Updated Project Showroom Now Available

Though we routinely update Project Showroom servers to provide a more robust and reliable environment, we recently made some updates that have customer facing effects. In our latest build of the service we included:

• Due to popular demand, the servers now decline sessions when new sessions would cause resource exhaustion. This provides a better user experience for those already in the process of using Project Showroom. (If you wish to be kind, end your browser session when you have finished investigating Project Showroom. This lets the server know you are done to allow others to take their turns quicker than timing out.)
• There is a new ‘reset to default view’ button in the event users get lost while navigating around in 3D.
• To help people from getting lost, the Zoom Out button is limited to no more than default field of view.
• Each item in the Select Accessories list has a button on the right side. If the Accessory is not in the scene but can be added, the button says Add>. If the Accessory is already in the scene, the button says <Remove. Clicking the button adds or removes the accessory.
• When you click on an object in the scene, there is now a button in the Selection for <Remove. Clicking the button removes the accessory.
• When you add an accessory whose alternative is already present, the server swaps one accessory for the other. The Add> and <Remove buttons change to reflect this modification.
• A Project Showroom discussion group hyperlink tab appears in the upper right alongside About and Return to Autodesk Labs.
• By popular demand, the small orbit preview screen appears in the center of the scene.
• Tooltips are included with some helpful hints or explanations when a user hovers over the following areas: (a) Select Upgrades tab; (b) Upgrades Selected bar; (c) Select Accessories tab; (d) Accessory Gift Certificate bar.
• Navigation buttons are inactive, i.e., grayed out, to indicate that they are not applicable in the following instances (a) Zoom Out: whenever the field of view is already at the default and (b) Fit: whenever the field of view is already at the default
• Texture mapping for countertops was improved to produce better quality images.

So check it out. Updating services to provide better software is alive in the lab.