Wind of change

For those returning to read my words of wisdom and inspiration, you may notice a new look and design to the blog.

To start off with, should English not be your first choice of languages you can now find Google Translate on the right hand side. Unfortunately my extraordinary charm and wit may be lost in translation but at least you can understand the core of the subject.

Should you find the blog to be a good read, please feel free to spread the joy using the new share options for the other social media outlets, also found on the right hand side.

I have also tried to make it easier to leave feedback quickly introducing the reaction boxes at the bottom of each blog. "Useful", "Interesting" and being British , I had to throw in "Fit for the Queen" in there. Don't forget you can also directly leave feedback or topic suggestions at egrabic@palettecad.com as well as ask for a request to be added to my personal blog mailing list.

While we are on the subject of change, take a look at the Palette CAD case study recently published by BCGSoft at www.bcgsoft.com/casestudies/palettecad.htm . It highlights the GUI changes in Palette CAD 8, giving it a more Windows 8 look and feel.

Lastly, and of course saving the best for last, I am very happy to announce our new Palette CAD International Group page on Facebook. I hope it will prove to be a great platform to share ideas, give and find tips and tricks, showcase your hard work for all to see and rate, a place to meet some fellow users and enthusiasts from across the globe and maybe a chance to practice your knowledge of other languages.

The place to be is www.facebook.com/groups/164040557075439/ so make sure you visit, tell your friends and join our group. To start us off I will be showcasing my England inspired bathroom so let me know what you think.

As always, it has been a pleasure, so, till next time...

Greetings from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team

Tip of the month! November: Adding new materials

Sometimes you want to have a specific texture or a background for your design but these are not always already stored in Palette CAD. Not a problem, because, following these simple instructions you can add all the materials your heart desires. Just remember the quality of your texture is determined by the picture provided.

How does it work then:

First, start the material library browser by clicking on the Material button or by selecting Material from the Properties menu.

In the material library, on the left hand side you can find a number of catalogs. These can in turn contain a number of files which contains a number of textures. For example catalog “_Colours” contains a file named “System” and here you can find a number of textures.

The storage system is therefore as follows: Catalogs → Files→ Textures.

To save a material then, you should first, select a catalog. You can either use the catalog "My Materials" or create a completely new catalog. To create a new catalog, select “Material” and then right-click on your mouse and select “New Catalog”. Name it something meaningful, I used “Own Materials” in my example below.

Now you need to create a new file under your new catalog in which you can import textures. Follow very similar steps as above only this time selecting the newly created catalog, right-click on it and select “New file”. In the example below I named the file “My Backgrounds”. Now you have created the basis to save a new texture.

Next select the newly created file ( “My Backgrounds” in this example) and click on the option "New Material " at the bottom of the browser.

Now you are in the material properties browser. You are now presented with two options.

Selecting “Colour” you can add any number of colours and you can also add a specific RGB colour under “Other colours” and “Custom” if you know the exact codes.

The other option is to select "Texture" and in the field “Edit” enter the name for your new texture ( in the example below I used “PaletteCAD Stand”). Then click on "Select Texture" and you will be taken to your operating systems browser. From here find the location of the required texture on your PC and open it. 

It is now saved in your library and can be used or edited in the future like any other already existing material.

Right then, time to get creative and have fun!

Greetings from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team