Reprint of PartyCAD newsletter sent to registered users Spring 2005
 

       PartyCAD Version 8
 
               Spring 2005 Edition


The big PartyCAD news for 2005 is the new Party Wizard. This lets you create a party in 5 minutes.

     
To begin, click the Party Wizard button at the top-right of the Main Menu. This brings up the first wizard menu...
     
Now select a base party from the list and click the Next button to bring up an information form.
     
Fill in the information form with a project name, the name of the event, your company, and some cornerblock information.  When you are satisfied, click the Create Party button, and the Party Wizard goes to work to create the first draft of your party...

     
Right-click on the plan to go to Furnish, where you can can quickly customize the design by removing unwanted items and adding new ones.

    
When you are done, click Return and PartyCAD updates not only your plan, but also all the art based on the plan, so in seconds you have something like this:

     
If you want to modify the views, the plan or any of the text on the page, simply right-click on the part you want to change.
    Once you have completed your event, return to the Main Menu, where you can click the Party Wizard button again to add the new party to the wizard. Doing this lets Party Wizard get better and better at creating exactly the kind of events you design day in and day out...

   
..or click List & Report in the Main Menu to print a list of items you used to create your design.

     
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List & Report is a complete rewrite of the old Report Cost module, and can price your events in addition to listing the furniture used. List & Report is also available from within the Furnish module, so now you can price your parties on the fly as you design them.
   If you do pipe & drape work,  PartyCAD’s List & Report gives a breakdown list of just what you need to take along to build your designs.  

You are Still an Expert                
If you are expert at the old ways of doing things in PartyCAD, you are still an expert with PartyCAD 8. You can ignore the Party Wizard entirely, use the Project Manager to manage your projects, and access the modules individually as you always have.

A small button on the Main Menu even allows you to turn off the automatic updating of art, when that suits your purpose.

However, any project that you create — any party, hotel venue, house or office plan — can be added to the Party Wizard with a couple of mouse clicks, so the next time you need it, a new project based on the old one can quickly be created. 

That’s Not All ...                          

DXF Import — you can now import DXF files produced by AutoCAD and other CAD programs into PartyCAD. 

Watermarks — you can now add a company watermark to pages printed by the Layout Page module. This helps identify your designs as uniquely yours.  

Output Annotation — you can now turn on an annotation feature that causes your output pages to be labeled with project, module and file names as well as the date and time the page was printed.  

Build to Point — in Make Plan, you can now make a turn and build a wall to any point you click on the plan — no more guessing at angles. 

Large Fonts Supported — As screens keep getting bigger and bigger, the letters on them keep getting smaller and smaller. You can set your computer to display “large fonts,” but not every program works well when you run in this mode. PartyCAD 8 does. 

Grids Now Persistent — in Make Plan, Furnish, and Layout Page, if you turn on a grid of lines to assist in your design efforts, the grid will still be on when you next load the plan, arrangement or page. 

Delete Key Deletes Parts and Pieces—In both the Furnish and Layout Page modules, if you press the Delete key on your keyboard, the currently selected piece, group or part is now deleted. 

Mass Deletions in Furnish — a new option in Furnish allows you to quickly delete all copies of a given piece of furniture from a design. This is useful if you have, for instance, done a design with 5' round tables, and want to switch to 6' rounds.   

AutoPlay in PictureShow — a new  option in the Picture Show allows you to continuously display all of the slides and movies in a particular show. 

New Help Videos — most of the help videos that come with PartyCAD have been completely redone for Version 8.

New Furniture — new furniture in Version 8 includes bleachers, a table with an overlay, towable restrooms, rocks and a collection of basic shapes for constructing your own furniture.



What You Need                          
To run at its best PartyCAD 8 requires a modern machine running Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP. Contact us if you have any questions.                                        
   You must have a CD drive to load PartyCAD, and you must have speakers connected to your machine to hear the help videos. Other than that, if your machine runs Windows well, PartyCAD will work fine.                                         
    PartyCAD can print to any Windows compatible printer connected to your computer.