Contact
Please feel free to contact me using any of the details below and I will respond to your enquiry ASAP.
ptracey@processflows.co.uk;
01962 835081;
Paul Tracey,
Avanquest ProcessFlows
Sheridan House
40 – 43 Jewry Street
Winchester
SO23 8RY
Find us;
Road:
Winchester can be a difficult place to park. There are several car parks in the centre, but most are often full by 9.30 and some have time restrictions. A less stressful start to the day would be to use the Park and Ride, there are three. St Catherine’s is the largest and best bet. It is off junction 11 of the M3. Get off the bus at Barclays Bank and you are in Jewry Street. Turn left as you get off the bus and walk straight, (across the road junction), for less than a minute. On your left you will see The Old Gaolhouse Pub, on your right the entrance to Sheridan House.
Train:
There is a frequent service from London Waterloo. The service is efficient and clean, normally with a snacks and drinks trolley at some point. Coming out of the station ask directions for either Jewry Street or the centre of town. You will walk out of the station and straight over some lights. At the next lights turn right and you are in Jewry Street. Our offices are in Sheridan House, above a health food shop, just before The Old Gaolhouse Pub on your right.
Paul,
Thanks for all your help and advice at the woodworking show a few weeks back, am getting on reasonably well with my drawings, but think I’ll come on one of your courses when I can find some time. You mentioned to me at the show that you could import your own photographs to use as backgrounds. I have tried this using instructions from the manual, but just can’t get it to work –any advice?
Hi, I have been using TurboCAD for years as a garden designer but have never seen any industry specific bolt-ons: plant selectors, etc. Have you come across any?
Our next project is CAD training for garden design professionals: residential courses to be held at our place in central France.
Best regards,
Colin
Colin,
Both large Landscaping Companies and Garden Designers use TurboCAD and I’d be happy to talk through the advantages and tell you how they use the package if you’d like to call, 01962 835 081(1). We sell a symbols disk for £59 with 30 milloin symbols on it, lots of plants etc, but I can also give you a code for a free trial of a big symbols site. there are various symbols disks that you can buy and as long as they read DXF, DWG, they will be fine with TurboCAD.
Paul
Im out of work Builder want to learn cad i`m skint and need good basic package any ideas?
James,
Give me a call on 01962 835 081. I’ve got a few older versions that I can let you have at cost. With the free video training it will get you going with 2D easily. 3D is a bit harder at first, but I’m sure I can help you out.
Paul
Dear Paul, Is there any books or anything available that explain TurboCAD 16. I have the trial version of TurboCAD 16 deluxe. I’m pretty new to using full blown CAD software but I am pretty computer literate and I am used to using software like Adobe Photoshop and Expression Design 3. I am trying out TurboCAD 16 Deluxe but it is contantly fighting against me and getting really annoying now. My company is moving into high street stores and I spend a lot of time putting together shop designs to show how we fit our stores out, so a CAD program will be ever so usefull, but TurboCAD just won’t seem to do what I want even when I’m following a guide. For example, getting a door to fit through a wall is a nightmare to get it to snap to the wall, to show the door going through the wall in 3d view, I also cannot split a wall, as the program will not let me, but I assume this is just not available in the trial. Also when you are in wall properties and you select a finish for the interior side of the wall, I want a yellow colour, that looks good in properties, but when you apply it it comes out a horrible green/yellow colour instead. Also when you are trying to apply setting to doors in style manager, why can’t you have different properties for different doors? I need a double door at the front of the store plan, and single doors elsewhere but the program always applies the settings in style manager to all doors, even if you have only selected one door.
I would really like to purchase TurboCAD 16 but only if it will work. Is there a guide available, as even though the help files on the software it’self are very good, the software won’t always work as it says in the help files. I also cannot afford the £750 training day which would be worth it if I had confidence in the software but I need to know the software is good before spending that kind of money. Any help would be great.
Thank you for your time and help.
Paul Rowse.
Paul,
Firstly you are asking rather a lot for an £80 piece of software, you really need the professional version and that will do all you have asked.
Secondly, I’m afraid knowing Photoshop, Illustrator etc is no grounding for a CAD system. You will find a couple of tools, like the rubber stamp, the same, but it is a totally different concept.
The way to learn is as follows:
Buy TurboCAD professional with two training guides. I have a few copies of v15 professional left, I can let you have one for £250, (£792 on our site). The training guides are £35 each, but you can have the two for £50.
You them go through a few exercises until you are reasonably competent and then book a training day here in Winchester, £184
By the end of that you will know how to sort all you have asked.
Give me a call to talk through it.
Paul
01962 835 081 (1)
Paul, I work on construction sites as a setting out engineer and am also asked to produce basic as built drawings. My survey instrument has a controller which accepts dwg, dxf and csv files. I need to import and export drawings in 2D and possibly do some basic line drawings. I have used CAD before but because of the cost i am looking at viable alternatives. Turbo cad appears to be a cheap option, will the basic £80 package be suitable for me, until i progress to more complicated drawings and also working out volumes and contours etc?
Dave,
The Deluxe will be perfect, with the added advantage of 3D possibilities. I have excellent training books including video tutorials that make learning very easy. The tutorials are £35, but if you give me a call, I’ll talk you through a few points and you can have the package and training book for £100.
Paul
01962 835 081 (1).
Hi Paul,
What I am looking for is a tool to allow me to produce 2D and 3D floorplans of domestic houses which I can then provide to my clients in a format that is industry standard or which can be imported into various formats. I am a complete novice and need something that is intuative yet not too basic as I am looking for professional results with accurate dimensions etc. A package with standard templates or plugins would also be ideal to save re-inventing the wheel every time. Video tutorials built in or provided seperately would also be a huge advantage to get me started or help if/when I get stuck and produced in laymans terms would also be an advantage. I have a copy of TurboCAD pro 15 that i havent opened yet as I wasnt sure if this maybe too advanced for what I require? Any assistance you can provide would be very much apreciated.
Many thanks
Gavin
Paul,
Recently completed HNC CAD & Design course, trained on Autocad 2005 (already outdated). Really struggling to find any avenue into workplace as CAD Operator/Technician, have even offered to work for companies on free trial basis, to no avail. Any advice on recruitment.
Thinking may have to start working for myself, with my limited experience would version 16 deluxe be good start-up package or better to pay extra for pro version.
Alistair,
I’ve a couple of thoughts here and I’m afraid it goes on a bit.
While I fully understand that some people need only to work in 2D, I personally think that most would benefit from drawing in 3D. Many things can be drawn in 3D as fast as a front elevation and easier. I always had a problem seeing orthographic projections as a 3D object. Now, of course, that is unnecessary. Engineering projects are best drawn in 3D, I can’t remember one engineering company that I have worked with that haven’t benefited from this approach.
So my fist thoughts for you are to ensure that you are fully competent drawing in 3D. AutoCAD, whatever version, is not the package for this, it’s an outdated program that only has its place in the market because it was the first there, if it came out tomorrow, no one would buy it. In the 3D engineering world, SolidWorks seems to be the most popular, although reading articles in the CAD press, it seems that Inventor has caught up or is about to supersede it. I expect the truth is that they both have their strengths in different fields. Whatever the situation, the main point is that the cost is normally north of £6,000. Now, while I’d not even try to pretend that TurboCAD possess the same set of capabilities as the two mentioned, what I can say with absolute certainty, is that the overwhelming majority owners of licenses do not use anything like the full range of capabilities and are therefore paying thousand of pounds for tools that they do not need, or ever use.
As money is tight, companies are questioning the outlay for SolidWorks or Inventor. They are looking at TurboCAD and the simple question is – “ Do we really need to pay so much to design a door, a window, a lock, a machine component, an exhibition space, stage set” and so on and on and the answer is ‘no’.
So my first bit of advice is for you to be able to draw in 3D. TurboCAD Deluxe is 3D as well as 2D, but the professional version comes with much greater functionality on the 3D side. While the Professional version is probably rather expensive for you at your stage in your career, a dated PDF of your qualification would allow me to bend the rules a bit and get you a copy at the student price of £120, you could also join a training day in Winchester for free.
My second idea is for you to learn DoubleCAD. It comes, like Google SketchUp, as a free version and a Professional one. Essentially it is TurboCAD that looks like AutoCAD, but at half the price of AutoCAD LT. There are still a lot of people out there that are only drawing in 2D with AutoCAD LT, that need to upgrade for compatibility reasons. They soon find that if they have not upgraded recently they are considered new customers with no discounted upgrade path. For people such as this who really resent having to pay the full price, we now offer DoubleCAD. It looks like what they have been using, does more and is half the price. Links to get the free version are on this site.
So my proposal to you is this – learn both TurboCAD Professional and DoubleCAD Professional, because of the similarities, it would not be like learning two packages. Next instead of applying for jobs at companies call them up and ask them what their CAD requirements are, if they are 3D ask if you could go to them and demo TurboCAD, if 2D, then DoubleCAD. This could work for you in three ways. Firstly if they like the package and wanted to buy, you can act as my agent and I’ll give you 50% of the profit, which if they bought say four licenses, could be good money. Secondly you may be able to pick up some freelance work. And thirdly, you just might get a full time job from it, you have more chance this way than filling in application forms. Getting yourself in front of people is the biggest hurdle, this way might be easier.
And lastly, if you decided to have a go at this, a word of advice. You’ll find the majority of AutoCAD users very stuck in their ways, prising their fingers off AutoCAD is hard work, they think the whole word uses AutoCAD, that if you don’t then the world will stop revolving. I was talking to Tom Wyman of Google SketchUp a few weeks ago and he described AutoCAD users as people who held on to their AutoCAD for dear life, but at the same time hated it. I agree.
Paul
ptracey@avanquest.co.uk
Gavin,
I wouldn’t say that TurboCAD Pro 15 is too advanced, although I would say that it has capabilities that at present you will not use. The real difference being the 3D side of things. If you feel that at some time in the future you may want to head into 3D representations as well as 2D, then I’d say you have the right package, but even if you intend to stay in 2D, then the professional version has advantages. One example – If drawing in just 2D, to draw a wall you would use the double line tool and then the double line parallel tool to draw a cavity. To insert the doors and windows you either draw them in, (or pull in from a library), and then, if needed, subtract the ‘wall’, (double line), from underneath the door or window. In professional these doors and windows insert themselves, automatically creating an opening. In pro 16 you can create component walls that will be remembered within each drawing. Once the plan is drawn, flipping it into 3D is one click of the mouse. All CAD is going more and more 3D, so I’d say you have the right package. We have excellent training books, which include video tutorials that really take you by the hand through each exercise. There is one for 2D and one for 3D, £35 each, or give me a call and I’ll do the pair for £50.
If you defiantly do not want to go 3D, then you should choose DoubleCAD. This is essentially TurboCAD that looks like AutoCAD LT, but has far greater capabilities and is half the price of AutoCAD. Personally I think the AutoCAD interface is off-putting, (black screen – why?), command line, (why?), but you can easily change these things so that the screen looks just the way you want it to. We sell a training CD for just under £30, but I’ll give you one if you buy through me.
Both systems have complete compatibility with all other CAD packages, reading and saving in DWG, DXF and a whole lot of others.
Am back at my desk on the 4th January
Paul
01962 835 081 (1)
Dear Paul,
I’m the guy who tried and failed to set up a course in Afghan. Well I’m back for a few months, so I would like to try this properly! What do I need to do?
Regards
Dave
Dave
Come on the 2D course in Winchester for free on the 29th July.
Give me a call.
01962 835 081
Paul