It’s been a busy year for Cadence. We’ve delivered a dramatically expanded data catalogue, full 3D capabilities, a rebuilt publishing experience, native charts improvements, a QGIS plugin, and an entirely new workflows engine. Whether you’re a long-time user or just getting started, there’s a lot to explore. Watch the video below for a full walkthrough, or read on for the highlights.
A global data catalogue
Cadence has always supported international data uploads, but this year we began bringing global datasets natively into the platform. Like everything in our data catalogue, they’re discoverable, documented, and ready to use straight out of the box. We’ve kicked off with US state and county data and significantly improved metadata across all datasets, including dedicated country and region fields. We’ve also expanded our spatial joining keys, so you can drop in a CSV and Cadence will handle the geography automatically, no GIS experience required.
A friendlier, more powerful interface
The UI has been refreshed with cleaner tab-based navigation in place of sub-menus, making Cadence feel more intuitive for new users. We’ve also introduced interactive guided tours that walk you through key features and celebrate your progress with a confetti moment at the end. On the configuration side, organisations can now set a default colour scheme or branding that applies across all maps in a project, and map bounds have been extended to cover travel to work areas and US state boundaries.
Immersive 3D visualisation
Perhaps the most visually striking addition this year: a full suite of 3D tools. Switch to a 3D base map, dial in terrain exaggeration for subtle topography or dramatic relief, explore building extrusions, and set the scene lighting to noon, dawn, dusk, or night for presentation-ready output. New lollipop markers (billboard labels that always face the screen) make it easy to annotate points of interest in a 3D environment. Pair them with the camera tool for a smooth fly-through experience.
Workflows, pipelines, and the QGIS Connector
Cadence Workflows is a new back-end processing engine that lets you run Python and R scripts directly within the platform, removing the need to pre-process data externally before uploading. For those working in QGIS, the new Cadence Connector plugin lets you push datasets straight into a Cadence project or map from QGIS desktop, even carrying over your existing symbology. We’ve also completed a PropTech funded innovation project with local authorities, building a pipeline that surfaces digital uncertainty logs inside Cadence within seconds of submission. This shows a real-world example of Cadence connecting to form submission and live data workflows.