31 January 2014

Another year over, and a new one just begun

Festive holidays have passed us by here in Stuttgart and without snow too. Many are happy but I feel somhow cheated and slightly dissapointed. Winter without snow is like a Chrismas tree without decorations on it, just not right. On the other hand not having to scrape ice off the windscreen for ten minutes is also nice.

Palette CAD-wise it has been a very good start to the year. The new upgrade 8.1 is in it's final testing stage and should be finished next week. The wiz-kids upstairs in the programming department have manged to pack-in more than 70 new features and improvements into this upgrade and I must admit even I am truly impressed. Some of my favorites include the new easy way to position the sun live in the plan, new light fittings feature under insert tab and a fantastic Google like search feature for materials and objects. A whole list of these can be found in Palette CAD 8.1 help menu (F1) under "New features in Palette CAD 8.1". Make sure you take some time to check it out for yourself when you get your copy or have a read in our next "Tip of the month" installment in February!

We were once again at Kok 2014 in Wels, where brought along our new 52 inch touchscreen toy with in-development internet planner Palette@HOME for our visitors to try out. The feedback was very positive and most people found it very easy and intuitive to use. We also added our newest member of the team to the program, Palette Cat, which visitors thought was a very fun touch.


The fair itself was very good as always, lots of new ideas and inspirations. Only drawback was that some of the big boys decided not to present there this year. Not to worry as there was still plenty to see and do as you can see from some of the pics below.

3D model printer, fully integrated with Palette CAD of course


Some of the handwork on display was truly mesmarising

In other developments, updates in the tiling and stove catalogues are almost finished so these should also be making their way to our service partnership users during February.

Such a great start and so much more to come throughout 2014, it's really going to be a busy and an exciting year for Palette CAD and our users. Thank you all once again for being a part of our adventure. Until next time...

Greeting from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team






16 January 2014

Tip of the month! January: Keyboard shortcuts

Already middle of January, regardless happy new 2014 everybody. More and more of our users want to work at lightning speeds. To help get you there, below you can find the list of shortcuts for Palette CAD 8. Use them well, oh, and plenty please!

 

 

Display

A Zoom to Extents
W Zoom Window
Scroll wheel Used to zoom in and out
Scroll wheel held down Used to move the image detail
Double-clicking the scroll wheel Zoom to Extents
Page Up Full screen mode
Page Down Four-window display
Double-click title bar window Switch maximize / 4-window

Objects and materials

O Open the object catalogue
Shift+O Open the bathroom fittings and plumbing catalogue
Shift+M Open the material catalogue
X Used to create an extruded object
Q Used to load a cuboid
F Load cylinders
Y Used to create a line
Ctrl+Y Create profile
Z Used to create a wall

Selections

Esc Cancel selection
Shift Multiple selection
< Enable Object Pick
> Enable Individual object selection
Ctrl+< Enable Subgroup Pick

Operations

V Move
K Copy
R Rotate
N Elevation (elevation, wall distance)
B Cut
G Scale
D Stretch
T Replace (exchange)
DEL Delete
I Intelligence
Double-click Intelligence
CTRL Copy object during dragging
Esc Cancel operation or undo selection

Snap

E Snap to end point
M Snap to centre point
S Snap to intersection
L Snap to line

Other

Spacebar Collision detection On/Off
C Measuring
Ctrl+C Copy object to clipboard
Ctrl+Y Insert object from the clipboard into the scene
Alt Angle lock
Ctrl+F6 and Ctrl+Tab Switch between open projects

 

Notes

  • For a list of all shortcuts, use the File / Help / Keyboard Assignment menu option
  • You can customize shortcuts under File / Program settings / Interface
  • There are practical shortcuts for the buttons in the ribbon which can be started using the Alt key
  • As soon as the Alt key is pressed, these shortcuts are shown in the ribbons






Greetings from Stuttgart,
Your Palette CAD-Blog Team