Donald B. Cheke
www.textualcreations.ca
TurboCAD Pro V17.2 – Timber Frame Barn
Donald B. Cheke
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Donald B. Cheke
Copyright © 2010 Donald B. Cheke
www.textualcreations.ca
TurboCAD is a registered trademark of IMSI/Design.
Published by:
Donald B. Cheke
Saskatoon, SK Canada
Visit: www.textualcreations.ca
All rights reserved
No part of this document may be reproduced, copied, stored on a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form without written permission from the author. The purchaser may, however, print one copy of the
document to paper and may make one backup copy of the downloaded material for personal safe
keeping.
Limitation of Liability
While every effort has been taken in the preparation and the writing of this document the author
assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions nor for the uses of the material and the decisions
based on such use. No warranties are made, express or implied with regard to either the contents of the
document, its merchant ability or fitness for a particular purpose. The author should not be liable for
direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the
contents of this document.
Special Note
All of the work presented within this tutorial is based on TurboCAD Pro V17.2. Although users of previous
versions are welcome to try the tutorial it cannot be stated what results will be achieved. Many changes,
some subtle and others not so subtle, are made with each program revision. Although many steps and
directions would be generic some may not be. The same can be said for tools between versions. Older
versions may not have the same tools as Pro V17.2 and if the same tools are available the tools
themselves may have been revised and hence, work in a different manner than they previously did.
The author would like to extend a big thank you to Vermont Timber Works for allowing the use of the
Hermes Barn material on their web site for this tutorial. Having good resources and the cooperation from
a real world business makes it much easier to create tutorials that fit with the realities of computer aided
design. Please visit Vermont Timber Works on line and have a look around at the great work they do.
Vermont Timber Works (http://www.vermonttimberworks.com/)
36 Fairbanks Road
N. Springfield, Vt. 05150
United States
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Setup.............................................................................................................................................................................. 6
The Hermes Barn – Main Timbers ..........................................................................................................................21
Hammer Beam Bent .................................................................................................................................................23
Materials Application – Session 1 ..........................................................................................................................23
Render Check .............................................................................................................................................................27
Hammer Beam Bent – Continued A .......................................................................................................................28
Image Insertion and Scale .......................................................................................................................................54
Hammer Beam Bent – Continued B .......................................................................................................................58
Upper Roof Rafters ....................................................................................................................................................72
Stall Area Timbers .....................................................................................................................................................89
Wall Panels – SIP – Session 1.............................................................................................................................. 111
Doors......................................................................................................................................................................... 130
Wall Panels – SIP – Session 2.............................................................................................................................. 142
Roof Panels – SIP ................................................................................................................................................... 144
Soffits and Fascia ................................................................................................................................................... 148
Shingles .................................................................................................................................................................... 159
Windows ................................................................................................................................................................... 167
Concrete Slab .......................................................................................................................................................... 179
Bent – Exploded View............................................................................................................................................. 181
SIP Panel – Exploded View.................................................................................................................................... 207
Ground Plane ........................................................................................................................................................... 215
Signage..................................................................................................................................................................... 216
Materials Application ............................................................................................................................................. 220
Named Views ........................................................................................................................................................... 236
Render Scene Luminance ..................................................................................................................................... 245
Render Scene Environment .................................................................................................................................. 248
Saving the Rendered Image.................................................................................................................................. 252
Paper Space – Title Block Insertion ..................................................................................................................... 256
Paper Space – Pages with Viewports & Annotations ....................................................................................... 259
Printing ..................................................................................................................................................................... 299
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Introduction
A large user focus of any CAD software is ultimately the architectural / construction field. Whether a user
is designing a cabin, a house, or other unnamed structure a user must feel that they can depend fully on
the CAD software that they purchased – that it will meet their needs in a timely and hassle free manner.
It is the author's belief that TurboCAD can and will meet the needs of most builders without too much
trouble, once over the initial learning curve that is part of any CAD software package.
Within this tutorial the reader will be led through each keystroke to produce all components of the timber
frame barn that is illustrated on the cover of the tutorial. The reader will learn how to create each object
by manipulating 2D profiles and 3D primitive shapes. The reader will learn how to set up their drawing,
how to insert standard lighting and how utilize render scene luminance. The reader will learn how to
establish a render scene environment and the reader will learn how to render their drawing and save it in
a high resolution image format. Additionally the reader will be led through the steps to create a six page
paper space presentation.
This tutorial is in no way intended to teach timber framing, but rather, it is intended to teach the use of
some of the tools that TurboCAD has to offer and to introduce the new user to a drawing methodology.
The author feels confident that the techniques outlined within the tutorial can help lay the foundation for
future successful TurboCAD drawing and illustration for even the newest user.
As with any technically advanced software, the user is generally faced with a steep learning curve. It is
the hope of the author that the money and time spent working through a Textual Creations tutorial will
help ease the learning and allow the reader to come away feeling confident that they made a wise
decision.
This tutorial will assume that the reader has the Platinum edition of TurboCAD Pro V17.2 with its extra
architectural and mechanical tools, although no Platinum specific tools are used that the author is aware
of.
There are many ways to approach a project and it is likely that each person using the program would
proceed in very different ways, so be open to alternative methods as experience builds. What is
important is that the user becomes familiar with the objects that they wish to model and begin to look at
them in a different way than they might otherwise do. What primitive shapes make up the whole? What
will be required of these primitive shapes early in the drawing and how will this affect needs further
along? What component or components should be started with? Many questions can only be answered
through experience, but hopefully some of them will be answered by the time the beginner has worked
through this tutorial. There is a great deal covered in this tutorial and the author urges the beginner to be
patient, to read very carefully and to take the time necessary to do a good job. Try to enjoy the process as
much as you will enjoy the final results.
This tutorial assumes that the beginner has studied the desktop to some degree and can locate most of
the tools. Since there are endless desktop configurations that can be set up in TurboCAD the author has
opted to illustrate the required tools with the Office 2000 user interface, and the default toolbars in their
undocked format (Office 2000 theme). The author is also running a Windows 7 basic theme, hence the
look of the various program windows.
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The beginner should not overlook the importance of the internet as a resource for material to help
understand the dynamics of what they are trying to model. If only to help gain a better understanding of
what a user is modeling a Google image search and regular web search is time well spent. Doing just so,
with the intent of creating this tutorial, the author happened across Vermont Timber Works
(http://www.vermonttimberworks.com/), a Vermont based business that builds timber frame structures.
Being quite taken by the quality of the workmanship presented on their website and material available
there, in particular the Hermes Barn, the author contacted Vermont Timber Works and asked for
permission to use the Hermes barn material on their web site as a basis for this tutorial. The vice
president of the company responded in the positive and wished us well on the new tutorial project. So it
is with great pleasure that TurboCAD V17.2 Pro – Timber Frame Barn is presented. Please check out the
Hermes Barn and note that there are some PDF files on the website that illustrate what will be worked
toward within the tutorial. Since this is a tutorial, the author reserves the right to make adjustments as
deemed necessary to ensure the tutorial does not become too burdened with detail and become
excessively long. http://www.vermonttimberworks.com/home/projects/hermes/index.html
The author has borrowed the timber frame definitions from:
http://www.timberframedesign.net/timberglossary.html and
WordWeb Free Version (http://wordweb.info/).
Please remember that any supplied images and files are for use within the tutorial only and may not be
shared or sold to others.
Place tutorial images in a permanent location on the hard drive.
A couple fonts are used in the tutorial and they have been supplied. They may already be part of those
supplied with Windows. If required, they should be installed in the Windows Font folder while TurboCAD
is closed, so they will load when TurboCAD is started.
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Hammer Beam Bent
Bent: Structural network of timbers or a truss that makes up one cross-sectional piece of the frame.
The first bent will be made utilizing, for the most part, 3D components as one might do in the real world.
A single timber will be created, it will have materials assigned to it and this timber will be the basis for all
of the timbers in the drawing.
Select the Box tool from the 3D Object toolbar.
Shift + Tab into the Coordinate fields. Type 0 in the X field and 0 in the Y field. Press enter to place the
first point of the box.
Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 19' in the Width field, 8 in the Length field and 8 in the Height field.
Press Enter.
Because the drawing Space Units are set to inches any
number entered without a suffix will be read as inches. Since
the timbers are not standard dimensional lumber it will be
assumed that an 8 × 8 inch timber will measure 8 × 8 inches
and not 7.5 × 7.5 inches as it would with standard lumber.
Since the board in this case is 19 feet long the user must add
the foot suffix (any foot suffix can be used ' or ft). Note: If a
user only knew the metric measurement it could be enter as
well, using the metric suffix and TurboCAD would perform the
conversion.
Press the Space Bar to exit the tool.
Materials Application – Session 1
A wood material will now be applied to the first timber.
Double click on the box to open the Properties dialogue for the selection.
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Select the Rectangle tool from the Line toolbar.
Select Blue from the color dropdown menu on the Property toolbar.
V SEKE snap the first point of the rectangle at the corner where the hammer post and the upper tie meet.
Move the cursor in a right downwardly direction for a short distance and then Tab into the Inspector Bar
and enter 2' 6 in the Size A and Size B fields. Press Enter.
Select the Parallel tool from the Line toolbar.
Switch to Isometric SE view.
Select (left mouse click) the left line of the blue rectangle as the line to go parallel from.
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Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -2 in the Offset field. Press Enter.
Select the top line of the blue rectangle as the line to go parallel from. Tab into the Inspector Bar and
enter -2 in the Offset field. Press Enter.
Switch to Front view.
Select the Line tool from the Line toolbar.
Using two V SEKE snaps place a line on the diagonal between the two parallel lines, as indicated in the
picture below.
Select the Parallel tool from the Line toolbar.
Select the new line as the line to go parallel from. Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 10 in the Offset
field. Press Enter.
Select the Circle Tan to entities tool from the Circle/Ellipse toolbar.
Select Blue from the color dropdown menu on the Property toolbar.
Select the Through Point option from the Inspector Bar or right mouse click local menu.
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V SEKE snap the first point of the circle to the bottom vertex of the vertical parallel line.
V SEKE snap the second point of the circle to the right vertex of the horizontal parallel line.
Move the cursor so that the circle is to the lower right of the first two through points, as indicated in the
picture below, and then Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 4' 3 in the Radius field. Press Enter to
complete the circle.
Select the Polyline tool from the Line toolbar.
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Tab into the Inspector Bar once more and enter -1 in the Delta Y field. Press Enter to move the selection
forward.
Select the three knee braces. Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -3 in the Delta Y field. Press Enter to
move the selection forward.
Press Esc to deselect the selection.
The bents that have the 6 × 8 inch timbers centered will be addressed later in the tutorial.
Image Insertion and Scale
At this point an image of the finial at the end of the hammer post will be inserted into the drawing. It will
then be scaled and a portion will be traced to produce the 3D finial.
Switch to Front view.
Select Plane by Active View from the Workplane toolbar.
From the Insert menu at the top of the TurboCAD desktop select Picture / From File
Locate the supplied file Hermes Hammer Post Detail.jpg and click Open.
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Left mouse click in the drawing area to the left of the bent to place the first point of the image box.
Move the cursor in a right downwardly direction for a short distance and then left mouse click to place
the second point of the image box. The image appears after the second left click.
From the Tools menu at the top of the TurboCAD desktop select Raster Image / Image Manager.
The image should be highlighted in the image list. If it is not, select it and then select Embed and then
Apply and then OK.
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Right mouse click and select Rubber Stamp from the local menu.. M SEKE snap at the corresponding
mid-points
points on bent 2 and bent 3 to place two copies,
copies as indicated in the picture
icture below. Zoom in close
closer
than illustrated below to ensure that the correct locations
location are snapped to.
Press Esc to exit the Rubber Stamp tool.
The ridge will now be placed.
Select the girt at the relocated bent components out in the open.
Select the Make Copy tool to turn it on.
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Press and hold the Shift key down. Left mouse click the two corner posts to deselect them. Release the
Shift key.
Select the Make Copy tool to turn it on.
Tab into the first field of Inspector Bar but don't change anything. Just press Enter to make a copy in
place.
Select the Make Copy tool to turn it off.
With the two rafters still selected, Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 6 in the Size Y field. Press Enter.
At this point the two six inch rafters will be notched.
Select the Box tool from the 3D Object toolbar.
Select Blue from the color dropdown menu on the Property toolbar.
V SEKE snap the first point of the box to the bottom left forward vertex on the left front corner stall area
post.
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Turn off the grid.
Right mouse click on the Suppress Hidden Line rendering tool on the Render toolbar to open the Camera
Properties. Check Hidden Line and uncheck Nonrenderable objects. Nothing else is checked. Click OK.
Press Esc after the render occurs
rs and then select Zoom Extents at the top of the TurboCAD desktop.
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Select the Quality Rendering tool from the Render toolbar.
Select the Wireframe tool on the Render toolbar to end the render.
From this point on the tutorial is no longer based on the information provided by Vermont Timber Works.
It is based solely on the authors research and building experience.
Wall Panels – SIP – Session 1
The walls of the barn will now be constructed and two different methods will be used to do this. Although
the construction of the wall panels will be based on structural insulated panels, they will not be made
from all the components that make up such panels. Instead, the actual walls will be created using
extrusions. However, an exploded SIP panel will be created later in the tutorial so that it can be illustrated
when paper space is addressed.
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Turn off the Front and Back Wall layers.
Create four new layers, one called Left Walls, one called Right Walls, one called Lower Roof Panels and
one called Upper Roof Panels. Turn the new layers off.
Press Ctrl + K to open the Select by Colors dialogue. Select Red and click OK.
Assign the selection to the 2D layer.
Select the two left walls and assign them to the Left Walls layer. In progress below.
Select the two right walls and assign them to the Right Walls layer.
Select the two lower roof panels and assign them to the Lower Roof Panels layer.
Select the two upper roof panels and assign them to the Upper Roof Panels layer.
Turn on the four wall layers and the two roof layers.
Press Ctrl + L to open the Select by Layer dialogue. Select the two roof panel layers (use left mouse clicks
with the Ctrl pressed key to select names) and click OK. A user can also select layer names on Design
Director and select, Select By at the top of the palette.
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With the four roof panels selected, select Explode from the Format menu at the top of the TurboCAD
desktop so that the panel extrusions can be lengthened to create an overhang at the front and back.
With the four roof panels still selected, left mouse click into the Size Z field after the 55. Backspace once
to remove the second 5. Type 8 and then press Enter to resize the panels.
Soffits and Fascia
At this point the profiles for the soffits and fascia will be created.
Switch to Front view.
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Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -18 in the Delta X field. Press Enter.
Select the objects, as indicated in the picture below.
Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -18 in the Delta X field. Press Enter.
Select the objects, as indicated in the picture below.
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Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -18 in the Delta Z field. Press Enter.
Press Esc to deselect the selection.
The positioning could be made to look a bit better.
Select the objects, as indicated in the picture below.
Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 18 in the Delta Z. Press Enter.
Press Esc to deselect the selection.
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Create a new layer called Signage.
Assign the two sign components to the Signage layer.
Press Esc to deselect the selection.
Materials Application
It is now time to apply materials to all the objects.
Select Plane by World from the Workplane toolbar.
Turn off the grid.
Turn off all the layer, except layer 0, and then turn on the four Wall layers.
Press Ctrl + A to select all the visible objects.
Select Quality Rendering tool on the Render toolbar.
Press and hold the Shift key down. Left mouse click the four doors to deselect them. Release the Shift
key.
Open the Properties dialogue for the selection.
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Select the Reflectance tab in the window on the left. From the Reflectance dropdown menu select
Shadow catcher. Select Shadows only from the Catch dropdown menu. Set the Shadow brightness to
0.33. Left mouse click on the color box to open up the color menu. Slide the value setting to 168 and
click OK.
Click OK to exit the Material Editor and click OK to exit the Properties dialogue.
Turn on the Shingles layer.
Press Ctrl + A to select all the visible objects.
Select Quality Rendering tool on the Render toolbar.
Press Esc to deselect the selection after the screen render.
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Switch to Front view.
To save the view, right mouse click on one of the Standard View icons to open the Named View dialogue.
Enter Front in the Name field and click New. Click Close.
Switch to Right view.
To save the view, right mouse click on one of the Standard View icons to open the Named View dialogue.
Enter Right in the Name field and click New. Click Close.
Switch to World Plan view.
Press and hold the Shift key down.
Press the right arrow key on the keyboard four
f
times to rotate the view. Release the Shift key.
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Select Zoom Extents
To save the view, right mouse click on one of the Standard View icons to open the Named View dialogue.
Enter Top in the Name field and click New. Click Close.
Turn off all the layers, except layer 0 and then turn on the Exploded Bent layer.
Switch to Isometric SW view.
To save the view, right mouse click on one of the Standard View icons to open the Named View dialogue.
Enter Exploded Bent in the Name field and click New. Click
Clic Close.
Turn off Exploded Bent layer and turn on the SIP Panel layer.
Switch to Isometric SE view.
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Click OK to exit the Render Scene Environment Editor and click OK to exit the Drawing Setup dialogue.
Allow the scene to rerender (13 seconds on the author's off the shelf Acer).
Saving the Rendered Image
This render will now be saved.
The author has found that saving as a high resolution BMP or JPG produces excellent results. If a smaller
image is required afterward, resizing with an image editor and saving in JPG format retains the excellent
results. With the desired view now fully rendered on screen select Save As from the File menu at the top
of the TurboCAD desktop.
Under the Save As dialogue, select the desired Save in location from the dropdown menu at the top of
the dialogue.
Select JPG – TurboCAD for Windows JPEG from the Save as type dropdown menu.
Enter the file name Timber Frame Barn Tutorial ISO Barn v17.jpg. Select Setup.
Adjust the setting to match those in the image below. Click OK.
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Press the Space Bar to exit the tool.
Select Zoom Full View.
Right mouse click on the Page 4 tab at the bottom of the screen and select Duplicate.
Select the Page 5 tab.
Select and delete the viewports, annotation and the dimensions.
Double click 4 OF 6 at the lower left corner of the sheet to open the Properties dialogue. Under the
General tab, change the text to read 5 of 6. Click OK.
Select the Insert Viewport tool from the Viewport toolbar.
Using two G SEKE snaps place a viewport, as indicated in the pictures below. In progress below.
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