What's new in this version

PERFORMANCE, USER INTERFACE & USABILITY

UPDATE THUMBNAILS IN BLOCKS PALETTE
A new option “Update Thumbnails” has been added to the local menu of the blocks in the blocks palette. Blocks Thumbnails can be updated in terms of rendering and views. All views list and rendering types with rendering modes are available in the Update Thumbnail dialog box.

LIBRARY PALETTE – UPDATE THUMBNAIL DIALOG
Update Thumbnail dialog in the Library Palette has been improved. Previously, the dialog used to open in classic UI despite of being in default UI. Now, the Update Thumbnail dialog opens up in default UI.

BLOCKS PALETTE – BLOCK INSERTION PARAMETERS
Block insertion parameters have been improved in TurboCAD 2023. Now user can define the blocks insertion parameters before inserting the blocks into the drawing. The parameters include rotation and scaling along X, Y, and Z axis.

BLOCKS PALETTE – BLOCK PREVIEW
Block Preview option has been added to the Blocks Palette options. Now user can preview the block without inserting it into the drawing. Blocks can be previewed in all views and render modes.

ISOLATE/HIDE TOOLS
A couple of improvements in Isolate/Hide tools have been made in TurboCAD 2023.

INVERSE ISOLATION TOOL
A new tool “Inverse Isolation” has been added to the Edit menu. Clicking this tool makes the hidden objects visible and vice versa.

ISOLATE/HIDE TOOLS IMPROVEMENT
Previously, End Isolation tool remained activated even without using Hide/Isolate Tool. Now, End Isolation tools gets activated only if its pre-requisite tools are activated. Also, it is possible to show the hidden objects in Selection Information Palette in “All Drawing” mode.
Objects’ hidden state can now be saved when saving a .tcw file.

LIBRARY PALETTE – PREVIEW RENDER MODES
New preview render modes have been added to the symbol preview dialog for library palette in TurboCAD 2023. Now, it is possible to preview symbols in different render modes in Library Palette.

TOOLS PALETTE – RESIZING ICONS WHEN CHANGING TOOLBAR ICON SIZE
Icon sizes in Tools palette can now be resized when scaling the toolbar icon sizes in Customize window.

STYLE MANAGER PALETTE – SEARCH OPTION ADDED
A new Search bar has been added to the Style Manager Palette, which allows user to find the various options contained in the properties. The search bar makes it easy for the users to search for different options available in the palette rather than finding them manually.

SELECTION INFORMATION PALETTE – SEARCH OPTION ADDED
A new Search bar has been added to the Selection Information Palette, which allows user to find the various options contained in the properties. The search bar makes it easy for the users to search for different options available in the palette rather than finding them manually.

TC EXPLORER PALETTE – SELECTED LAYOUT SELECTION IMPROVEMENT IN DEFAULT UI
A new improvement in the selected layout dialog box has been added to the default UI. Radio buttons have been added to the Layout and Visibility sections of the TC Explorer Options dialog box. Previously, the selection of the layouts was not clear in the Default UI.

RENDER MANAGER UPDATE
Render Manager has been updated for TurboCAD 2023. Following changes have been made to the Render Manager. A new mode, “Active Drawing” has been added to the Render Manager. Activating this mode applies changes directly to the active drawing. A new mode, “Highlighting” has been added to the Render Manager. This mode highlights the selected material within the active drawing. A new model, “LuxBall” has been added to the standard models (cube, sphere, cylinder). “Check Consistency” dialog has been improved for retaining the dimensions after resizing. Material, Luminance, and Environment Selection dialog box sizes have been increased.

MATERIALS AND LUMINANCES PALETTE – NEW LOCAL MENU ITEMS
New local menu items have been added to the Materials and Luminance Palette.
New local menu items have been added to the “Materials” palette, which are, “Add LightWorks Material”, “Add RedSDK Material “, “Add TurboLux Material”, and “Add Visualize Material”.
New local menu items have been added to the “Luminances” palette, which are, “Add LightWorks Luminance”, “Add RedSDK Luminance”, “Add TurboLux Luminance”, and “Add Visualize Luminance”.

SAVE/LOAD ENGINE AND SCENE PREFERENCES
TurboCAD 2023 has made it easy for the users to copy TurboLux and Visualize settings from one computer to another. Ability to save and load render engine and scene preferences to/from a text file has been added to this version. This allows the user to edit the settings manually in the text editor.

2D DRAFTING AND EDITING

FIND AND REPLACE TEXT
A new Tool “Find and Replace Text” has been added to the Edit menu. User can find a specific text in the drawing and replace it with another word with one click. With a wide number of advanced search and text options, user can search for the specific text easily and replace it with less effort.

AUTOMATIC CALLOUTS
A new tool “Automatic Callouts” has been added to the Dimension menu in TurboCAD 2023. The purpose of this tool is to automatically add callouts (leader dimensions) to the drawing in just a few clicks. These callouts can be arranged in circular formation or along a polyline. After callouts are generated, a BOM table is created with callout details.

HIDDEN LINE REMOVAL FOR BLOCK INSERTION
A new option “Remove Hidden Line” has been added to the Block insertion properties. On enabling this property, the removal of the hidden rows is applied to the block content. Two other properties, “Show Invisible Lines” and “Show Intersections”, become available on activating “Remove Hidden Line”.

DRAFTING OBJECT DIMENSION IMPROVEMENT
A new property, “Show actual dimensions” has been added to the drafting object properties. This property gets enabled if drafting object has break lines. Previously, dimensions for a Drafting object with break lines used to be specified without taking into account the break line. For showing the actual size with no break lines, this property is checked.

JOIN POLYLINE TOOL
A new local menu item “Unmatched connections” has been added to the Join Polyline tool. This tool provides an ability to join polylines that do not have exact connections i.e., the ends of the adjacent polylines either have an intersection or a gap between them. On enabling the option, the maximum distance between the polylines in the Tolerance field need to be defined for connection.

3D DESIGN AND MODELING

EXPLODED VIEW
A new menu item “Exploded View” has been added to the Format menu. This tool creates exploded view for a layout. User is able to pull apart the component along defined axes, X, Y and Z. In case of two axes, then the exploded view will be created along a plane, whereas, in case of 3 axes defined, the exploded view will be created in a 3D space. As a result, a block of the view is created in the blocks palette.

RENDERING AND VISUALISATION

UNIFICATION OF OPTION NAMES FOR ALL TYPES OF RENDERS
The names of the menu items for all types of renders in ‘Program Setup’ and ‘Drawing Setup’ have been updated to the correct names. In Program Setup, ‘Visualize Preferences…’ has been updated to ‘Visualize Engine…’. In Drawing Setup, ‘RedSDK…’ has been updated to ‘RedSDK Scene…’, and ‘Visualize…’ has been renamed to ‘Visualize Scene…’.

RENDER PALETTES – SHOW AND EDIT LUMINANCE/MATERIALS/ENVIRONMENTS WITH NON-ACTIVE PROVIDERS
TurboCAD 2023 has updated Luminance, Materials, and Environments Palette for showing and editing their relevant attributes with non-relevant providers. Following new menu items have been added to the palettes: New local menu item ‘Show Materials from non-active Render Engines’ has been added to the Materials palette. This option allows user to edit and assign materials even if the appropriate render is not installed. New local menu item ‘Show Environments from non-active Render Engines’ has been added to the Environments palette. This option allows user to edit and assign Environments even if the appropriate render is not installed. New local menu item ‘Show Luminances from non-active Render Engines’ has been added to Luminances palette. This option allows user to edit and assign luminances to the objects even if the appropriate render is not installed.

DYNAMICALLY UPDATE RENDER PALETTES AFTER NATIVE DRAW SWITCHING –
TC2023 update render palettes dynamically after Native Draw Switching. Previously, application restart was required to update materials set in the palette after native draw switching. Now these changes are applied dynamically while switching in native draw. Also, scalable render engine icons have been added to the flyout palette.!

LIGHTWORKS

LIGHTWORKS PLUGIN
TurboCAD 2023 now supports LightWorks plugin as an additional render mode option. LightWorks is activated using the IDRM via Install Shield custom action. The LightWorks Plug-in for TurboCAD Deluxe enhances the program’s lighting, luminance, and photorealistic rendering capabilities for more robust, high-powered renders. This plug-in integrates directly with the TurboCAD material editor and Design Director.

LIGHTWORKS 9.3 SP7 VERSION
TurboCAD supports updated version of LightWoks Author 9.3 SP7.

LIGHTWORKS RESOURCE PACK
TurboCAD 2023 LightWorks plugin supports Resource Pack. These are the additional resources (images, maps etc.) that the user can optionally install on their computer.

VISUALIZE

VISUALIZE SDK (V24.2) UPDATE
Updated the version of ODA Visualize SDK to v24.2.

STATIC LINKING WITH VISUALIZE SDK LIBRARY
TurboCAD 2023 uses static linking with Visualize. Static linking provides faster loading and unloading of Visualize. Older TurboCAD versions used dynamic linking with Visualize, which required more than 60 separate files (modules) to be loaded for Visualize to work. This slowed down the start of the render.
Whereas static linking requires only one file to work, the size of which is two times smaller than with dynamic linking. Reducing the number of required modules and their size speeds up the loading of Visualize by several times.

MATERIALS DATABASE
A couple of new changes have been made to the Visualize materials database. Visualize root category and Visualize Material Settings have been added to the Render Manager. 743 new materials have been added to the materials database. Additionally, visualize render has been added to the render list in graphic Properties/Materials page.

USE VISUALIZE MATERIALS
A new option “Use Visualize Materials” has been added to the Visualize Engine dialog. If this option is switched on, the Visualize materials will be used in Visualize Draft render mode. If Visualize materials is not assigned to an object, then the color of the object will be used. If this option is disabled, then the color of the graph will be used, or if options “Use LightWorks Materials”, “Use RedSDK Materials” or “Use TurboLux Materials” are switched on, then appropriate materials will be used.

USE TURBOLUX MATERIALS
A new option “Use TurboLux Materials” has been added to the Material Options in Visualize Engine dialog. If this option is switched on, the TurboLux materials will be used in Visualize Draft render mode. Visualize materials support parameters like color, transparency value, texture map, transparency map, bump map, which can be imported from TurboLux materials.

TURBOLUX, REDSDK, AND LIGHTWORKS MATERIALS TO VISUALIZE MATERIALS CONVERTER
A converter for converting TurboLux, RedSDK, and LightWorks materials to Visualize materials has been added to TurboCAD 2023. “Porting Options” dialog has been added to TCW ‘OpenSetup’ dialog. All parameters related to render attribute converter have been moved to ‘Porting Options’ dialog. New section ‘Porting materials to Visualize’ added to ‘Porting Options’ dialog.

LUMINANCE SUPPORT & “USE LUMINANCE” OPTION
Three types of visualize light shaders have been added to TurboCAD 2023, i.e., point, spot and directional.
New option “Use Luminance” has been added to “Visualize Scene” property page. When this option is turned on, it enables using the drawing luminance.

ENVIRONMENTS SUPPORT
Four types of environment shaders have been added to Visualize in TurboCAD 2023. i.e., Plain, Image, Environment Map, and Gradient. Visualize root category has been added to the Render Manager. Visualize Environment library with 7 categories and 66 environments has been added to the new version. Visualize environments settings have been added to the Advanced Options in Render Manager. Also, Visualize Render has been added to the Render Scene Environment page in Drawing Setup.
Visualize environments support gradient shader. A gradient background is a blend of 3 different colors, bottom, middle, and top colors. Environment map shader is supported in Visualize now. An environment background is a type of background with a raster image on a static background and material reflections in a graphics scene.

ADD MATERIAL LIBRARY
Brick
– 10 materials
– Category: Brick
– Render engines: TurboLux, Visualize
– Model units: mm
– ReadMe file: Brick_Read_me.txt
– TurboLux Metal
– 36 materials
– Category: Metal
– Render engines: TurboLux
– Model units: mm
– Default Colors
– 66 materials
– Category: Matte Colors
– Render engines: Visualize
Model units: In

LIGHT SUPPORT – NEW OPTIONS
Support for regular light sources has been added to TurboCAD 2023. The light types include Distant Light, Spot Light, and Point Light. New option “Use Lights” has been added to the “Visualize Scene” property page. This enables using drawing lights when switched on.
New light property page, “Visualize specific” has been added to the light properties dialog.
New option “Shadow” has been added to the Camera Properties dialog. This option, when checked, enables shadow in the view.

NEW VISUAL STYLES
New visualize visual styles, “Realistic”, “Gouraud”, “Sketchy”, and “Shaded” have been added to the render modes in the Camera Properties dialog box. Realistic visual style is for the most realistic rendering including lighting and shadows. Gouraud and Shaded are with the middle lighting quality, whereas, Sketchy is used to extend geometry edges during rendering.

ARCHITECTURAL

ROOF – NEW TYPE OF CUT EDGE: HORIZONTAL
New roof cut edge type, Horizontal, has been added to the roof properties page.

MULTI-LEVEL ROOF (GAMBREL ROOF)
New roof properties have been added to TurboCAD 2023. Now, every roof is a Gambrel roof with roof levels. Roof level has two properties, “Angle” and “Height”. User can edit levels, angle, and height. Gambrel roof properties can be accessed from properties page and selection Information palette.

INTEROPERABILITY/DATA SHARING

ABILITY TO CONTROL DRAWING UNITS WHEN OPENING A DWG/DXF FILE
TurboCAD 2023 now has an ability to control units when opening a AutoCAD file. Previously, TurboCAD did not understand the original scale of the drawing and used to assume units in English|Architectural with a strange scale. As a solution, a new option “Use plot units as drawing units” has been added to the dwg/dxf import setup dialog.

AUTOCAD 2023 SUPPORT
ODA has been updated to 23.8 version in TurboCAD 2023.