, Professional & Deluxe packages)

A new set of extended parameters have been added to the Draft Rendering page of Camera Properties. These parameters are available for 3 visual style modes i.e., X-Ray, Conceptual, Shades of Gray. Each visual style has its own set of parameters. When changing the parameters, you can switch the styles from one to another. The extended parameters include Edge and Face mode/color-related settings.

File Support and interoperability features

IMPROVED: Professional Mechanical CAD File Translators (TurboCAD 2022 Platinum only)

TurboCAD’s precision data translators were developed by file format conversion experts Dassault Systems. Translators include precision neutral file formats such as STEP and IGES plus native support for a variety of CAD applications, including SolidWorks, CATIA, and NX. TurboCAD’s Interoperability solution not only provides data translation but integrates advanced features such as Geometry Repair, Topology Repair, and Tolerance Resolution to improve data compatibility between diverse systems. Interoperability updates to TurboCAD 2022 include:

• CREO 8 (new version support)
• CATIA v5-5 2022 (new version support)
• IGES, STEP (updates)
• NX 1980 Series (new version support)
• Parasolid 34 (new version support)
• SAT/SAB (updates)
• SolidEdge 2022 (new version support)
• SolidWorks 2022 (new version support)

Availability and pricing

• TurboCAD Platinum 2022 is now available for  USD 1,499.99 for a full, permanent license, or 499.99 USD per year for an annual subscription.
• TurboCAD Deluxe: USD 249.99.
• TurboCAD Designer: USD 69.99.

For more information, to download a 15-day trial, or to upgrade online, please click here.