F TurboCAD v7 and FloorPlan "Print Space Maker" tips

1. Shaped Viewports for extra presentation pizzazz
2. The shell tool to quickly hollowing out complex solids
3. The lofting tool to create complex solids or surfaces
4. Edit directly thru Viewports with floating model space
5. NEW divide point snap to quickly determine any equal distance snap points
6. NEW center of extents to quickly find centers of 2d and 3d objects
7. Offset copy now has curve and polylines options
8. Calculator palette to determine and remember needed math objects
9. How do I remove the "lights" from a drawing?
10. NEW Format Painter
11. Using the "setup" button to save to the appropriate file version
12. Publish to JPG

To use this local menu option you must have a previously created closed 2D object in PAPER SPACE. If you want to use it as a shape for the new viewport instead of the default rectangle choose Shaped viewport from the local menu.
Open a new drawing, in model space draw a rectangle. Go to the VIEW menu, CREATE VIEW and drag the cursor around the rectangle.
In the CREATE NAMED VIEW dialog type a name for the view and click OK. Click the paper space tab in the lower left of the screen or go to WORKSPACE menu, PAPER SPACE, PAPER 1. Draw a circle in PAPER SPACE, then got to INSERT menu, VIEWPORT then right click and select SHAPED VIEWPORT and click on the circle, in the named view dialog box pick a view and click GO TO then CLOSE

Detailed example of a Shaped Viewport.

This command allows you to create a shell with the specified thickness from your 3D solid object. TurboCAD creates new faces by offsetting existing ones inside or outside their original positions. 
To create a 3D solid shell:

1. Choose MODIFY, SHELL SOLID
2. New drawing, go to VIEW menu, CAMERA, ISOMETRIC, SW ISOMETRIC. Now INSERT menu, 3D OBJECT, BOX and draw a 4in x 4in box with a height of 2in.
3. Now go to MODIFY menu, SHELL SOLID.
3. Use the Thickness field of the Inspector Bar to enter the shell thickness.
4. Select Shell inward/outward in the local menu or click the corresponding button in the Inspector bar. Depends on your choice the shell will be created inside or outside of the 3D object surface.
5. Select a face to be excluded from shelling. You may use the Page Down or Page Up key to select the next face.
6. Select additional faces to be excluded or select Finish from the local menu.

A loft is a solid object that is created by connecting 2D cross-sections, or profiles. These 2D profiles reside on different planes, and are connected using NURB (Non-Uniform Rational b-spline) calculations.
You have to create profiles before creating a loft. Profiles are any 2D drawing objects (lines, circles or arcs). The lofting profile can be open or closed. The profiles must be on different workplanes.
To create a loft:
1. Activate the Lofting tool INSERT, 3D OBJECT, LOFTING.
2. Select the first profile.
3. Select one or few next profiles.
4. Choose Finish from the local menu or Inspector Bar.
You can get different lofts using the same profiles but the various orders in which profiles are selected.
Lofts can be scaled, rotated and moved just like any other solid object. The Node Edit mode available only for loft’s profiles. You can select loft’s profile choosing Select Profile in the local menu if you have the loft selected. You can also use the Selection Info Panel.

The controls of the Lofting Shape property tab let you set some properties of the 3D object shape.
Number of Approximation Lines — Using the spin control, you can select a number of approximation lines for the TurboCAD curves and arcs used as a cone base or an extrusion profile. This determines the quality of 3D object representation.
Smooth — Checking this box makes TurboCAD smooth the object edges when the object is viewed in the Rendering mode.

Quick Simple Loft

Open a new drawing and draw a square and a circle, the circle inside the square.
Now go to VIEW menu, CAMERA, ISOMETRIC, SW ISOMETRIC.
Select the inner circle and put the cursor over the yellow reference point dot, when the cursor becomes a 4 way arrow, click lightly.
Now hold down SHIFT plus TAB (or CTRL+R) to bring focus to the Status Bar.
TAB over to the Z axis window and type 2in., hit ENTER (place on workplane dialog will pop up here, click OK)
Activate the Lofting tool INSERT, 3D OBJECT, LOFTING
Pick the lower square and then the upper circle, right click, FINISH

Detailed loft

This command allows you to use the Model Space Mode commands in Paper Space Mode using a viewport.
Before working with this mode you have to create a named view in Model Space.
1. In Paper Space insert a viewport INSERT, VIEWPORT and when the Named View dialog appears choose the previously created Model Space view.
2. The view appears in the viewport window.
3. Select the viewport. Now the Workspace, Model Space (Floating) command is available.
4. Choose Model Space (Floating). The viewport frame becomes bold. Now you may work within the viewport using the most Model Space commands. To exit Floating Model Space, click someplace in Paper Space.

When Divide By Segments is active, the point you are defining will snap to the imaginary splitting points. Use the Divide By control to set the desired number of segments to divide the line or arc. The point to snap will be the nearest to the current cursor position.

When Snap to Center of Extents is active, the point you are defining will snap to the center of extents for the object that you indicate. To indicate the object, click on or near its surface. This snap is functional with all 2d and 3d objects.

NOTE: Functionality of center snap extended to find the centers of extrusions and holes

Use Offset Copy to create a new object at a specified offset distance from an existing object.
Using the TurboCAD drawing tools, you can create a drawing object as a single entity (single line, polyline, arc, circle, polygon, etc.) or a set of entities combined into a logical unit of your drawing (car wheel, roof truss, electronic gate symbols, etc.). While a drawing entity is an indivisible element of your drawing object, the latter is a combination of entities. In TurboCAD, a drawing object can consist of either loose (standalone) entities or bound entities forming a special type of drawing objects such as groups, blocks, symbols, etc. (see Groups, Blocks, Symbols). The Offset Copy option lets you manipulate only loose entities. Therefore, you have to break up a drawing object into its constituents parts before using the Offset Copy option (see Explode). 
Offsetting creates a new object that is similar to a selected object but at a specified distance. You can offset individual entities of the object such as lines, arcs, circles, planar splines, and so forth.
Offsetting works differently depending on the entity type. For example, offsetting a circle creates a larger or smaller circle depending on your choice of the offset side. Offsetting outside creates a larger circle; offsetting inside creates a smaller one. 

To offset a drawing object:
1. Select an object that you want to offset.
2. Choose the Offset Copy tool.
3. Use the mouse cursor to specify offset distance (by defining two points of a virtual line in the drawing area), or enter a value in the Length entry field.
4. For an object consisting of more than one entity, move the mouse cursor to the object’s entity you want to offset.
5. Click in the drawing area at the side of the entity where you want to create a new entity.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as necessary to create a new object from the original.
7. Press <Esc> or choose Cancel from the local menu to end the operation.
Offset with Curve– Choose this local menu option to create the resulting object of the same type that is the source object.
Offset with Polyline– Choose this local menu option to get the polyline or group of graphic as a resulting object while offsetting the objects that shown as Graphic type – External Object in the Selection Info Palette. The type of the resulting object for the simple objects (line, circle) will be the same as of the source object.

The View Calculator Palette command displays and hides the Calculator palette.
The Calculator palette contains the calculator that lets you specify and evaluate real or integer expressions for an edit box. You may type the expression or choose it from the listbox on the top.
You can bring up the Calculator Palette from a calculated field in the Inspector Bar. To do this, click in a field and then press <F2>. The result of the calculations in this case will be transferred to the field every time after pressing “=” button on the Calculator Palette. To close the Calculator Palette, press <Ctrl>+ <F2>.

The buttons in the bottom of the calculator numbers panel have the following meanings:
Memorize the expression typed in the data entry field.
Restore the expression from the memory to the data entry field.
Delete the selected expression in the memory.

Go to the VIEW menu, LIGHTS.
Select the POINT light at the top, hold SHIFT and select the last light which should be SPOT and click the DELETE button.
SAVE the file and the lights will not return.

You can copy properties from one object to another with the help of the Format Painter tool.
To use the Format Painter:
1. Choose Format, Format Painter.
2. Click the source object which properties you wish to copy. The small palette box appears near the mouse pointer.

The following options are available in the local menu or in the Inspector Bar:
Use palette---This option is checked by default. In this case the Properties Info palette appears. It contains the expandable list of properties. You may check the properties that you wish to copy or uncheck any ones.
Mark properties---This option appears if Use palette is unchecked. If you choose this local menu options this will bring up the Select Properties to Copy dialog that contains the above-mentioned expandable list of properties and you can check/uncheck some of them or use the [Check All] or [Uncheck All] buttons.
Mark all---When this option is on, all properties of the source object become checked and will be copied to the target object if acceptable.
Unmark all---When this option is on, all properties of the source object become unchecked. 

3. Click the target object that you wish to copy properties to. You may click few objects sequentially.
4. Choose Cancel from the local menu to choose another object to copy properties from. The smal palette box near the mouse pointer disappears.

Whenever saving a file click the SETUP button in the upper right of the SAVE AS dialog
Several file options are available for DXF, DWG, DGN among others.
Each file type will have its own specific options when saving or opening.

New Save As JPG file format to quickly create TurboCAD drawings to be viewed on the internet.
Using the Save as | JPG | Setup option, you can specify whether to save the whole drawing or the current view . Use that option to save currently rendered views. You can also specify compression and pixel size. We'd love to see your TurboCAD creations on our forums!