PlanRoom Central is an architectural design company in Arizona that primarily uses TurboCAD for the design and development of working residential house drawings. The company was basically developed from day one with TurboCAD. The company’s owner, Kevin Mendenhall, purchased his first copy of TurboCAD V5 because of its affordable price. After realizing the power of the software, Kevin went on to develop a drawing system that is still used today at PlanRoom Central, and is also used by people around the world who have purchased the TurboCAD Architectural Tutorial offered by IMSI / Design. Kevin originally developed the tutorial for employees, so that they would have all the resources needed to design homes with Kevin’s system available to them without having to train each person individually. Kevin contacted Bob Mayer at IMSI about the possibility of offering this aid to TurboCAD customers; Bob was interested and started offering the product in 2005. There is no other Cad software company that offers such a complete CAD package along with training CD’s that set the user up to design homes so completely, and affordably. Architects and Drafters are usually extremely protective of their drawings and templates, Kevin has included everything needed in the tutorial as well as instruction on how to customize it. Actual post from the TurboCAD Forum “ I Just read this thread today.... because I just finished my Arch. Drawings for my house. They're at the city!!! And Printed to D Size from PDF, thanks to this forum, no less. Permits any day now.... I purchased Kevin's Training CD the day it was available (November). I immediately trashed my own drawing setup and started from scratch with Kevin's templates. Hint: do NOT think in 3D. I KNOW I've saved myself THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (but not time) from a hired drafter. My builder was impressed, and the Plan Check Guy for the city wanted all the info on Kevin's Tutorial. The Drawings are perfect, and have been so easy to change or update. The Tutorial is worth way more than $100 (to me). BTW, a friend of mine has a guy doing their house with ACTUAL pencil and paper, not rendered mind you. Minor changes take 2-3 WEEKS! Ouch. In my REAL job I use TurboCAD for mech drawings in 3D. I'd settled into a certain way of doing things, they work OK. But NOW I have powers beyond my wildest dreams. Beyond the EXCELLENT template, toolbar configs, drawing setups and arch. tutorial, I learned so many new tidbits, I'm contemplating charging the tutorial to my work account. In any case, I do things faster now, I have more understanding of TCAD, and a few hairs left on my head. Thanks Kevin, et al for your Help.” Without TurboCAD, PlanRoom Central may have never become what it is today. Most CAD packages are extremely cost prohibitive or don’t have the functionality required to do a true set of working house drawings. TurboCAD is undoubtedly the most powerful CAD program available in its price range. PlanRoom Central has completed over 500 new residential homes, residential additions, and commercial projects with TurboCAD. PlanRoom Central is also a large format printing facility and uses TurboCAD to convert certain file types into more printer friendly files. Most of the drafters at PlanRoom Central are ex-tradesmen who had limited computer experience, but with the ease of use of the program itself, were able to make the transition from working on the job to designing homes in less than a month. “I was quoted approximately $10,000.00 dollars to get set up to design homes with another CAD package and the computer that I was told that I needed to run it. I went to see Kevin Mendenhall and he was able to get me set up for less than $1200.00, and that included TurboCAD, the tutorial, and the computer. Kevin had me design some garages to get my feet wet in my first month with TurboCAD, and I was designing full homes in my second month and making a living as a home designer. TurboCAD is an invaluable resource for the typical small contractor, even if he or she does not intend to design the house from the ground up. The typical contractor can develop the floor plan, make any adjustments with his clients, and send that TurboCAD file to a company such as PlanRoom Central to do the final structural design.” Matthew Snape Chief Home Designer PlanRoom Central PlanRoom Central is a big advocate of TurboCAD, we have helped several people / customers in our own area to step into a role in their own companies that they thought would have been nearly impossible otherwise. That’s not to say that TurboCAD is going to do all the work for you, but is a tremendous tool for getting those ideas out of your head and onto paper. No matter what discipline of CAD (Mechanical, Architectural, etc.) you intend to tackle, it is of coarse necessary to know or study those subjects as well. As we all know, there is no better teacher than experience.