TurboCAD Tips for Drawing RC Plane Plans
Use these easy to follow tips to enrich your TurboCAD drafting experience
TurboCAD training tips for RC airplane plans page 1 page 2
Gas motor drawn in TurboCAD
TurboCAD is an affordable and easy to learn computer aided design program that is ideal for drawing your original RC model airplane designs. The TurboCAD folks have gone the extra mile to make their program intuitive with a logical interface and such helpful features as an inspector bar and context sensitive help menus. As you gain experience using TurboCAD for drawing model airplane plans, you will soon find there are several ways to get the same drafting task done. Following are some TurboCAD tips for preparing RC plane plans to get you started. See here how to use this info to have your RC model plane plan published in a magazine.
1. The absolute start on TurboCAD tips for the aspiring RC plane designer is to play and experiment with the basics of TurboCAD. Draw some lines, parallel lines, circles, and boxes. Practice moving them around the drawing area and learn how to edit them. Pay attention to other aspects of the TurboCAD user interface, in particular the Inspector and Properties Bar. Consider purchasing the TurboCAD training CDs to help put these TurboCAD tips for RC plane plans in context from the start - it will save you a great deal of time.
2. Use the “snap” command. Perhaps the most important TurboCAD tip for drawing RC plane plans is the snap command. You will snap constantly as you draw. The foundation of any CAD program is precision, and the snap command is simply the easiest way to ensure lines are precisely joined. TurboCAD does an exceptional job of implementing the snap function. You can snap to a grip; snap to the end of a line; snap to a mid-point of a line, etc. I’d estimate that 95% of my TurboCAD RC plane plans work is based on snaps. In short, the #1 TurboCAD tip for drawing RC plane plans is to get comfortable and familiar with the snap command.
TurboCAD is excels at 2D RC model airplane plans
3. Never draw anything in TurboCAD twice. This TurboCAD tip for preparing RC plane plans may not be obvious, but once grasped will save you a great deal of time. There are a variety of tools within TurboCAD to assist you with this concept, to include mirror, array and the basic copy and paste commands. For example, with anything on a RC airplane plan that is symmetrical, just draw one half and use the mirror command for the other half. This can be a wing, fuselage, or horizontal tail half. You will quickly find that using the mirror and snap commands can allow you to draft a duplicate wing half in literally seconds. And if you need to make any changes in the original object, just make a new second half with the mirror command. Watch an example of the mirror and snap command on the TurboCAD tips video below.
See a demonstration of TurboCAD mirror and snap commands
4. Get in the habit of using the right mouse button. TurboCAD has a lot of great help information built into the program. TurboCAD knows where the cursor is in relation to the various objects you are drawing on your RC plane plans, and will vary the option boxes at opportune times during your plan drawing experience. In addition, use the right button to click over a tool button and open up the properties for that tool. This TurboCAD tip for RC plane plans can quickly provide information on line type, text formatting and layers.
This building was drawn in TurboCAD
5. Draw your RC model airplane plan in TurboCAD full size. It may take a while to grasp the incredibly useful fact that all of your RC airplane drawing within TurboCAD is full size. In other words, a 36 inch wingspan is 36 inches anywhere in the drawing area. You can zoom in and out all you wish, but TurboCAD still “sees” the wing as 36 inches long. This TurboCAD tip will save you a lot of mental math, and makes it incredibly easy to add structure to your RC plane plan design without having to worry about ratios or conversion factors.
Once your RC plane plan is complete, you can print it out full size on a plotter. Or, if you are using a standard 8.5” by 11” sheet of paper on your home printer, just use the “fit to page” box on TurboCAD model plane plans printing options. Write down the fit ratio that TurboCAD will produce. Say the fit ratio is 1:3.145 as you print out your full plan on 8.5” x 11” paper. Simply use an enlargement ratio at your local copy shop of 314.5% to get the exact enlargement ratio for your full size RC plane plans print out.
TurboCAD Tips page 1 page 2