Welcome

​When I was working I used CAD to a limited extent for engineering and design but still wanted to have access to it for personal use when I retired. I found AutoCAD to be much too expensive for my needs and ended up purchasing TurboCAD Deluxe. I've been impressed with the capabilities of this software considering the relatively low cost. I started out creating simple 2D drawings for woodworking projects but soon became interested in learning TurboCAD's 3D features.

As a kid in the late 60s and early 70s I had a keen interest in model railroading and Meccano. It became apparent that building virtual Meccano models would be a great way to learn and practice CAD 3D modeling. So I set about creating a CAD library of the 300 or so different Meccano parts from that era and then 3D modeling some of the more complex Meccano models that I could only dream about as a kid. Timothy Edwards' Meccano website has a very extensive library of original Meccano parts drawings and model instruction manuals. The New Zealand Meccano website also has a lot of information on the various parts and their history. Both sites are invaluable resources for my CAD modeling. I'm still amazed at the mechanical ingenuity of these models, including motors, gears, sprockets, chains, pulleys, and belts, with many of them consisting of thousands of parts (mostly nuts and bolts). Using CAD gives me the benefits of having an unlimited supply of parts and sparing me from the heart-breaking process of having to disassemble the models in order to build a different one!

I also enjoy trying to produce near-photorealistic images of the models and superimposing them onto photographic background images to make them appear life-size and as if they were part of the original photo. I use fSpy (an open-source still image camera matching software program) along with a program I wrote in C Sharp to set TurboCAD's camera position and perspective view angle to match that of the photo. TurboCAD's LightWorks render engine allows one to fine tune the model's material, luminance, and environment properties to produce reflections, shadows, and lighting that blend realistically with the background image. The CAD Modeling section of the Gallery shows some rendered images of the models. They were printed to JPEG format at a resolution of 300 dpi.