TurboCAD 2024 adds even more features

There may be no better value in general-purpose CAD programs

For years, IMSI Design consistently included every possible feature in its TurboCAD product. Full disclosure: I used to work for IMSI. Back when CAD was delivered in a box, the joke was that no more would fit in the box. Even then, TurboCAD (if measured by capability over price) was a value leader. In the late 1990s, TurboCAD Pro added the ACIS kernel, and it became functionally equivalent to AutoCAD — but at the same price of Autodesk’s lower-capability AutoCAD LT.

In recent years, TurboCAD may have begun trailing AutoCAD which has increased functionality and ease of use. That said, the top-of-the-line TurboCAD 2024 Platinum is still a darn good deal. Engineers can get it for $1,499 and own it forever, whereas that amount would only let them rent AutoCAD for nine months. Plus AutoCAD is never discounted, and TurboCAD often is — making the deal even sweeter.

The most striking improvement is how solid models look in TurboCAD 2024, which uses the TurboLux rendering engine, a graphics engine IMSI Design introduced as the “first of its kind” physics-based renderer, according to IMSI Design president Bob Meyer.

TurboLux employs the host computer’s CPU and GPUs, including parallel processors for multi-threaded rendering routines. The TurboLux library features hundreds of materials.

TurboCAD can be configured to look like AutoCAD LT.

TurboCAD can be configured to look like AutoCAD LT.

TurboCAD 2024 can be configured to look and work like AutoCAD LT — complete with toolbars, command lines, and keyboard shortcuts that are similar and, in some cases, nearly identical to those of the LT user interface. Could this lead to the migration from Autodesk about which IMSI Design has long dreamt?

Just when it seemed there was no more to add to 2D tools, TurboCAD made a couple of additions:

  • Points along a path puts points at a specific distance apart or equally spaced along lines or curves.
  • TurboCAD adds the ability to create flow charts with shapes and connectors, like in Microsoft’s Visio.
TurboCAD 2024 creates surfaces from sets of parallel polylines.

TurboCAD 2024 creates surfaces from sets of parallel polylines.

TurboCAD 2024 makes especially robust 2D and 3D spline-based shapes. Engineers can analyze 2D splines for G2 continuity so that curves are ultrasmooth with visual indicators of continuity; rays perpendicular to the curve vary in length according to the first derivative of the curve so curvature mismatches are very apparent.

A Blend Curves command reconstructs existing 2D geometry to minimize the radius of curvature.

But for 3D surfaces, the domain of enterprise CAD software, TurboCAD may have raised the value bar with helix, curve from law, spline, and Bezier tools along with lofting (also called skinning) so now users can employ a Select Sweep Path tool to create surfaces.

TurboCAD 2024 will create a mesh surface from contour lines.

TurboCAD 2024 will create a mesh surface from contour lines.

Architectural Improvements

Lest we forget, TurboCAD is a general-purpose CAD program, meaning that, like AutoCAD, it can be used for mechanical and architectural design. There are a couple architectural enhancements worth mentioning.

  • In architecture or landscaping, one can create a terrain from a set of isolines represented by polylines.
  • Sun direction can be determined from geolocation for architectural rendering.

See a list of features in TurboCAD 2024 Platinum and a comparison to other TurboCAD versions
here.