You can vary the transparency of colours, so perhaps if you made a ‘water’ pattern of several shades of blue and green, you could then play with the transparency slider in the colours pallet.
Alternatively look at http://www.textualcreations.ca. Don there has some good water effects, he brings pictures in from PaintShop Pro, (Ithink).

Lastly, you could take your pictures into SketchUp and using a photorealistic plug in make it look just like water.

Paul

You have two choices.

1 Buy TurboCAD professional Platinum. This will include two training books with over 400 training films, it also includes a training day in Winchester. If you first do a few training lessons from the books then book yourself on a training day, by the end of the day you will have a good idea of how everything works. This would cost £888 incl vat.

2 The alternative is to do your 2D work in TurboCAD Deluxe and then take it into SketchUp to create a 3D environment. The advantage here is that it is much easier and therefore quicker to get going. This will cost £634, but a training day would be an extra £200.

Personally, for you I’d go for the cheaper option.

Paul

How do I start, please advice

Michael
London
07903 550 528

Firstly I’d certainly not use AutoCAD, it’s too clumsy and really is old technology for your requirements. I’d suggest using a combination of TurboCAD Deluxe for the 2D CAD plans and hen creating your 3D design in Google SketchUp Pro. Neither of these packages would be too difficult to learn and they work together well. I have excellent 2 and 3D training books for TurboCAD and Aidan Chopra has excellent Videos on You Tube for SketchUp.
If you buy both together I can knock a few ob off the price.
Paul

Come on the 2D course in Winchester for free on the 29th July.

Give me a call.

01962 835 081

Paul

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)

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