NOVATO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/25/09 -- IMSI®/Design, the developer of the #1 best-selling CAD in retail, announced today that it is shipping a significant upgrade to its flagship product, TurboCAD® Professional Version 16.

"TurboCAD Professional v16 may be the strongest upgrade we've ever had to the TurboCAD series," stated Bob Mayer, COO of IMSI/Design. "There is a lot of innovation in this product, particularly in 2D drafting and 3D modeling and rendering."

An overview of new and improved features include (please see www.TurboCAD.com for a complete listing):

Drafting and Detailing:

--  Drafting Palette.  Exceptionally powerful and unique capabilities that
    expedite the drafting-to-detailing process. Create associative 2D sections
    based on standard views or sectional planes of 3D surface or ACIS® solid
    models, including XREFs and imported models from ADT and Google(TM)
    SketchUp(TM). Create nested, associative sections (i.e., cross-sections of
    cross-sections). 2D views may be placed in paperspaces (layouts), hatched,
    dimensioned, and annotated.

--  XREF Manager.  Built into the Block Palette. Manage external
    references more effectively. XREFs can be exported with .DWG or .DXF
    drawings for greater Autodesk AutoCAD® file compatibility.

--  Bezier Curves.  New node editing options include Equal Curvatures-at-
    point, Non-equal Curvature-at-point, Non-smooth-at-point; all offering much
    better control over curve fitting with nodes handles.

--  Dimensioning.  Create standard styles for easy exchange of standard
    conventions. Dimension scaling in Paper Space now matches scale from Model
    Space to ensure accurate dimensioning of displayed entities in Paper Space
    Viewports.

--  Format Painter.  Provides ability to automatically extract and save
    selected formats (even from imported files) as preset property values for
    any object property type. Easy access from drop down menu.

--  Filleted Corners.  Automatically add from local menu, streamlining the
    process of filleting corners when drawing polygons, irregular polygons,
    rectangles, and irregular rectangles.
    

3D Modeling Enhancements:

--  ACIS® Solid Modeling Engine.  Now updated to Version 18. From
    industry leader Spatial.

--  Quick Pull.  Great productivity enhancement for quickly modeling 3D
    objects. Select any enclosed geometry on a 3D face and then press or pull
    it out of the design. Even specify draft angle and add a chamfer or fillet
    to the geometry being modified. Works with solids or surfaces.

--  Mesh Simplifier Tool.  Degenerate (simplifies to a specific number of
    triangles) TurboCAD surfaces. Useful for simplifying large, imported meshes
    from popular 3D scanners.

--  Helix.  New tool that allows users to quickly draw 2D and 3D spirals.

--  Curve.  Split a 3D Curve into two pieces. Handy for extracting
    extrusion or sweep profiles from part of a larger curve.

--  Extrude, Revolve, Sweep.  New offset property allows for the creation
    of a body with constant thickness, as offset.

--  Measurement.  Measure length of 3D Curves as well as the area of ACIS
    faces.  Also, measuring the volume of ACIS solids is conveniently included
    in the Measurement menu.

--  3D Mouse Support.  Speed design as you move along and rotate about
    your drawing's X, Y, and Z axes without having to also use your keyboard or
    other on-screen navigational aids.
    

Architectural Enhancements:

--  Enhanced Doors and Windows.  Right/Left and Inside/Outside flip
    options now available in Node Editing. The following Vertical Alignment
    properties have also been added: Head and sill height for windows; head and
    threshold height for doors.

--  Stairs.  Ability to edit a stair's height in Edit Node.
    

Lighting and Rendering Enhancements:

--  LightWorks® Rendering.  Now updated to Version 7.9.  From industry
    leader Lightwork Design. Provides global illumination, final gather, tone
    mapping, gamma correction, lens flare, ambient occlusion, and dozens of new
    material shaders. Benefit from advanced shader descriptions as well.

--  Materials to Facet.  Simply drag and drop materials from the Material
    Palette onto a 3D object's face. Quickly add multiple material finishes to
    a single object.

--  Material Scaling.  New methods to accurately scale materials and
    preview changes on-the-fly.

--  Render Styles and Style Editor.  Easily render using pre-defined
    styles that optimize dozens of settings for specific effects,
    photorealistic or non-photorealistic. Render Style Editor allows for
    unlimited new styles to be created for one-click access to a style from
    project to project.
    

Improved Compatibility and Interoperability:

--  Database Connect Palette.  Data link to any data source (ODBC
    database, Excel, CSV, SQL, Access, Oracle, Sequel Server) on either local
    machine or company network. Reference data in a TurboCAD table as well as
    data associated to objects. CAD file automatically updates with changes to
    external database. Improves bill of material handling, real time pricing.

--  Improved .DWG/.DXF Import/Export.  Ability to export XREFs with .DWG
    or .DXF drawings.

--  Google(TM) SketchUp(TM) Import.  Greatly enhanced. Not only is more
    information about the Google SketchUp model imported, but supplemental
    rendering, lighting and materials information is imported if the SketchUp
    model has been rendered with IMSI/Design's IDX Renditioner product, a plug-
    in to SketchUp.

--  Google SketchUp Export.  New ability to convert models into native
    SketchUp (.SKP) files for opening directly in Google SketchUp.
    

"This is such a strong release," added Mayer. "Our leveraged development effort with our newly introduced DoubleCAD(TM) XT series is already paying dividends for all of our users."

Availability and Pricing

TurboCAD Professional v16 is now available at a suggested retail price of $1,295.

TurboCAD Professional v16 Architectural Edition and TurboCAD Professional v16 Mechanical Edition are available for $1,395.

TurboCAD Professional v16 Platinum Edition (containing both Architectural and Mechanical Edition features) is available for $1,495.

Upgrades are available online at www.turbocad.com or by calling IMSI/Design at 1-800-833-8082.

About IMSI/Design

IMSI/Design is the global leader in retail CAD (Computer Aided Design). With over 15 million products sold since 1988, IMSI/Design products include the award-winning TurboCAD®, DoubleCAD(TM), DesignCAD(TM), TurboFLOORPLAN(TM), and IDX® Renditioner families of precision design applications. Please visit www.IMSIdesign.com for more information.

© 2009 IMSI/Design, LLC. All rights reserved. TurboCAD, DoubleCAD, and IMSI/Design® are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of IMSI/Design, LLC. All other identifiable marks are the property of their respective owners.

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