New to CAD ! TFP questions, Cross Sections, A3 printing and Boarders / Text Boxs

[cwbyup]

Hi all,

New to Cad programs so I may sound a bit confused but just looking at a few features I require before deciding on what Version of TFP I will buy ( Pro or Deluxe )

I really just need to know the the program has these features and I will play with it once I have a copy before asking " how " to use them.



So from searching I seem to have worked out that A3 Printing and adding text boxes etc is pretty straight forward.

The one I cant seem to find any help on is "cross sections"

I need to be able to create or view a cross section for council plans. Is this possible with either of the TFP's ?

Thanks very much for your time.

Nick

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Nick and Welcome to the forum!

If you are going to do any 'serious' work I would certainly recommend Pro rather than Deluxe.  The latter has lots of limitations and it probably would not be long before you regretted not getting the Pro version. Feature comparison: http://imsidesign.com/Portals/4/Charts/TFP%2016%20Pro%20vs%20Deluxe%20comparison%20grid.pdf

Not sure about Deluxe but Pro does have an easy to use section tool. Essentually you draw a line across the building and then move it in the direction you want to see, and as far as you want to include. The section is automatically created.

Since you mention doing plans for the council, you should be aware that TurboFloorPlan is not optimised for layout of plans, being designed as a 3D visualisation tool that creates photorealistic images of the 3D model. It certainly easily produces plans, elevations, sections, door/window schedules etc. but does not have a simple way to arrange these on paper.  The plan with dimensions, text dorr/window schedules etc is easy enough but if you want multiple elevations or sections on a single page, you have to export them as a 2D view and and import them again to be able to arrange them for printing. See how to do this in the PDF in this post: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,877.0.html

If you are only doing one set of plans this may be fine but not practical as a business, unless you finish the plans off in TurboCAD or similar programs. There are also some other basically identical 3D programs from the same developer, that do allow plan layout. Personal Architect allows 3 worksheets I think but is more limited in 3D than TurboFloorPlan Pro. Similar is ProArchitect that allows 'unlimited' worksheets but is much more expensive (8-9 times more) and then the Envisioneer professional range that is up to 25 times more expensive and suited for those in the drafting business.  All these products use the same 3D modelling engine but with slightly different levels of functionality or limitations.

Hopefully that helps. Give me a call if you want to talk about it.

Allan