20 years young and counting

March madness, it's certainly been an eventful month. Are we heading into another cold war? Is Facebook trying to get its fingers in every possible e-pie, WhatsApp and now Oculus VR. How come the NSA boys know what I had for dinner last night and how many calories it contained but somehow can't locate flight MH370? Plenty to ponder.

It's been also plenty eventful at Palette CAD. This year sees us turn 20 years young. Even though we are also anticipating an imminent takeover bid in the region of $5 billion from Facebook, we are still focused on providing for the people! To mark our 20 year anniversary, we held a two day user conference in Stuttgart, Germany, where it all started.

Our users got a chance to meet the Palette CAD team, enjoy plenty of past, present and future themed presentations as well as a chance to try out one of our first ever versions of Palette CAD back from 1994.

It was real mixture of back to the future and days of future past, nostalgia of the past as well as the excitment of the future, with the likes of ImmerSight and Oculus at customers disposal.

At the same time more than 48,000 visitors descended upon SHK Essen to find out the latest trends in sanitary, heating, air conditioning and renewable energies. "The dominant subjects were energy-efficient modern heating technology, innovative bathroom design for all generations, air conditioning and ventilation installations which are appropriate for the needs and hygienically flawless as well as effective solutions for drinking water hygiene." To find out more visit the official website.

Getting ready to rumble at SHK Essen 2014

Meanwhile in Poland our partners were very busy themselves at the Kominki International Fireplaces Exhibition in Poznan presenting, as well as, collecting the gold medal for quality and innovation. A full list of winners as well as a more in-depth look at the trade fair can be found here.

Palette CAD Poland collecting the quality and innovation gold medal for Palette CAD 8

That's plenty to take in for now. Next month we will be at Nordbygg 2014 in Stockholm, Northern Europe´s largest and most important construction industry event, as well as, IFH Intherm in Nuremberg. If you are out and about make sure to stop by!

Also don't forget to come up with some phenomenal April Fools' ideas!


Greeting from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team

Tip of the month! March: Rendering small rooms

In version 8.1 we have now made it possible to render smaller rooms without having to blend out any walls or ceilings. It also allows for realistic light representation. This was made possible by introducing a see-through feature to our cameras. It works simply by defining line of vision, as before, but now you can also define which sections are see through. It can be done using the drag and drop feature to extend the see-through area or using "Visible as of" field on the "Set camera" options.

The example below shows a small bathroom and how to achieve a great rendering without having to compromise through hiding objects or raising the ceiling level.

Follow the steps mentioned above and then simply render away! The result speaks for itself.

You've got the knowledge and the power now, so put it to good use, but remember, with great power comes great responsibility!

Greeting from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team