Fool me once

So, how do we sum up April? Sun, rain, sun, rain, sub-zero temperatures, first barbeques, shorts and back to winter jackets, with some pranks and Easter holidays. Yes, that will about do it.

In terms of Palette CAD it’s been another month of fairs, domestic as well as international and more and more version 8.2 developments. 

First of all, I found myself in Stockholm for four days at the Nordbygg fair. Described as offering range, quality and depth, it was also a hugely successful show. Some 52,000 visitors descended upon the stands from over 900 exhibitors.

Nordbygg 2014 was our Swedish debut fair.

It was our Nordbygg debut and the response from our visitors was very positive, especially since we offered much needed differentiation to the other software exhibitors. Being a leading interior design CAD provider was a clear advantage amongst many companies focused on construction.

Biggest noticeable trend was the demand for BIM integration. “Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition.” More and more architects need want to be able to create a project in one software, export it to another and then carry on working on the same project. A good example would be using software to create a new apartment building, and then exporting this project into Palette CAD and then working on interiors of each apartment. It gives the designer an opportunity to use best suited software for each stage of the project as well as being able to share this information with other parties.

Perfect getaway cottage for the little hobbitses.

 Domestically we were also present for four days at IFH2014 in Nuremberg. With around 46,000 visitors and 685 exhibitors from 20 countries, there was plenty of products on display and creative ideas to take away from this sanitation, heating, air conditioning and renewable energies showpiece.

Our own innovations in form of Palette@HOME received much praise, and the guys from ImmerSight were on hand once again to take our visitors on a virtual tour using their full 3D immersion technologies.

Any more information sharing and it would be easier for me to make a book out of it, so I will stop now. If you wish to see more photos please visit our Facebook page or visit the official homepages of the above mentioned fairs. Until next time then!



Greeting from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team

Tip of the month! April: Daylight feature

This month, in line with the weather improvements, we will help you bring a little sunshine into your busy days. Feature "Daylight" is replacement for manually inserting sunlight objects. Also simplified is finding the correct positioning and angle, making beautiful renderings just that little easier.

To start the feature just look under the "View" tab and select "Daylight". A window will pop up allowing you to adjust a number of features. To use the new "Sunlight" system just tick the box. Now you will see the sun appear in your plan and using the "Axonometric" screen to adjust positioning is probably the easiest. Simply use drag and drop to either rotate the circle compass, to change the angle of the arc or move the sun along the arc. At the same time set the presentation mode of your desired camera view in "Perspective" screen to "Virtual Reality" so that you can see the shadow effects of your changes. When you are happy with the settings, simply close the "Daylight" window to proceed.

 When you are ready, render your desired image and feel free to go back and experiment with different "Daylight" settings.

Now you can turn even the rainiest day into a BBQ opportunity. Have a go yourselves!

Greeting from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team

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

Short but sweet

Slight pick up in sales, love is in the air, check your emails, write an awesome blog post and February is as good as gone. What else can we expect from the shortest month? Joking aside, I really hope it's not just me that feels like 2014 is speeding past faster than the speed of light, and yes, I do know that this comparison has some scientific loopholes!

Over the last month we have done the rounds of the domestic trade fairs with the standout one being Bautec 2014. With over forty thousand visitors and plenty of fresh ideas it is quickly becoming a must visit event for designers and architects. "Along with building materials, construction systems and components, Bautec  showcases the future of architecture and construction planning with a focus on the following themes: energy-efficient and sustainable construction, intelligent living, reconstruction of existing buildings, noise and fire prevention, sanitary systems and building/living with renewable resources." To find out more visit the official website.

Even the big boss can't resist a chance to try out the new touch version of Palette@Home at Bautec 2014.

Next month also sees the celebration of our 20th year anniversary, and we will be celebrating in style with a two day user event in Stuttgart. We have certainly come a long way since 1994 and just thinking back of how it used to be makes me feel significantly older.

To put that into perspective for you here are some fun facts from 1994: Forest Gump, True Lies, Pulp Fiction and Lion King were all released and Friends first braced our TV screens. Aggasi and Sampras were ruling the tennis world, Euro Tunnel was opened and in the UK there were 67 mobile phones for every 1000 people (fast forward just ten years to 2004 and there were already more mobiles than people). PlayStation was introduced changing the world of gaming forever and Netscape released their first internet browser, not that any of us could actually get a chance to use it!

I am going to leave you with a request, imagine what technology will look like in 20 years time.

Greeting from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team

Tip of the month! February: New features in 8.1

I have assembled here below the complete list of all the new features found in the latest upgrade of Palette CAD, version 8.1 for your reading pleasure, enjoy.

Also, we really have to give serious kudos and thanks to our favourite geeks and nerds in the programming department. Keep up the good work!!

Graphics

• The image quality in the virtual reality mode has been improved considerably and now also shows light and shadow live

• There are many new, realistic configuration options for the distribution of light for spots

• There is a new setting dialog for daylight

• The sun is now controlled via the dialog for daylight

• The sun’s position can be set easily in the scene using the mouse

• There is an option for automatic white balance to avoid colour alterations resulting from environment light

• The different types of light sources can now be inserted via the “Insert” ribbon

• Light sources can be set live while designing using the object controller

• The calculation for ambient light has been accelerated

• The maximum size of bitmaps in the Exposé and for Save/Print has been significantly increased

• In the Exposé, large images are now calculated and displayed little by little in individual tiles so that a partial preview of the quality of the image is provided early on during the calculation process

• The setting “Material with structure” has been improved and is now more realistic

Lots of fun to be had with the new improved lighting options.

Operation and user interface

• Larger icons can be chosen for high-resolution screens so that they are easier to recognize

• Ribbon customizations made by the user can now be saved and loaded

• The “Save object” command is now also available in the context menu of the right mouse button

• Construction of shapes made easier: The lines which result from the creation of an extrusion or from sawing, for example, can be snapped already during input using the snap functions

• The corners of fronts and workspaces are recognized as points during construction and are snapped

Search

• There is a new, very fast search feature for objects and materials in the installed catalogues

• The search works in a manner similar to search engines on the Internet

• There is a search line in the status bar of the object catalogues and material catalogues in which several search terms can be entered

• For a comprehensive search with special restrictions, there is an additional search mask

• When new catalogues have been installed, an index for fast searches is created automatically in the background

Recesses and openings

• There are configurable recesses and openings for walls

• Recesses and openings are used like windows and doors

• A recess can now also be loaded from the “Insert” ribbon

Primitives

• There are now powerful intelligent objects for the primitives, such as cuboid, pyramid, cylinder, ellipse, sphere, etc.

• The configuration options for these objects are considerably more intuitive and powerful now

• You can select the insertion point before insertion

• For rounded objects, the faceting and thus the fineness and the number of faces can be set

• One highlight is the triangle with grippable sides which is ideally suited for taking measurements, for example

Masonry enclosure

• There is a new object called “Masonry enclosure”

• This object automatically creates a frame around a selected object in the scene

• The frame can automatically be extended onto and joined to walls in the vicinity of the object

• A masonry enclosure is an intelligent extrusion

• A masonry enclosure is particularly useful for the installation of tubs in front of a wall, for example

Sections

• When objects are made to intersect with a front or a workspace, section edges are now generated as a contour

• There is a special sectional view which basically functions like a front except that in this case the area shown lies behind the cutting line

• The edge thickness and colour of the section edge can be set

• This makes it easy to hatch a cross section in 2D

Import

• The import of laser measurements in the IFC (Flexijet) format has been expanded to include additional architectural elements (such as pillars, pitched roofs, floors, recesses, openings)

• The additional option, SAT import, which was temporarily disabled in 8.0, is once again available

• Projects from Palette@Home can be imported into Palette CAD

 

Get some sunlight going to warm up your winter days. Now easier than ever!

Cameras

• The front clipping plane of cameras can be moved with the mouse

• This makes it possible to hide objects which are near the camera, for example, to look through a wall into a room

Configuration objects

• There is a “Simplify” option for configuration objects

• The background for this is that some configuration objects have so many configuration options that they become large and cumbersome

• When these configuration options are no longer needed, the object can now be converted to a simple and lean stretch object

Additional enhancements

• The maximum addressable memory for projects has been doubled

Wood technology

• The wood technology board has been enhanced with additional functions and configuration options

• For example, oblique bores and mitre cuts (compound mitre cuts) are possible

• Basic settings can be saved as the standard values

• The connection of CNC operations has been improved

• For example, free macros can be defined and linked to machining operations and joints, or connectors

• Machining operations can be sorted before output

• Grooves can also be positioned so they are centred

• The CNC output name is given in accordance with the name of the project

• Designing corners is now more intuitive

Tiling technology

• There is now a new laying style called “Laying in courses”

• This creates rows, or courses, of tiles in which each course can contain different tiles

Sanitary technology

• It is now possible to search for complete article numbers in the ARGE New Media catalogues

• Article sets are now loaded as groups

• This way, the sub-objects of a set can be edited and replaced

• When updating ARGE New Media catalogues, only the preview images for new articles must be calculated; existing preview images are transferred

Palette 2D

• Automatic backup has been enabled once again

• The DXF Export function has been improved

Palette Play

• The way some “critical” objects are shown in the scene has been improved

Palette@Home

• There is an Internet design module called Palette@Home

• This design module is an add-in module

• Projects from Palette@Home can be imported into Palette CAD

Troubleshooting

• There is a log file which helps us to find problems

 There you have it, so now, get some wonder-plans done!

Greetings from Stuttgart,

Your Palette CAD-Blog Team