A Tutorial for TurboCAD Pro

Used for designing 3-D structures such as buildings and industrial machinery, TurboCAD Pro includes multiple functions and tool sets. Its tool set includes commands for creating both predefined 3-D forms called primitives, and for converting 2-D shapes into 3-D forms. An essential task of learning TurboCAD is navigating though 3-D space. Component actions of this task include orbiting, zooming and panning -- the same actions a movie camera performs. Learning TurboCAD provides an user with the skills needed to create blueprints and other precise graphical specifications.

• 1

  Open TurboCAD, then press "Control-N" to display the "New Project" dialog box. Click the "New from Scratch" icon to create a new document with a canvas for drawing upon. This step begins a project that introduces several TurboCAD features to use in subsequent projects.

• 2

  Highlight and click the "Insert" menu, then click the "Line" sub-menu's "Polyline" tool, which allows drawing a polygon with an arbitrary number of segments.

• 3

  Click anywhere on the drawing canvas to plot the polyline's first point, then drag to another screen location. The program extends a straight line between the polyline's first point and the mouse cursor.

• 4

  Complete the first segment by clicking, then drag to begin another. Click to finish the second segment, then drag to another canvas location to begin segment three.

• 5

  Right-click and select "Arc" to turn the straight line segment to a curved segment. Right-click again and select "Close" to tell TurboCAD to complete the polygon by drawing a segment connecting the last one with the first.

• 6

  Select the "Insert" menu, then select the "3-D Object" sub-menu.

• 7

  Execute the "Simple Extrude" command, which lets you "stretch" 2-D shapes into 3-D objects.

• 8

  Click the polygon you finished in step 5 to select it for extrusion, then drag slightly upward or downward to specify the extrusion depth. The polygon's new top or bottom moves with the mouse cursor.

• 9

  Finish the extrusion by clicking and view the custom 3-D object created.

• 10

  Highlight and click the left toolbar's "Select" icon, then click the object to select it. The object then displays handles for rotating and sizing.

• 11

  Grab one of the blue corner handles, then drag to size the object in a way that maintains the shape's relative dimensions, such as height to width and width to depth. Click to complete the sizing operation, then drag an edge of the box surrounding the object to size the object in a way that doesn't maintain the relative dimensions. Make the width much larger in relation to the height as an example.

• 12

  Drag any of the green handles connected to the "X," "Y," or "Z" axes emerging from the object's center to rotate the box in any direction.

• 13

  Hold and click the middle mouse button, then drag to orbit around the object. This action allows you to inspect each of the object's faces.

• 14

  Press and hold "Shift," then click and hold the middle mouse button again. Drag to rotate the viewpoint, which allows inspection of a particular face of the object at different orientations.

• 15

  Drag with the middle mouse button held down, while pressing "Control" and "Alt." This zooms the view into and out from the object. Repeat this step, but with "Control" and "Shift" pressed, to pan the view.