TurboCAD Deluxe V16.2 Timber Frame Barn ... - Textual Creations

Donald B. Cheke 

TurboCAD Deluxe V16.2 – Timber Frame Barn 

- The Hermes - 


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www.textualcreations.ca


Copyright © 2010 Donald B. Cheke 

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, pri 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 sponsibility 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 ppurpose. 

urpose. 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 

TurboCAD is a registered trademark of IMSI/Design. 

All of the work presented within this tutor tutorial is based on TurboCAD Deluxe V16 V16.2. 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 rections 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 Deluxe V16.2 and if the same tools are available 

the tools themselves may have been revised and hence, work in a diffe different rent manner than they previously 

did. 

2 

www.textualcreations.ca 

Published by: 


Saskatoon, SK Canada 

Visit: www.textualcreations.ca

Donald B. Cheke www.textualcreations.ca 

Table of Contents 

Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 

Setup .............................................................................................................................................................................. 6 

Initial Lighting ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 

The Hermes Barn – Main Timbers .......................................................................................................................... 18 

Hammer Beam Bent ................................................................................................................................................. 20 

Image Insertion and Scale ....................................................................................................................................... 43 

Hammer Beam Bent – Continued ........................................................................................................................... 46 

Upper Roof Rafters .................................................................................................................................................... 60 

Stall Area Timbers ..................................................................................................................................................... 78 

Wall Panels – SIP – Session 1................................................................................................................................. 99 

Doors ......................................................................................................................................................................... 118 

Wall Panels – SIP – Session 2.............................................................................................................................. 122 

Roof Panels – SIP ................................................................................................................................................... 124 

Soffits and Fascia ................................................................................................................................................... 128 

Shingles .................................................................................................................................................................... 139 

Windows ................................................................................................................................................................... 147 

Concrete Slab .......................................................................................................................................................... 159 

Bent – Exploded View ............................................................................................................................................. 161 

SIP Panel – Exploded View .................................................................................................................................... 187 

Ground Plane ........................................................................................................................................................... 201 

Named Views ........................................................................................................................................................... 202 

Signage ..................................................................................................................................................................... 210 

Materials Application ............................................................................................................................................. 215 

Render Scene Luminance ..................................................................................................................................... 238 

Render Scene Environment .................................................................................................................................. 242 

Saving the Rendered Image.................................................................................................................................. 246 

Paper Space – Title Block ..................................................................................................................................... 249 

Paper Space – Pages with Viewports & Annotations ....................................................................................... 273 

Printing ..................................................................................................................................................................... 311 

Appendix .................................................................................................................................................................. 313 

3


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 software package. 

Within this very comprehensive 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 title block and 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 TurboCAD Deluxe V16.2. 

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 V16 user interface, and the default toolbars in their 

undocked format (Office 2000 theme). 

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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 V16.2 Deluxe – 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 4.5A 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. 

5


Type 2D in the Layer name field and click OK or press Enter. 

Turn off the new layer by left mouse clicking the eyes icons that correspond to the new layer. Please note 

that layer 0 should remain visible at all times as the program uses this layer for internal processes. 

Select the red profile and then assign it to the 2D layer by left mouse clicking the clear box to the right of 

the 2D layer name on the Design Director palette. A green arrow will appear indicating that the 

procedure was done and the selection will disappear as the layer is not visible. 

Alternately objects can be assigned to their layers via the Properties toolbar at the top of the TurboCAD 

desktop. 

The author finds that saving most of the 2D profiles is a good habit to get into. Should a user need to 

recreate some 3D object due to problems that are encountered then there is less work involved as the 

profiles are still intact. 

Not all the timbers are 8 × 8; some are supposed to be 6 × 8 and those that are supposed to be 6 × 8 

will now be changed. According to the plan, the 6 × 8 timbers and the knee braces are flush with the face 

of the first and fourth bent and centered on the second and third bent. 

Select the four timbers as indicated in the picture below. 

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Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 6 in the Size Y field. Press Enter. 

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. 

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With the rafter block still selected, select the Linear Copy tool from the Copy toolbar. 

Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 0 in the X Step field, 3' 7 3/16 in the Y Step field, 0 in the Z Step 

field and 4 in the Sets field. Press Enter. 

Select the remainder of the exploded bent, not the rafters, and then Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 

-50' in the Delta X field. Press Enter to move it out of the way. 

Turn on the four Bent layers. 

Select the four rafter blocks. Press D SEKE and relocate (M SEKE) the reference point to the middle of the 

bottom line of the right post on bent 1, as indicated in the picture below. 

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Right mouse click and select Rubber Stamp from the Local Menu. M SEKE snap at the corresponding 

mid-points on bent 2 and bent 3 to place two copies, as indicated in the picture below. Zoom in close to 

ensure that the correct location is snapped to. Zoomed out image below. 

Press Esc to exit the Rubber Stamp tool. 

The ridge will now be placed. 

Select the girt at the moved bent components. 

Select the Make Copy tool to turn it on. 

Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 90 in the Z Rotation field. Press Enter. 

Select the Make Copy tool to turn it off. 

Press D SEKE and relocate (M SEKE) the reference point to the top forward line of the rotated girt. 

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Create a new layer caller Knee Braces. 

Select all of the knee braces and assign them to the Knee Brace layer. Do not deselect. 

Turn on the Bent 1 layer. 

Switch to Front view. 

Select Plane by Active View from the Workplane toolbar. 

Select the Mirror Copy tool from the Copy toolbar. 

M SEKE snap the bottom side of the girt to define the first point of the mirroring line. Press and hold the 

Shift key down. Move the cursor downward a short distance and then left mouse click to define the 

second point of the mirroring line. Release the Shift key. In progress below. 


It is time for a render check. 

Turn on all the layers except the 2D and Image layer. 

Switch to Isometric SE view. 

Press Ctrl + A to select all the components in the drawing. 

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Press and hold the Shift key down. Drag a selection box around the components of the exploded bent to 

deselect them. Release the Shift key. In progress below. 

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 and then select Zoom Extents at the top of the TurboCAD desktop and 

turn off the grid. 

98


Turn off all the layers except the Left and Right Walls layers and layer 0. 

The selected red rectangle outlines the area where the windows will be contained within. 

With the rectangle still selected, select the Make Copy tool to turn it on. 

Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 5' in the Size X field and 3' in the Size Y field. Press Enter. 


Turn on the four Bent layers. 

To help determine where the other two windows will be located select the Line tool from the Line toolbar. 

Using two V SEKE snaps per line place two lines - one between two inner vertexes between bent three 

and four and one between two inner vertexes between bent one and two as indicated in the picture 

below. 

Press the Space Bar to exit the tool. 

Turn off the four Bent layers. 

Select the left line that was just created. 

149


Copy the number in the Y Position field. Press Esc to move out of the Inspector Bar. 

Select the Make Copy tool to turn it on. 

Select the smaller central rectangle and then Tab into the Inspector Bar and paste the copied number 

into the Position Y field. Press Enter. 

Select the right line that was previously created. 

Copy the number in the Y Position field. Press Esc to move out of the Inspector Bar. 

Select the smaller central rectangle and then Tab into the Inspector Bar and paste the copied number 

into the Position Y field. Press Enter. 



150


Ensure the Two sided extrude option is engaged. 

Extrude each red rectangle, one at a time, by selecting it, entering 1 in the Height field and pressing 

Enter. 

That creates 2" thick objects. 

Press the Space Bar to exit the tool when complete. 

Press Ctrl + K to open the Select by Colors dialogue. Select Blue and click OK. 

Assign the selection to the 2D layer. 

Select the six boxes at the knee braces. 

Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -3 in the Delta Y field. Press Enter to move them in line with the 

knee braces. Do not deselect. 

Select Explode one time from the Format menu at the top of the TurboCAD desktop so that they can be 

resized. 

Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 1.5 in the Size Z field. Press Enter. 

Zoom in on the joint where the lower rafter and the post of the left stall area meet. 

Select the 3D Subtract tool from the Boolean & Facet toolbar. 

Select the Don't remove the subtrahend option. 

171


Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter -18 in the Delta Z field. Press Enter. 


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. 


186


SIP Panel – Exploded View 

During the author's tenure in the world of construction SIP panels (Structural Insulated Panels) were not 

a common part of the industry. After a quick review of these products it seems that there are basically 

two types, one with only a polystyrene interior and the other with a dimensional lumber and polystyrene 

interior. It is the understanding of the author that the panels that contain the dimensional lumber would 

be used to construct a structure that does not have a supporting frame. Since the timber frame barn 

does have a supporting frame it seems logical that the non-inner structural panels could be used. 

At this time an exploded wall panel will be created to illustrate what would be used on the walls and roof 

of the barn. It will also be inserted into paper space later in the tutorial. 

Switch to Isometric SE view. 

Select Plane by World from the Workplane toolbar. 

Select the Box tool from the 3D Object toolbar. 

In a clear area of the drawing G SEKE snap to place the first point of the box. Tab into the Inspector Bar 

and enter 4' in the Width field, 8' in the Length field and -.5 in the Height field. Press Enter. 


Select the panel. Tab into the Inspector Bar and enter 90 in the X Rotation field. Press Enter. 

Right mouse click and select Rubber Stamp from the Local Menu. Move the cursor to the right and left 

mouse click to place a copy nearby. In progress below. 

187


Turn off the Ground Plane layer. 

Turn the layers on or off, as indicated in the picture below. 

Named Views 

Before a view can be named the drawing must be maneuvered into a desirable view. This is done with 

the Walk Through tools but before this is done the camera perspective will be engaged. 

Right mouse click the Wireframe render icon on the Render toolbar to open the Camera Properties. 

Under the Camera tab check Perspective View and slide the View Angle to 53.858. Click OK. 


Select the Examine tool from the Walkthrough toolbar. 

Select Look To Drawing Center from the View / Camera menu at the top of the TurboCAD desktop. 

202


Use the Walk tool again, if needed, to move further in. 

Press Esc to turn off the Walk Through tool. 

Right mouse click on one of the Standard View icons to open the Named View dialogue. Enter Inside 

Front Doors in the Name field. Click New. Click Close. 

Select the Wireframe tool twice, once to end the render and once to turn off perspective. 

Turn off all layers, except layer 0 and Front wall. 

Signage 


Select Plane by Active View from the Workplane toolbar. 

Select the Text tool from the Text toolbar. 

210


Click OK to exit the Render Scene Environment Editor and click OK to exit the Drawing Setup dialogue. 

Allow the scene to rerender (26 seconds on the author's off the shelf HP). 

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 v16.jpg. Select Setup. 

Adjust the setting to match those in the image below. Click OK. 

246


Select 12 pt from the Font Size dropdown menu on the Property toolbar. 


Select Zoom Full View. 

Paper Space – Pages with Viewports & Annotations 

There is eventually going to going to be six paper space pages. For the most part, views will be added to 

each page first and then each page will be adjusted and annotated to suit. 

Double click 1 OF 1 at the lower left corner of the sheet to open the Properties dialogue. Under the 

General tab, change the text to read 1 of 6. Click OK. 

Select the Insert Viewport tool from the Named View toolbar. 

273


G SEKE snap the first point of the viewport at the grid location indicated in the picture below. 

G SEKE snap the second point of the viewport at the grid location indicated in the picture below. 

Viewport (and images) are always 

placed upper left corner to lower 

right corner. 

The Named view dialogue opens. Select Front and click Go to. Click Close. 

Right mouse click on the Paper 1 tab at the bottom of the screen and select Duplicate. 

274


From the Tools menu at the top of the TurboCAD desktop select Architecture / Markers / Circle mark. 

With the tool active, right mouse click and select Mark properties from the local menu. This can be done 

at any time during placement, should the reader need to change the Number field. 

Adjust the settings to reflect what is in the image below. 

298


Click OK. 

Using left mouse clicks place the markers, as indicated in the picture below. 

Right mouse click and select Finish drawing mark from the local menu. 

299


Select the Text tool from the Text toolbar. 

Open the Properties for the tool and adjust the settings to reflect what is in the image below. Click OK. 

Left mouse click in the area to the right of the #1 marker and type the following (be sure to press Shift + 

Enter to move to the next line when necessary). Select Finish when complete. 

1. Stall Corner Post 

2. Stall Rafter 

3. Corner Post 

4. Brace 

5. Girt 

6. Lower Tie 

7. Hammer Post 

8. Upper Rafter 

9. Upper Tie 

10. King Post 


300


Select Zoom Full View. 

Right mouse click on the Paper 4 tab at the bottom of the screen and select Duplicate. 

Select the Paper 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 picture below. In progress below. 

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