18 December 2012

Tip of the month! December: Inserting company logo

So, you have worked your socks off, creating a perfect picture or panorama for your next sales pitch but you want to finish it off with your companies logo, to give it that extra professional touch. Fear not, it is very easy when you know where to look.

Easy as 1,2,3:

First open the Settings menu and select Options. This can be done either right after you start Palette CAD or once you are working with a plan.


Next, from the left hand side menu select Input/Output and then choose Company info. Here the current selected logo will be shown, probably looking very similar to the screenshot below. As much as we'd love you to keep using our logo, should you want to change it to your own, click on Select your companies logo.


Now you will be in your computers explorer so from here just find and select the image you wish to use. Please notice that you may need to change the file format in order for your image to be visible. PNG is default but most commonly picture files will be under JPEG format.


Finally when saving the picture/panorama/film you wish to use, you have the option to further edit the appearance of your selected logo. These include size, positioning and opacity, and can be found under Company logo tab.


Well that's all for this time folks. Below is another one of my football inspired baths featuring the Palette CAD logo.





Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team


3 December 2012

Santa Claus is coming to town!

The holiday season is well and truly underway, and as with most coins, there are two different sides to next few weeks. It is important to acknowledge them both in order to come out on top in the end.

Firstly there is the buildup and everything that comes with it. For most of us that means longer days at the office, dealing with equally stressed out customers and putting in that extra push to end the year on a high. Then there is the shopping, fighting your way through the masses, trying to get the best deal out of the highly inflated prices. It is a ritual I go through year after year and still every time it comes to it, I feel as lost as Alice was in Wonderland. The creativity part of my brain goes into hibernation for the month and the simplest task of choosing a gift for my loved ones becomes equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. Finally there is the dreaded question, what would you like for a present this year? I always think of a number of useful things I need, in February and August that is, but, as there is never pen and paper to hand to write them down, and my first choice Porsche 911 Turbo is still “slightly” out of reach, all is forgotten by the time the question comes around. 

Still, then there is the other side of the coin, and this is the one I prefer to focus on. Regardless of which holiday it is you celebrate, it is the experience of sharing it with the people you love that makes it so special. Those few days where the family gathers together and you can allow yourself second and third helpings of diner, the work parties where its ok to drink a little too much in front of your boss, going out and dancing the night away with your friends that are back in town, or simply getting up late, sitting down with something wet to drink and watching a seasonal movie. There are decorations everywhere, bright lights, and if you are lucky enough, snow outside.

Now we’ve set the mood, and it is this line of thinking that has inspired me to take one of our Palette CAD master plans and add some seasonal magic to it. It is a simple idea that can be used on previous plans of your own to give them a quick update as well as provide some seasonal advertising, in showrooms for example.You can also see the original plan and compare them at our Facebook page.


This is then a perfect time to reflect on the year gone by and look forward to the adventures in the coming one, and here at Palette CAD it has been an eventful one. 

The company has been growing very strongly this year and we were represented at many national and international exhibitions, with our attendance at one of the biggest in the tiling industry, Cersaie, recently covered in a blog by myself further below.  

Already we are looking at a busy schedule in the first half of next year. To start off we will be at BAU 2013 in Munich between 14 and 19 January. It is one of world’s leading building trade fairs held every two years. In 2009, BAU attracted more than 235,000 visitors and over 2000 exhibitors. To find out more about the trade fair and see the layout map you can visit the official website at http://www.bau-muenchen.com/en/Home. Palette CAD will be in hall A6 stand 530.

Also on January 31st and February 1st we will be at KOK Austria 2013 in Wels. It is a very important exhibition focusing on tiled stoves and home ceramics. You can find us in hall 20 stand C204. More information about the exhibition can be found at http://www.kachelofenverband.com/exhibition/kok-austria-trade-fair/. I will be present at both exhibitions so feel free to stop by for a visit.

Year 2012 also saw growth and investment for our international market and therefore the company responded by increasing focus on helping our international partners and customers. We have added international social media to our already existing German sites. A new Tip of the Month feature has also been added to the existing blog, providing that extra little help for your common hotline queries.

The guys in the programming department have been working very hard to bring out version 8 of the program, which is currently in its testing phase for some of our German customers. We are hoping to have a solid version in time to cure the January blues for our existing service partnership customers here in Germany.

What that means for the rest of us, non-native German speakers, is that translation into other languages can begin soon after with a view to release translated Palette CAD 8 in the first half of 2013.

I have been lucky enough to get a chance to play around with Palette CAD 8, and since I got it in November, my creativity was still around, allowing me to come up with the idea to reproduce a room from a very famous action sci-fi movie, see if you can guess what it is. It goes to show that uses for the program are far from conventional so don't be afraid to experiment a little.


I have not been the only one thinking outside of the box and our recently started international group on Facebook has seen some great and innovative designs. Following its growing success I would like to invite our users to join our group and post your designs for others to see. From next month I will be choosing my favorite picture, which will then be featured in my blog earning the creator a place in the spotlight. So far we have had representation from UK, Germany, Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, Austria and Poland. Time to get creative and represent, so join the group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/164040557075439/

Below is the very first picture to be posted on the page, designed by yours truly. It was one of my first projects and I drew my inspiration from the recent Euro 2012 tournament and England’s overwhelming success.


In closing and as I said at the beginning, the end of 2012 is near, so I would like to leave you to think about the following:  He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice, Santa Claus is comin' to town!

Happy holidays
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team



13 November 2012

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


7 November 2012

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




29 October 2012

A month to remember, I'll be gone till November!

Well I wrote a little about the change in weather last month but if anything it is clear to me after the weekend just gone that the Summer and maybe even the Autumn have long gone by.

Having spent a few days in Scandinavia last week training our new users from the Jøtul, Norway and also visiting our partners Lars and Marianne Lüning in Sweden, I hoped to come home and enjoy a warmer weekend. Having however spent the weekend scraping the snow off the car and having snowball fights in sub zero temperatures I think I should have stayed away for a few more days.

Luckily the office is far more comfortable so lets reflect on the month gone by. Yours truly has been pretty busy hopping around Europe, starting with an exciting week at the Cersaie, Italy at the end of September. As I said before, last years show was huge and this year it only got bigger. Attendance broke the 100,000 mark and with 32% of that number being international visitors, again, new records were set. The numbers really highlight Cersaie as the key international  event for ceramic tile and bathroom furnishing sectors.

Most companies in the ceramic tiling sector had a line representing wood floor imitations, while the furnishing has seen a mixture of inspirations from the past and also some excellent futuristic designs.

The Loop outdoor shower from Idiha Design really caught my eye as well as "Cup" Artceram washbasin line.



Personally I found the stand from British Ceramic Tile (see below) to be very attractive mixing some of the great British landmarks with beautiful designs. I put up a few photos here I snapped up at Cersaie and also a few during the event on our Twitter page @PCadOverseas , but keep an eye for our upcoming international Facebook site, where I will be uploading the entire album.




Our stand was very busy too and our visitors were also very geographically diverse. It was a first time I had to call upon all of my language skills in one day, meeting with users and  potential customers form all over former Yugoslavia, numerous German speaking countries as well as far corners of the world, such as Australia, Alaska, India, Brazil, Russia, Iran, to name just a few, where I got a chance to finally put my English to good use.



We also had our representatives meeting with the biggest names at the show to insure that in the future we can bring these great names and new designs and add them alongside our already huge Palette CAD catalogues.

Speaking of Palette CAD and improvements ties me nicely into our next topic, the unveiling of the Palette CAD 8 at our User Days event in Dresden, Germany. October 11th and 12th saw some 200 users get their hands on the early German version of the program. Here they were treated to two full days of presentations and workshops, showing off the new stylish design of the version 8, how it ticks as well as some of the new features in the programs, such as Palette PLAY. The development team is now busy working out the final kinks before we can start work on the international versions of the program, aiming to be distributed world wide next Summer.




Below is the German teaser entitled " Now it starts" shown at Dresden but I will be bringing you more information and a more in-depth review in the coming months blogs so watch this space.




Described in the video, following the on-screen order, as: Professional, Flexible, Exact, Impressive, Intuitive, Fast and Simple.

Finally last week I was in Fredrikstad, Norway, holding a days basic stoves and fireplaces training for our friends at Jøtul, specialists for cast iron stoves and fireplaces. They now have a team dedicated to designing with Palette CAD and I will be awaiting their work to show off on our future Facebook page.

Coming very shortly to our blog will be Tip of the Month feature providing quick tips and tricks for our international Palette CAD users. In the mean time I will leave you all with a challenge of designing a warm, homely room that Santa and all his little helpers would be proud of.



Above is some food for thought so get inspired and send your work to egrabic@palettecad.com for marks and a chance to get yourself and your company a mention in future social media material. Above all, and as always, have fun with it!


Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team



20 September 2012

Last of the summer wine



September is fast coming to an end, meaning work is once again picking up, as we get closer to the business end of the year for many industries, and certainly for us here at Palette CAD. The following is a little update on our activities in the coming weeks.

Most notably the Cersaie exhibition in Bologna kicks off next week. With over 80,000  visitors from 147 countries last year, once again, we can expect a great show. As mentioned in my last blog Palette CAD will be attending and if you are lucky enough to make it out there be sure to visit us. For those of you not able to attend, keep an eye on our Twitter posts at “@PCadOverseas” as I will try to post some pictures from the exhibition.

There is also exciting news for our international Palette CAD users. Tip of the month, a regular feature on our German homepage, is coming to our blog in English as of October. It is written by our hotline team dealing with users queries on a daily basis. From here they select regularly asked questions and create a PDF with step by step instructions for an easy solution.

Finally I would like to inform all our blog readers that we will be starting an international Facebook page in the near future. The idea is to showcase the power and possibilities of Palette CAD through examples of project pictures made by our users world-wide. It will also provide a great platform for both our users and those interested in our software to connect with each other creating a world-wide network of ideas, suggestions and feedback.

With this in mind I would like to call on our readers already using Palette CAD to share their visions with us. For a chance to feature your work on our Facebook page please send us JPEG files of your Palette CAD projects entitled “PCAD pictures for Facebook” using: egrabic@palettecad.com with a little project description. Please note that by sending us your pictures, you are giving us permission to use them on our upcoming Facebook page.

To kick us off, you can find some inspiration below courtesy of our co-worker Steffen Jantzen. I chose this picture following the shock of leaving the house this morning to find the temperature just over 5C in what is officially still summer for two days. It is there to remind us to enjoy every last second of warmth before Santa gets on his way.



If you have any thoughts or suggestions about the blog please let me know by commenting below or send me an e-mail at the above address. 


Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team



6 September 2012

Palette CAD comes to Cersaie!




Between 25th and 28th September Palette CAD team will be at the Cersaie exhibition in Bologna, Italy to showcase our planning software. We have developed a planning feature in our software, tiling technology, specifically for the tiling sector and you can see it for yourselves by visiting our stand.


If you want to find out more about Palette CAD, if you have any questions or just fancy a chat with our friendly staff, please come visit us at Hall 15/A, Stand H9.

For more information about the exhibition and the layout map, please  visit the official website below.



We hope to see you there!


Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team