Neil

I didn't know the answer either…but am curious why you use that particular tool. My favoured method would either be 'rubber stamp' or copy/paste from the right-click drop-down menu. Or, if several copies required, drag it to a block and just drag back onto the drawing. That's extremely useful for modding lots of parts at the same time.

Interesting that John R uses a different method altogether, but that loses the D or 'snap' point if moved from the original.

Pete

I looked at TurboCAD, think I bought a copy. IIRC the tool path was parallel XY lines rather than following tidemarks so I gave up on it PDQ. They still send me upgrade offers which I ignore.

Has it improved?

When required for cnc purposes my output from Turbocad is in *.dxf format. That file is opened in an obscure program called XMC-E which is what formulates the G code output to the Pacer cnc machine. As far as I know, 'ordinary' Turbocad will not output G code directly to any cnc machine.

Pete

A word in support of TurboCAD.

I've used it ever since getting Version 4 DL free (CD on the front of a computer mag). I've passed through v9 & v15 since then. I guess I've been using v15 for about 5-6 years now (as I buy older versions) and it was fine till I upgraded to Win10 (64bit) recently. It still worked but I had to keep re-entering my registration number. Do'able but a bit irritating – and not TCv15's fault given it's vintage.

So I was very pleased to buy a copy of TC 2016 (fully Win10 ready) yesterday at the Midlands Show for not very much money (a few quid a year at my current renewal rate). I had a small problem with installation but Paul (the CAD) came immediately back (last night after my email) and it's all running very well now. So I've been using TC for about 20 years, can get updates at an affordably low price and there's excellent support for the product.

With regards to how hard TC is to use – well I originally taught myself how to use it – and made many mistakes back then. Now Paul has some really good YouTubes (obviously all free) showing you how to do CAD the right/best way. Like any really powerful software tool, you need to invest a bit of time learning it but it really is an excellent product for 2D drawing (which is all I need).

In terms of CNC – I've sent my TC drawings as .DXF files to laser cutters and got some very nice laser-cut parts back in exchange. So whilst others might need some intermediary software to translate their .DXF files to G-code etc in order to CNC their parts themselves – TurboCAD is all I've needed to get to the same end result. For the amount of CNC I need doing, I think this is an excellent and affordable way to go – e.g. I draw it and someone else cuts it. Seems to suit me.

I should add that I've recently also tried F360 and whilst I'm sure it's very good – I don't really like the 'Cloud' nature of the product and since I already know and like TC – I'm probably not going to bother learning anything new.

It's Horses for Courses (as always) – but as you may have gathered I'm a very satisfied TC user.

Regards,

IanT

DXF is simply a 2D drawing format (vector graphic) developed by Autodesk for outputting Autocad. It's not a toolpath, so the laser cutters are actually doing that last step and creating the actual toolpath. You wouldn't have much luck going near a CNC machine with a DXF file….

Murray