Architectural Design Tools for TurboCAD Pro 16

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition includes an integrated suite of architectural tools that accelerate productivity in 2D or 3D design and drafting, or in the documentation of existing compatible 3D architectural models.

The TurboCAD AEC objects are AutoCAD® Architecture (ACA) compatible so that .DWG models with ACA extensions may be read, modified, and documented as needed.

Using self-healing walls is dramatically faster than designing with standard double line tools.

The TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition Wall Tool includes Compound Wall definitions to generate multiple-component walls with separate design parameters such as width, offset, and even hatches to represent each material within the wall.

Because AutoCAD includes object enablers for AEC wall objects, a design from TurboCAD Pro will keep its self-healing properties even when modified in the basic AutoCAD, or AutoCAD LT®, neither of which includes the tools necessary to create the architectural objects.

The integration of the tools facilitates productivity: create a roof automatically by selecting the walls; add a railing to stairs with a click; drop in a schedule and see all the elements generated on the fly.

Using the wall, stair, and other tools can be an effective way to kick off a project to be designed in SketchUp™. Save it as an .SKP or explode the walls and import the file into SketchUp, create faces from the outline: begin extruding the walls and add depth to the slab, add doors, windows, and other details. Then bring the .SKP back into TurboCAD Pro to prepare elevations, add dimensions, and complete your construction documentation.

Walls & Compound Walls

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition provides the tools to quickly design floorplans by using the wall tool. Self-healing straight or curved walls speed design over conventional 2D drafting with double line tools.

Cleaning up intersections, moving walls, adding columns, windows, doors, and more is tedious with standard double lines, but not with the wall tool. Simply adjust the wall properties to add height and immediately see the 3D design take shape.

Not only do walls heal properly and automatically at intersections, but they may be easily moved, cut, have openings inserted, and through the styles manager, may be made into compound walls with different wall styles selected. This adds appropriate hatches and fills, line weights, colors, and more for each layer of the wall, and different styles may be made for interior, exterior, load-bearing, non-load-bearing, or any other type of wall you design.

Polylines may be converted to walls, and then styles applied, to quickly modify or start a project. Blocks, whether standard, imported, or created on-the-fly, may be inserted into walls, and the walls will heal and automatically align the blocks.

As an integrated set of architectural tools, the walls also treat parametric AEC Door and AEC Window objects accurately and heal correctly, and the walls share information with the roof and slab tools for auto-generation of correct dimensions and roof lines.

Because the walls are AEC objects recognized by AutoCAD® object enablers for AutoCAD Architecture, a project with self-healing walls started in TurboCAD Pro will continue to be self-healing in AutoCAD, making the AutoCAD experience better as well.

Parametric Doors & Windows

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition provides several parametric AEC door and AEC window objects. They are style driven, and multiple door and window styles may be created beyond those that are included.

AEC doors and windows that are inserted into self-healing walls are also recognized by AutoCAD object enablers, so they will be accurately represented in AutoCAD or AutoCAD Architecture (ACA), even though neither AutoCAD, nor AutoCAD LT have the tools necessary to create them (for that you need ACA, or applications like TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition or DoubleCAD XT PRO, also from IMSI/Design).

These items are intelligent as well as parametric. This means they work well with the suite of other architectural tools. Doors and windows communicate with the auto-generated schedule tool, and they understand how to interact with walls.

This is yet another productivity advance over simply using standard blocks, double lines, and tables in AutoCAD LT.

Among the defined styles already available in TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition are:

20 Parametric Door Types – Single, Double, Single-hung, Double-hung, Double Opposing, Uneven, Uneven-hung, Uneven Opposing, Bifold, Bifold-Double, Pocket, Double Pocket, Sliding Double, Sliding Triple, Overhead, Revolving, Pass Through, Accordion, Panel, and Communicating.
7 Parametric Door Shapes – Rectangular, Half Round, Quarter Round, Arch, Gothic, Peak Pentagon, and Custom.
15 Parametric Window Types – Picture, Single Hung, Double Hung, Awning Transom, Double Casement, Glider, Hopper Transom, Pass Through, Single Casement, Single Hopper, Single Awning, Vertical Pivot, Horizontal Pivot, Uneven Single Hung, and Uneven Double Hung.
14 Parametric Window Shapes – Rectangular, Round, Half Round, Quarter Round, Oval, Arch, Trapezoid, Gothic, Isosceles Triangle, Right Triangle, Peak Pentagon, Octagon, Hexagon, and Custom.

Stairs, Rails, Slabs, & Roofs

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition can automatically generate roofs or slabs from wall objects.

It understands the wall definitions and shapes, including arc walls, and generates the right rooflines based on object property settings for overhangs, pitch, and more. They can be easily modified for different slopes on different faces as well.

Slabs such as concrete spandrels or others can be created in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Holes can be added in different shapes and dimensions to accommodate columns, elevator shafts, or stair wells.

Stairs may be added and managed parametrically, whether straight, curved, spiral, u-shaped, multi-landing, or other configuration. Their properties can be managed to determine the specific riser height, width, number of steps, and easily define landing styles and turns.

Rails can be added to one or both sides of stairs with a click. Object properties that can be defined include rail locations, post locations, rail extensions, and styles may be created for those rails to be applied elsewhere.

Markers & Schedules

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition includes all the expected architectural marker tools, and has great flexibility in setting the mark properties to assist with proper annotation.

The product also includes a schedule tool that generates a table with all doors, windows, slabs, walls, and more, with the properties listed by style, and quantity by style. This can be inserted directly into the layout (paper space) and saves valuable time.

Styles Management

TurboCAD Pro Architectural Edition architectural tools are driven by styles.

Individual styles may be created, modified, and managed so that appearance, size, and attribute information will appear in schedules. Additional styles may be read from existing AutoCAD Architecture .DWG drawings so that information is not lost and your intellectual property is protected.

TurboCAD even reads custom Dimension and Text styles which are automatically extracted from an imported .DWG drawing and saved into the style manager under the appropriate section.

Changes to doors, windows, and other objects may be made globally at a styles level, or locally for control over an individual part. This provides tremendous flexibility and productivity in both design and revision.

Nearly every aspect of an architectural object type may be defined in the style manager down to the last detail.

Section / Elevation Tool

Create 2D or 3D sections and elevations of any 3D object - horizontal, vertical, or user defined. Great for examining custom cross sections of buildings. These architectural sections create a bitmap image for illustration purposes.

If you are looking for more complete, associative 2D sections, the Drafting Palette now supports Architectural (surface) models created in TurboCAD, or brought into TurboCAD from SketchUp or other design programs.

Terrain
Place your design on a hillside or uneven terrain. Create terrains from scratch by importing Triangular Irregular Network (.TIN) data from standard file formats. Even create terrain objects from selected points.