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IMSI TurboCAD Professional 10 review

Verdict

TurboCAD devotees will warm to the addition of more pro-class features, such as NURBS deformation, and to simpler conversion of 2D lines to 3D. But it's neither a beginner's tool nor a challenge to AutoCAD.

Review Date: 22 Jun 2004

Reviewed By: Alistair Dabbs

Price when reviewed: (£500 inc VAT); Standard Edition, £60 (£70 inc VAT); Upgrade £68 (£80 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

In comparison to its competitors, though, TurboCAD sports one of the more accessible interfaces in the CAD market. But this just indicates how bad things are elsewhere. Experienced users will wonder what the problem is, but beginners will balk at the complexity of everything, not to mention the arcane terminology. Unfortunately, TurboCAD's Help documents are no help to anyone new to the program, and neither is the reference manual, which is just that - a dry reference to the tools and commands, written for people who are already fully versed in CAD. At the time of reviewing, no online tutorials wereÊavailable.

Beginners will definitely be better off with the Standard edition of TurboCAD. It's cheaper, and you won't miss the advanced 3D features because you won't know how to use them anyway. TurboCAD Professional 10 is for existing skilled CAD designers on a tight budget. Mission-critical designers will prefer the big-name alternatives, while business users may find the program unreasonably challenging to learn.

Author: Alistair Dabbs

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