Free Turbo CAD Tutorial: Free Turbocad Tutorials

Free Turbo CAD Tutorial: Free Turbocad Tutorials

Turbo cad has lots of powerful features but the following five operations explained here in this turbo cad tutorial will be enough to start working with the package. Most of the turbo cad operations can be performed either from the icons or from the menu options. The GUI is pretty similar to Auto CAD and so some of the operations. But, don’t press the Esc button every now and then between or after any operations, just go on for the next operation. You can use the Space button for activating the select tool. After activating the Select button you can click any already created geometry for editing.

Have a look at the GUI of the Turbo Cad below:

The GUI is quite similar to that of good old AutoCAD. Now, let’s discuss about the five most important basic operations for a turbo cad beginner:

1.Setting the Units: By default, the drawing unit is set at the English system (i.e., inch etc). In case you want to change the unit system, go to options → drawing setup → space units and you will get a dialogue box like below:

Turbocad Units

Now look at the two radio buttons there (English and Metric), select one of them based on your unit system requirement. You can see few other options available there as well; most of them are self explanatory so not explaining them, except the last option (convert units after alteration). If you uncheck this option and change the unit system from say metric to English, then all the dimension numbers will remain same even after the change of measuring units. For example, if you have a 100mm X 100 mm rectangle and change the unit system to English (inch) and uncheck the option, then the dimensions of the rectangle will become 100 inch X 100 inch after unit conversion. And while unit conversion for the example, if you check the option then the size of the rectangle will become 3.93 mm X 3.93 mm.

2. Line: You can create line in turbo cad by two methods: either by using the line icon or by using the menu option.

See the picture of the turbo cad GUI above and the line icon marked in it. If by default, the icon is not there then just right click anywhere outside the drawing area and you will get the customize dialogue box, check the drawing tools option there and you will see the line, circle, hatch and some other icons in your GUI.

Now hit the Line icon and go on clicking the points for constructing the line/ lines. Alternatively you can select a point by entering the coordinate values at the bottom right corner; also you can enter the length and inclination value of the line after entering the first point of the line.

For creating the line using menu option you have to go to insert →line → single and you will get the same options on your screen as you got after clicking the Line icon.

3. Circle: Hit the circle icon there and specify the centre and radius. You can specify the centre and radius either by clicking in the drawing area or by entering the values at the bottom of the drawing area. The fields at the bottom right corner are for entering the coordinates of the centre and the fields of the bottom left corner are for specifying the radius or diameter.

Alternatively you can go by menu options, for that go to: insert →circle/ellipse and you will get the different circle creation options there.

4. Hatch: Click on the hatch icon there directly or click on the small black triangle at the bottom right corner of the icon to get the other hatch options. After clicking the suitable hatch icon you have to define the boundary either by clicking the surrounding points or by clicking inside the boundary area depending upon the hatch option you have chosen.

5. Dimension: By default, the dimension toolbar should be available around your drawing window, in case if not, then right click anywhere outside the drawing window and check the dimension option there. Now click on the type of dimension icon based on your need and go ahead with the dimensioning.

Conclusion

The turbo cad tutorial discusses some of the important basic turbo cad operations. Use the space bar for terminating any operation and activate the select tool. After activating the select tool you can select any cad entities any change its property.