Icovia Space Planner Blog

Welcome to High Point!

JT, Steve and I are having a great week at High Point.  It is always nice when we can visit with our customers and meet with interior designers who are using the Design Edition Planner .  This morning JT and I took a trip to visit Furniture Land South -- this location is truly a campus filled with beautiful furniture AND the World's largest 18th century Highboy replica.  This was built in 1999 and is a landmark in North Carolina, the 85-foot tall Highboy is even identifiable by passengers flying overhead! (I will be looking for this when I fly home later this week!)

We have also spent time with our friends and partners at Company C. Their theme for this Market is Dream, Inspire and Create.  Given the many colorful options they have in their showroom...you will definitely be inspired!  Don't forget to check out their new furniture line and also test drive their room planner to find the best rug for your space!

There are still several days to go and if you are visiting Market, stop by and see us at the Resource Center located in the Plaza Suites Building-- we are looking forward to seeing you!

Happy Planning!  --June

 

What Happens in Vegas..

What happens at the market needs to be shared!  We are back from a great trip to  InspireDesign at the Las Vegas World Market last week.  For starters, we would like to thank the Venetian for a wonderful stay!  If you haven't strolled along the Grand Canal, I highly recommend it! The gondoliers and 'outdoor' cafes transport you to the heart of Venice!

Thank you to all of the designers and customers who stopped by to visit us in our new space.  It was great to meet all of you and we look forward to seeing all of you again! 

When not manning the booth, JT, Steve and I kept very busy with customer meetings and visiting some of our favorite showrooms.  I would like to thank the team at CompanyC, for kicking off our Market Seminars!!  Stay tuned as we continue to work with other customers for presentations at High Point Market in April. 

As a deisgner, it is always exciting to see what is coming out and what trends are popular again and yes, this show had all the latest and I would need pages upon pages to tell you and show you some of the beautiful things I found! The Ethan Allen showroom was a can't miss when you entered Building C every morning!  They have embraced Turquoise and everyone loved it!!
And...if you thought Kohler was just for kitchens and baths...take another look and see their beautiful lines by Baker, McGuire and Anne Sacks.

The biggest announcement at the show was around AICO's newest product lines, actually three new lines to be exact--the result of a year-long collaboration between Michael Amini and Jane Seymour.  The collection is lovely and you really need to see this beautiful new line.  They have thought of everything!! Furniture Today covered the event and has at least one picture of the fabulous Hollywood Swank bedroom! 

All in all It was an inspirational week and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again at High Point in April.  If you are planning a trip to High Point or Vegas in August, let us know -- we'd love to see you!!

 
 

Icovia Relocates to INSPIREDESIGN at Las Vegas Market

We're going to Vegas baby! A quick update on where we will be:

Move extends Icovia's market presence in home furnishings, interior design and hospitality space planning

Icovia's move is allowing it to participate with the hospitality exhibitors of the new INSPIREDESIGN event running in conjunction with the furniture market.

Icovia's new showroom is situated in a higher traffic area where a concentration of attendees will be top interior design firms and hospitality planners. "The new location allows us to maintain our presence in the home furnishings industry, which is our core focus, but also gain awareness with interior designers and the hospitality industry where we also have customers," said Icovia's President Steve Street. "The Venetian and Palazzo hotels recently signed with Icovia to supply interactive floor plans on their website for meeting planners. We are very excited that the World Market Center is supplying a venue for manufacturers, retailers, interior designers and hospitality in one location."

Attendees visiting the Icovia showroom at INSPIREDESIGN will be able to try-and-buy Icovia's web-based floor plan design software for interior designers and firms. Hospitality planners will be able to visualize how adding Icovia interactive diagrams to their website will increase booked meetings. Icovia will also showcase its 2D and 3D room planner solutions for furnishings retailers, and work with manufacturers who want to incorporate a their product catalogs into Icovia.

New Symbols Have Been Added to Design Edition Planner!

Wow, it has been a busy week here at Icovia!  In addition to new features, we have added the new lighting symbols as well as the cuddler and wedge sofa symbols we previewed just before the holidays.  The sofas have been added to the Living Room Furniture category and the lighting symbols are in the Lighting and Wiring categories.

Have a great weekend and keep those ideas coming!

Happy Planning!

June

At Last...Organize Your Plans with Folders!

Before reading this post, imagine a drum roll with a really big cymbal at the end...Icovia Design Edition now lets you drag and drop your projects into folders!!!

You may have noticed that when you launched your planner today My Plans looked a little bit different.  In this newly launched My Saved Plans window you now have the option to create a New Folder to organize your plans.  The functionality works similar to that of organizing your Browser favorites.

To get started, 

1. Select New Folder and type the desired folder name in the dialog box.  Your new folder will appear at the bottom of the list.  
2. Select a plan using your left mouse button and drag the plan over the folder you would like to file it in.  You know you are in the correct location when a black line appears through the folder name.  Release your mouse button to drop this plan into the folder.  
3. Add additional plans to the folder, using the black line as a guide to place the plan where you want it to appear in the list.  Use this same technique to organize folders within the list or plans within a folder.

As you continue sorting your plans, here are a few tricks you may want to leverage:

• SHIFT+ left mouse button will allow you to select a list of plans to move. 
• CTRL + left mouse will allow you to select multiple files that are not next to each other.  If you are using a Mac, use the open Apple on your keyboard in place of CTRL.
• To Delete a folder or plan, select the item and press Delete.  For safety reasons, you will not be able to delete a folder that has plans.  You will not be able to delete more than one plan at a time.
• Rename only applies to a folder in this release.

This is the short whirlwind tour; however, for those of your attending the next Mastering the Plan Webinar (January 28), we will take a few minutes to give a brief overview of this new functionality.

Happy Planning!

June

Mastering the Plan Webinar Recordings Now Available!

After overcoming a few techincal hurdles, we are pleased to announce that Design Edition users are now able to access recordings from Icovia's Mastering the Plan Webinar series! 

When you log into the planner you will see our new Welcome Screen and all you need to do is grab a cup of coffee (or other beverage of choice) select the webinar you wish to replay, sit back and watch!  

We have also added quick links to our Facebook Fan Page and our Blog.   Remember, if you haven't become a fan on Facebook or subscribed to this Blog yet -- you may be missing out! In addition to product information and updates, we will also be sharing valuable design tips to help you in your design business.  Subscribing to the Blog is easy, just enter your email address in the upper right corner to receive updates.

Do you need to change your email, update your credit card information or change your password? No problem, simply select the  Account Settings tab and all of your account information will be available.

Not a registered User Yet?  If you are not a registered user of Icovia's Design Edition Space Planner and would like to learn more, click here for your free trial. Creating a plan for one room or a whole house has never been easier!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to respond to this post or email me at june@icovia.com.

Happy Planning!

June

Free Webinar: Icovia Essentials #2 - Working w/Walls

Icovia Essentials #2: Working w/Walls
January 28, 2010, Noon ET

 

Join Steve Street and June Trisciani as we return for our second free webinar demonstrating tips that make it easier to use the Wall Tool in Icovia Design Edition to draw professional interior design floor plans.

Walls can be tricky to work with and this is a great opportunity to learn quick tips and best practices from the experts! 

In this Webinar, you’ll learn:

    Specifically how to work with the Wall Tool in Icovia 

    How to create angled and curved walls 

    How to add wall segments, windows and doors 

    Best practices for getting accurate wall dimensions 

In addition, we will share with you changes to the wall tool we've been discussing and you can weigh in on changes you'd like to see change.

All attendees will see a sneak peak of new features coming, get an update on promised features and a special promotion will be revealed at the end of the webinar!

Register now >

Icovia's 10 Year Anniversary!

 
Thank you to all of our amazing employees, customers and partners for 10 great years of business creating the best online interior design software! We've achieved so much and have some great plans in store for 2010. 

Thank you!!!!

Steve Street
President

My Icovia New Year's Resolution...

Happy New Year!  I wish everyone a wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2010!

Everyone at Icovia will be home with their families and friends enjoying a snowy long weekend; but rest assured, we will all be back to work on Monday ready to assist you in any way we can!

I have never been big on setting a New Year's resolution; however, I am making an exception this year and you are the first to hear that my Icovia New Year's resolution is to draw and add more product symbols!  The personal resolution is still a struggle --- there is too much chocolate in the world to say I will eat better and get more exercise!!

As promised we will be adding many new symbols over the first quarter and continuing to address user requests as the year continues.  We expect to have the first batch ready to go in January.  Below are some of the initial drawings to show you a bit of what you will see in January...

The Cuddler has arrived!  Thank you to Evan at Faller's Furniture for providing the dimensions to create our first cuddler icon. This is a great new piece that makes the sectional even better for those mid-afternoon catnaps!

We have also had several clients requesting a Wedge Sofa.  This is a great piece inspired by the beautiful sofa collection by Lee Industries!

         

And now it is all about the lighting...recessed cans, switches, portable fixtures, ceiling mounted fixtures and  sconces, oh my!!  Here is a small selection of the 40+ new symbols that will be added to help you create an effective lighting plan for your clients.

    

The initial drawings are ready and all of these symbols (and more) will be heading into the development queue next week.  Stay tuned for the announcement of their official launch!  Remember, if you would like others, please send the specification along and we will work on getting them added. 

Happy New Year and Happy Planning!

June

You Asked, We Answered...

Here is the first batch of questions and answers from the webinar yesterday.  I am still working through some others and will have them posted shortly. Please stay tuned...

How do I sign up for Icovia and what is the cost?  Signing up is easy!  Just go to http:///www.icovia.com/manageaccount.aspx?promo=RCZP to take advantage of our current $19.00 per month special promotion.  This amount is billed to your credit card monthly and you can cancel at any time.  There are no additional costs, nothing to download and upgrades are free. All you need is an active internet connection!

Are we able to show actual products from our vendors?  Yes, you can add any product you want yourself into Icovia! Check out this short video: http://icovia.blogs.com/icovia_space_planner/2009/03/icovia-quick-tip-adding-furniture-and-products-to-your-plans.html

We are also happy to announce that we are working with many of our interior designer vendors such as Baker, Drexel-Heritage, Company C to actually get their products loaded into the planner.

Will all these new features be available to Mac users?  Yes, Yes, Yes!!!  The best part about the Icovia Design Edition Planner is that it is browser-based and there is nothing to download.  We work on any platform, all you need is an internet connection.

How about window treatments on elevations?  This is a fantastic question and one of our goals for Q1, 2010.  We recognize the need for better symbols in our elevation planner for window treatment, furnishings, etc.  In the early part of 2010, we will be working with our development team to create these symbols and give you what you need to create beautiful elevations!

If the vendor website is password protected, does the Photo URL work?  The photo needs to be in the public domain in order to provide a photo URL in your planner.  We recommend using a photo sharing application like Flickr to store your photos and provide the URL.  Please remember, that you do need to have the rights to publish the photo!

How can we input actual product photos into the plan? We have a great short video that will walk you through the process of putting product photos into your plan.  Check this out: http://icovia.blogs.com/icovia_space_planner/2009/03/icovia-quick-tip-adding-furniture-and-products-to-your-plans.html

How do we get more icons into the planner?  We have had several requests for additional icons and we are ready to start adding.  If you have a design that you use frequently and it isn’t in our planner today, please send us either a web link or a .jpg file of what you are using and we will work on getting it into the planner.  Send your requests to me at june@icovial.com

Is there a way to rotate the print view? This is not a feature we have today; however, it is a great idea.  I have added it to our backlog as an enhancement request!   We’ll keep you posted.

How long will the free month of service for every friend I refer promo last?  As designers are aware, a referral is priceless!  We have no plans to cancel this promo and it is unlimited – when 2 friends sign up using your unique code, you get 2 months – when 10 friends sign up using your unique code, you get 10 free months!  To get your unique referral code, go to your My Account page and click ‘Get a free month of Icovia’ button. Make sure your friends submit this promo code when registering.

I am a lighting designer and would like to have symbols available to create my lighting plans – how do we get more symbols available?   This is one of my personal favorites!!  I have been working on creating a set of lighting symbols to enable designers to add lighting details to their plans.  If you have some favorites that you like to use, send the along – just remember… june@icovia.com!

How do I change the color of flooring?  We have a great video short that will walk you through the process of adding color and texture to your plan.  It is a great way to add a little spice to your black and white plans!  Check this out:   http://icovia.blogs.com/icovia_space_planner/2009/04/icovia-quick-tip-adding-color-and-textures-to-your-plan.html

How do I create an elevation?  When you first launch the planner, There is a check box next to the Create a new plan button that when selected will give you an elevation view.  You will also see that the product symbols will change to an elevation orientation.  Please stay tuned, one of my pet projects for the new year is to add lots of new symbols to help you create fabulous elevations!!