Hi Dion,
Welcome to the Forum!
I gather from your very general questions that you are very new to TURBOfloorplan, so I can imagine that it appears a little daunting, not knowing quite where to start, especially when you have a house style that is a little different to what the Home Builder Wizard will produce.
Once you understand the basic concepts you will realise however, that it is very easy and if you are used to using TurboCAD then you should have little trouble catching on. It is infinitely easier than TurboCAD and once you know the tools what you have described would only take a minute or two!
First I will say that I do not understand what you mean by "a full scribe, Swedish cope". It does not mean anything to me, and we never see log homes in Australia, so I am just imagining some of the 'snow country' type houses we see in movies. That said, the way of building in TFP is the same, regardless of the style, and the finish, whether logs, bricks, metal roof or siding, is just a texture applied to the surface. It is just a few clicks to change a brick and tile roof house into a log and metal roof one, simply by changing the exterior texture.
I am assuming now that you know virtually nothing about how to do it, so please excuse me if you are already familiar with the program.
For the basic layout do the following:
1) Go to Settings/ Building Locations and change the Ground Floor ceiling and wall heights from 8' to 10'. This controls all vertical settings in the program for each Location.
2) In plan view, Select a Wall and click, drag, click, drag etc to make a rough rectangle that JOINS at the four corners.
3) Click one wall and drag it in or out so that the measurement is 40'. Click, drag one of the other walls so that it is 32'. (or you can click one of the dimension figures and type the measurement in. (You now have your 4 basic walls)
4) Select a wall, right click and choose "Select All Similar". (This will highlight all the walls as selected)
5) With all selected right click and choose Properties.
6) On the Basic tab set the Core (thickness) of the wall and change the Type to Logs. (This removes the automatic timber frame inside the wall surfaces). While still there ....
7) On the Appearance tab Select Exterior, Click on Select or on the texture/colour itself and in the top section of the pop-up box choose Siding Generic. In the bottom section scroll down to the Logs Walls (there should be 4 to choose from) and select one. (This will make your exterior walls look like logs). While you are there you can choose a colour/texture for the inside of the walls too - note there is a right and left inside so change both if you want.
You should now have 4 log walls 10' high (probably with a timber floor as that is usually automatically inserted by default).
8 ) In plan view: Click the Roof icon, select a 45 degree roof and just click inside the 4 walls.
9) Select the roof, right click and select Properties and on the Appearance tab choose a metal roof. (Note if you want corrugated iron you can add this in by right clicking in the lower part of the dialog box, where all the roof materials are, and select Add Material. This will open another huge selection of textures you can add - scroll down to Corrugated....)
10) To make the gables: Select the roof and note the arrow colours. The edge of the roof you clicked on will be green. Click the two arrows on the ends you want to be gables, so that these are green and the others red. Now right click and on the Basic tab click the Roof Shape (Hip) icon and choose Gable. Then while you are still on the Basic tab.....
11) If you want the Gable ends to be a different texture (eg vertical siding) tick the box in Parameters "Display Gable", then go to the Appearance tab, select Gable and choose a texture for the gable ends. You now have a 45 degree metal roof with gables, over the 4 log walls.
At this point you may want to switch to 3D (on the View Menu choose 3D Cameras / 3D Perspective View) and you will see the basic log cabin in 3D and you can use the walk, rotate and other navigation tools to move around it.
From your description it is a bit hard to tell exactly how the garage fits into the basic structure, so....
If the Garage walls are the same height and hence the roof is at the same level, then the initial wall could be drawn in an L shape (if that is how it goes) - or you can add them in after doing the basic walls. However, if you add them in later, do it before you add the roof as the roof on the garage needs to be added at the same time - as I said IF they are at the SAME LEVEL.
If the Garage roof is at a different level (lower walls), then you need to add a new Location for the garage. Go to Settings/ Building Locations, Select the Ground Floor and click the Add Location button. It will add a new Default location (change name to Garage) with the same settings as the Ground Floor. Change the Wall and Ceiling height as needed. NOW you can draw the garage with its own (lower) roof on the Garage location. It must have 4 joining walls, so if one joins to the house, complete the enclosure by using the Room Divide tool (invisible wall) to make the joining wall. If the garage cuts into the basic house shape then a Room Divide (invisible wall) would be needed in that section of the main house wall to keep it enclosed and hence support the roof. (I am trying not to get too technical here, but these may be issues you will run into depending on how the garage fits in).
Doors and windows - just select them and drop them into the walls and slide them along to where you want them.
To get it into TurboCAD later you will have to use File / Export / 2D Drawing.
No doubt you will have other questions so just ask. Probably someone will know what a Swedish cope is (I guarantee Robert will as he is Swedish I think), so one of us will be able to help. At least this may get you started.
EDIT: Just for fun I added a bit of landscaping! Looked boring without it!
Allan
