I traveled up to IMSI’s Novato offices Friday, to get a demo of its latest product—TurboCAD 11 Professional. Like Ralph Grabowski, I was quite impressed with the new auto-dimensioning feature and the addition of 2D constraints that are actually quite easy to use.
I’ll be taking a closer look at TurboCAD once I receive the product in a week or so, but I was impressed with some of the innovative thinking that went into the new feature set. Most interesting was the ability to add transparency to solid area fills. Mauritz Botha showed me a detail drawing where this was applied to a framing hanger to show how a 2×4 nestled into it far better than could be done with hidden lines or other old-fashioned traditions. Even after several years of finally supporting 24-bit color, not even AutoCAD 2006 has support for transparency. Yet it’s so useful, as this feature demonstrates, that it should be in every CAD package.
Hi Peter,
Don’t you have the impression that IMSI TurboCAD is a CAD product in a sort of limbo?
I have the impression that IMSI engineering is trying to grow a good product that can honestly have some opportunity in the professional arena, while the IMSI sales and marketing departments are pushing down the product in the low-price amateur area with never-ending super-discounts, unprofessional marketing and non-sense product line.
To me, doesn’t make any sense to promote TurboCAD 11 the same day of the release with 70% discount on the list price. IMSI did it. Why they do that? Are they trying to kill the product? Do they need money so desperately?
Because of the IMSI marketing approach, TurboCAD is quickly disappearing from the radar of the manufacturing companies. While TurboCAD is a decent CAD system, IMSI as a brand is perceived as chip and unreliable brand.
What is your opinion about this?
The CAD Expert
Comment by TheCADexpert — 2005-04-02 @ 19:25:41 PST