Friday, April 21, 2017

Tiny Home Design 101 - Tiny Home Design Software

Home Design 101 - How to Design a Small, Micro, or Tiny House 





According to Wikipedia, The ‘tiny house movement’, ‘small house movement’ or ‘micro home movement’ is "a description for the architectural and social movement that advocates living simply in tiny homes." What constitutes a small home? There is no set benchmark, but it is generally agreed that a tiny home is 500 sq feet or less, but can be as large as 1000 sq feet.

What is the most important factor when it comes to building your small house? The name says it all, small or tiny, implying limited space. It is extremely important to utilize the small space in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Designing the small house plans is a crucial step, you want to make sure that you are able to meet all your living needs while keeping an eye on the square footage. These plans are key because the cost of making changes after construction begins can end up being very expensive. For instance, realizing that you didn’t leave space for a toilet may halt the progress while you reassess your tiny home plan and gather more funds.

What can you do to ensure that your design meets your functional requirements and meets your dreams of a little house? The answer to that is simple and effective – use DreamPlan Home Design Software to make your small house floor plans come alive with realistic 3D visualizations.

DreamPlan - Overhead 3D Home Design

We built a 480 sq. feet tiny home using DreamPlan, which indeed transformed our tiny house floor plans into reality. You can bring your small home, cottage, or cabin to life with DreamPlan.

Watch the video below to see how we made our tiny house come to life. We start with the tiny house floor plan, then, switch to 3D mode to view the front of the home and the interior with all the colors and textures that will be present in our final home design.



For DreamPlan tutorials, visit nchsoftware.com/design/tutorial.html.


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

New Release: Crescendo Music Notation Editor for Windows

Download Crescendo 2.00 now at www.nch.com.au/notation/index.html. Also available for Android and Mac OS X at the same page

Monday, April 17, 2017

New Release: Express Dictate Digital Dictation Software for Mac OS X

Download Express Dictate 6.00 now at www.nch.com.au/express/index.html. Also available for iOS, Windows and Android at the same page

Friday, April 14, 2017

Create Easter Themed Photos in PhotoPad

New Clipart Options in PhotoPad 


Create Easter Themed Photos with PhotoPad

We are very excited to announce that new clipart options have been added to PhotoPad digital photo editing software. These new options can be added to various projects, digital drawings, and photos. With the new expanded clipart options in PhotoPad, you can add hundreds of new photo decoration options to your personal photos. New holiday clipart options have been added, making it quick and easy to create holiday themed images to share with friends and family.



Add Clipart to Photos in Three Easy Steps 

1. Select Clipart to add to your photos

The NCH Clipart library has hundreds of clipart options that you can add to your photos. To open the NCH Clipart Library in PhotoPad, open the "Creative" tab at the top of the photo editing window and click on the "Clipart" button from the menu options. 





You can select clipart to add to your photo editing project by opening the categorized folders on the left-hand side of the NCH Clipart Library window. 


2. Download Clipart

Once you have selected the clipart that you would like to add to your digital photo, simply click on the "Download" button to download the clipart image and add it to your photo as an overlay.


3. Position, Scale and Add Effects

Once your image has been downloaded and applied to your photo, you can use the options on the right hand side of your screen to flip the clipart image, change its opacity, scale the clipart or add an effect to the clipart overlay. 

Clipart overlays can be used to easily create themed photos for Easter or other holidays. PhotoPad Photo Editor has hundreds of clipart options that make adding image overlays easy and enjoyable. Get started creating your own Easter themed photos today at www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/


Thursday, April 13, 2017

Edit 360 Video with VideoPad Video Editor

Edit 360 Video with VideoPad Video Editor


NEW FEATURE ANNOUNCEMENT

Edit 360 Video with VideoPad Video Editor

We have just released a new feature for VideoPad - 360 Video Editing. VideoPad will now support editing for 360-degree video clips, also known as spherical or immersive video. With this new release, you will be able to edit both monoscopic and stereoscopic 360 video clips.

360-degree video is often referred to as VR video or spherical video. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they do describe slightly different viewing modes. Technically, VR video describes a computer-generated environment. 360 video is captured by multiple cameras simultaneously, allowing users to move throughout a video as they would in 3D. 

Preview 360 Degree Video in VideoPad

When editing a 360-degree video in VideoPad, you can preview your video in the VideoPad editor. To preview your video with a 360-degree view, toggle on the "360" button in the bottom right corner of the video preview window. You can click and drag on the video preview to move the camera angle in order to view all 360 degrees of your video clip.

Add Music to 360 Video

With VideoPad you can add background music or other audio tracks to your 360 video projects. To add audio to a video, simply load the audio clip that you would like to add into VideoPad, and then drag and drop your audio clip onto the timeline where it says "Drag and drop audio tracks here to mix". You can mix background music to your 360-degree video with this method, or you can replace the original audio. To remove an audio track from a video clip, click on the "unlink" button that appears on the original audio track when the video clip is added to the timeline. This will unlink the original audio from the video clip. You can remove the original audio by right-clicking on the audio track and selecting "Delete" from the right-click menu. 

Add Stunning Effects to 360 Video

As with regular video clips, you can apply VideoPad's video effects to 360-degree videos. You can use this to create unique coloration in your video using the coloring effects, or you can add motion effects or overlays to your video. Most effects, such as color filters and transitions, can be applied to 360-degree video clips with no issues. However, overlays and text clips will be skewed by spherical 360-degree videos. To add overlays to 360 videos, simply apply the "Place in 360" effect from the Video Effects menu.  

Add Text to 360 Video

Adding text to a 360 video is easy with VideoPad. To add a text overlay to a 360-degree video clip, create a text clip by clicking on the option labeled "Add Text". Use the editing options to change the text color, font, and size of your text clip. Once you are finished, you can drag and drop your text clip onto the VideoPad timeline where it says "Drag and drop your video, text and image clips here to overlay". Once your text clip is placed, you can extend or reduce the duration of the text clip by dragging the text clip edges left or right on the timeline. You can also move the text clip to different locations in your video by dragging the whole clip left or right.
When you add a text clip to a 360-degree video, be sure to apply the "Place in 360" effect from the Video Effects menu to make text clips appear naturally in 360 video clips.

Share 360 Video Projects Directly to YouTube and Facebook

VideoPad can connect directly to Facebook and YouTube to post 360 videos as soon as you have finished editing them. Both Facebook and YouTube have been on the cutting edge as two of the first networks to support 360 videos, and VideoPad can connect and share video projects with just a few clicks. Once you have finished editing your 360 video project in VideoPad, click on the arrow to the right of "Export Video File" to open the export dropdown menu. To share your video to YouTube or Facebook, click on the menu option for the network that you would like to share to. Follow the prompts to log in to your account and share your video with your subscribers or friends.


360 videos capture video in multiple directions, allowing viewers to move the camera angle in the same way they would view the 3D world. Viewers can move the camera angle in 360 videos in order to see their surroundings.

Common Use of 360 Video

360 video can be extremely advantageous for realtors, property managers, and other real estate professionals. 360 video can be used to create tours to show apartment floor plans or to allow potential buyers to easily view the sale and rental properties prior to physically visiting the property. 360 tours offer viewers a more comprehensive impression of a property than images alone and can be used as successful marketing materials to spur interest in properties.

360 video is also popular for adventurers, hikers, skiers, and more. 360 videos can boost engagement on social sites where 360-degree video has been adopted, such as Facebook and YouTube. 



New Release: VideoPad Video Editor for Windows

Download VideoPad 5.02 now at www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html. Also available for Mac OS X, Android and iOS at the same page

Monday, April 10, 2017

DIY Embroidery Pattern From Photo


Ignite Your Creative Side - Turn Your Special Photo into a Custom Embroidery Pattern in 4 Easy Steps

Parrot - DIY Project

Are you ready to tackle a new embroidery or cross stitch project, but can’t find a pattern that excites you? Try a DIY with your own personal twist. Convert any photo into a special embroidered art piece that can be used to decorate your room, for a personalized gift, or simply as a fun, unique embroidery project. Are you ready?

Things you will need

  • Photopad - an easy to use embroidery pattern and photo editing software
  • A picture that you love and adore



Step 1:  Open PhotoPad and select the Embroidery tool

PhotoPad - Photo Editor - Main Screen
PhotoPad - Main Screen

Step 2:  Select the picture for your custom embroidery design.

PhotoPad - Photo Editor - Image Selection Screen
PhotoPad - Photo Selection Screen




Step 3: Customize your embroidery design to your heart’s desire by choosing the number of embroidery floss colors and stitching details.

Embroidery Parrot with 15 colors and 75 stitches

Embroidery Parrot with 40 colors and 150 stitches

You can also crop, recolor, apply effects and do tons of other edits using PhotoPad – Please refer to the PhotoPad Help Manual at http://www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/tutorial.html


Step 4:  Now, it’s time to print your free embroidery or cross stitch design!


Click on either the "Save to PDF" or the "Print Stitching Pattern" button in the layers panel to export your design. The export includes the stitching pattern and the embroidery floss color key.
Parrot - Stitching Pattern and Embroidery Floss Key

It’s time to start your project. Head to your local craft store with your embroidery floss key generated by PhotoPad to purchase your materials and get ready to stitch! Use any embroidery technique that you like – cross stitch, quick stitch, long stitch or free style hand embroidery.
What vacation photo, family picture, or pet photograph will you be using for your free embroidery pattern?

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Monday, April 3, 2017

Just Released: DreamPlan Home Design Software for Windows

Download DreamPlan 2.10 now at www.nchsoftware.com/design/index.html. Also available for Mac OS X and Android at the same page

Just Released: PhotoStage Slideshow Producer for Windows

Download PhotoStage 4.08 now at www.nchsoftware.com/slideshow/index.html. Also available for Android, Mac OS X and iOS at the same page

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Troll Faster with FastFox

Troll Faster with FastFox Text Expander


Make Internet Trolling Easier with Fastfox

Have you ever wanted to quickly and easily troll YouTube comments sections, stoke twitter fights, or comment aimlessly on news articles? Trolling is now faster and easier than ever with FastFox Text Expander!


Simply enter your common trolling phrases into FastFox and save them as easy-to-type shortcuts. Fastfox will reduce hours of trolling work into minutes! Simply type out your shortcut, press space, and entire paragraphs can be quickly entered into comments, forums, and more!

Finally, we suggest that everyone include the shortcut, APR1 which expands to '"Hope you enjoy your April 1 shenanigans as much as we do!"








APRIL FOOLS!!